Silk road: past and present

Silk Road is the subject of the article presented by noted scholar in the fi eld of economics from Turkey. Silk Road possesses its glorious history, the road was at its prime in the middle Ages. Then and nowadays this major transportation artery serves to link economies of Western, Central Europe with the Far Eastern countries of China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan and some other countries of the region, the CIS lands included. In the past the route was very profi table: items made of silk in China brought profi t thrice of the original price when imported to Western Europe. Actually Silk Road consisted of 3 iterineries – the Northern, middle and the southern one. The goods traffic was and is effected not by land alone but by rail, sea and air as well. The turn-over between East and West now runs to billions of US dollars and is likely to grow. The autor presents in his article a thorough economic analysis concerning transportation costs, traffi c hazards, trade costs, etc. The modern Silk Road through Centr l Asia is and will be a major Euroasian connection in the era of globalization.