The Waves of Eurasian Exchange

Abstract

Discussion of Eurasian economic integration becomes more comprehensible when placed in its historical context. Although Northern and Central Eurasia have been somewhat of a loophole in the structure of globalization in recent decades, this was clearly not the case in the past. Although a detailed discussion of this topic is outside the scope of this book, it is perhaps helpful to provide a brief overview here of historic developments. We therefore utilize the notion of Eurasian exchange, as expounded by Geoffrey Gunn.¹ We describe Eurasian exchange as the mutual exchange of goods, services, people, information, ideas and technologies along established routes across the Eurasian continent. The Eurasian exchange is important for us for two reasons: firstly, it not only provides a historical background for our discussion but also enables us to avoid the ‘myth of the continent’, that is, analysis determined by geographical landmass and not by actual linkages:² we will show that, at least historically, the concept of ‘Eurasia’ is by no means purely geographical but also economic and cultural.