Discovering Lisbon's Historic Role in the Silk Road Trade

Lisbon: A Global Hub of the Silk Road

Lisbon gained global significance when Portugal embraced its universalist vocation through the Age of Discoveries. Acting as a bridge between Europe and Asia, the city has never lost its cosmopolitan spirit.

Talking about the Silk Road typically conjures images of the harsh landscapes of Central Asia and caravans laden with goods. These routes facilitated not only the exchange of objects but also technologies and ideas across Eurasia for thousands of years.

The production of silk, a closely-guarded secret of the Chinese for millennia, reached Olissipo (ancient Lisbon) around 2,000 years ago, despite scarce direct contact between the Chinese and Romans. Conversely, the Silk Road also allowed for the introduction of chariots into China over 3,500 years ago. Additionally, the Silk Roads enabled the spread of religious ideas, with the near-simultaneous emergence of Confucianism in China and Buddhism in India, suggesting a cultural exchange that continued with the assimilation of Buddhist ethics into Christian teachings.

Famous travelers like Marco Polo expanded our understanding of this communication network, which has evolved to include maritime routes over the past two millennia, integrating Japan into these circuits and facilitating maritime trade between China and India. By the 14th and 15th centuries, the Chinese had reached the eastern coast of Africa, while Marco Polo returned to Europe aboard a ship that journeyed from Canton to the Persian Gulf.

In the late 15th century, European access to these routes was limited due to Mongol and Ottoman control, leading to exorbitant prices for spices and textiles at Eastern Mediterranean ports, primarily dominated by Venice.

The Portuguese broke this blockade by establishing the Cape Route in 1499. Venice allied with Muslim powers to resist the Portuguese in Southern India, fearing the loss of its monopoly, but ultimately failed. This new route became synonymous with the spice trade but quickly evolved into a segment of the Silk Road, with Lisbon serving as the main European entrepot for over a century.

Initially, the holds of ships sailing to India transported primarily spices, but they also carried Chinese porcelain, which King Manuel I quickly transformed into diplomatic gifts, taking advantage of its exotic appeal. Unlike silk, which was transported by camels, porcelain was abundant in the Indian Ocean but scarce in the Mediterranean. Portuguese ships were large and capable of carrying significantly more cargo than those bound for the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, allowing for a diverse array of Afro-Asian products, including Persian rugs, pearls, ivory, and even exotic animals like elephants and rhinoceroses.

By the mid-16th century, the Cape Route was revitalizing its trade, with half of the cargo on ships departing for Lisbon consisting of porcelain, soon to be joined by large-scale trade in Indo-Portuguese furniture and sacred art, alongside Persian rugs and precious stones. Ships were transporting goods from all over Asia, from Persia to Japan. Conversely, products from Lisbon spread throughout Asia.

From 1499 onward, Lisbon was a major European port on the Silk Road, where European products concentrated before heading to Asia, and Asian goods radiated into Europe. Archaeological finds in Lisbon from the late 16th century reveal large quantities of porcelain, indicating that this once-rare commodity was treated as disposable due to its replaceability. Travelers from the 17th and 18th centuries noted the exceptional amount of silk visible in Lisbon, which was the only European entrepot on the Chinese coast.

Lisbon’s role as a connector between Europe and Asia allowed for the introduction of unknown animals like the rhinoceros, which was popularized across the continent thanks to Albrecht Dürer’s print. The city also reinterpreted unfamiliar objects, like the fan, initially a male accessory in Japan but transformed into a fashionable item for women in Lisbon.

By the 16th century, Lisbon was receiving products from around the globe, solidifying its cosmopolitan identity, rooted in its historical role as a hinge between worlds, a legacy that continues to this day.