I am currently reading "The Silk Road": A New History by Valerie Hansen Oxford University Press 2012. Has anyone else read it?
Apparently, the term "silk road" is a bit of a misnomer. The "silk road" was basically a set of ill maintained trails trough mostly trackless desert, particularly in Sinkiang that carried a low volume of high value products between China, India and the West. And most of the goods it carried seem to have been destined for India or Persia.And very few traders travelled more than a few hundred miles of the journey. Goods were basically passed from party tp party all along it's length, getting marked up each time it was resold.
The vast bulk of trade between Rome and the East apparently went by sea from Egypt via Berenike, Jidda-Mecca, by caravan to Adana (Aden) and then by dhow using the monsoons to India, the Straits of Malacca, Funan and on to South China. The only real value the Silk Road had was it was the direct way to the Han capitals of Chang'an or later Loyang.
Having said that, there is an obvious out of the box alternative that would make the Silk Road able to carry far more volume--and far more profitable in both directions, if someone would but explore in that direction. The problem is that it is not obvious.
Unlike a voyage to North America, it is well within the capabilities of Roman triremes to sail along the Norwegian coast to Lapland and past Lapland and the Kara Gates to the mouth of the Ob and Yensei within one season. The distance from Londinium to the mouth of the Yensei is about the length of the Mediteranean Sea. And because it is along the coast, it is easy to put in every few days for water and even food for oarsmen, provided the ship is well enough armed to deal with tribesmen one is likely to find along the way. And the distance from the Ob Mouth to the head of navigation on the Irtysh is only about 3500 miles with a further 500 miles by caravan to Anshi where the Great Wall of China begins at the Jade Gate.This cuts out all of the mountains and almost all of the desert part of the journey to China and makes it a journey that can be done in one season, if the Ket and Goturk people (Yes, the Yensei has a similar length) can be traded with. And both have furs that can be traded for---both ways. So we're talking 5000 miles that can be done with a travel season of 5 months.
And with the midnight sun in the high arctic, oarsmen ought to be able to do 40 miles a day if some of the oarsmen can be permitted to sleep in shifts so that they don't completely wear themselves out.
All it would take would be for somebody to accidentally take a boat down the Irtysh on the way back from Chang'an and somehow get to Londinium, living to tell the tale. The route would not close up until about the 3rd or 4th century with the Roman Little Ice Age and by that time, Roman (and/or Chinese) civilization) would have spread throughouit Siberia, and probably exchanged reindeer herding to the Tibetans in return for yak herding to the Sami, Ket, Lapps, Finns, Norwegians and Britons. And Buddhism all along this trade route.