Changes

[[File:Zhang Qian.jpg|thumbnail|275px|Figure 3. Painting showing the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian heading to Central Asia, where he eventually had contacts with the Parthians.]]

By the time of the Parthian (247 BC – 224 CE) king, Mithradates II, we now know of a Near Eastern king to have established political and diplomatic relations with a Chinese emperor, to whom the Parthian king sent an ambassador.<ref> For a discussions on the Parthians, see: Wolski, Joséf. 1993. ''L’empire des Arsacides''. Louvain: Peeters.</ref>. This act paved the way for the establishment of long-distance trade contacts with China and laid the basis for the Silk Road along which silk was traded from China up to the Mediterranean, crossing Parthian lands (Figure 4). In addition to the overland trade routes, a maritime route was also opened through the Indian Ocean, perhaps facilitated by extension of Parthian control over the western shores of the Persian Gulf, though this extension is suggested by mostly archaeological remains.<ref>For further details on trade activities in this period see: Grajetzki, Wolfram 2011. ''Greek and Parthians in Mesopotamia and Beyond''. Bristol: Bristol Classical.</ref>

In the 1st century AD, one would only have to travel through four countries to go from Britain to China. In short, the ancient world had become an early version of globalization. People from different cultures began to benefit from this trade and participate more actively. Products were moving far and wide. Incense and silk were moving all across the Old World, while coins were now found in all of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. Coinage, in the 6th century BC, had been a localized development found in the Eastern Mediterranean only, but by the 3rd century BC it was spread to much of Europe, the Near East, India, and China.