ANST - Period ... tofu?

[Crescentia _]

You know you're in the SCA when... you spend your Friday night 
researching medieval soybeans... *grin*  Not quite what I planned to do, 
but my mundane plans got cut short, and I found myself dangerously close 
to the library and computer lab.

I've checked through a lot of books on the Silk Road, but haven't found 
any mention of soybeans being traded.  I do know that Rome first 
encountered Chinese silk via the Parthians at Carrhae in 53 BC, and 
shortly afterwards, procured samples of their own.  By AD 14, Tiberius 
banned men from wearing silk, and Pliny disapproved of it, etc.

The West sent things like: metals, wools, linen, ivory, coral, amber, 
precious stones, asbestos, and glass to China via the Silk Road.  China 
returned things such as: silks, furs, ceramics, iron, lacquer, cinnamon 
bark, rhubarb, bronze objects [ie, belt buckles, weapons, mirrors].  I 
think I saw somewhere that they also exported steel-making techniques?

But I think the important factor is that these were all precious 
commodities.  They had to be, to justify the expense of being carried to 
a market nine thousand miles away.  (Although, of course, not every 
Chinese object went all the way to Europe, or vice versa)  And, of 
course, there were middlemen involved at various stages, so it would be 
a rare instance to have a Chinese man in Europe, or the other way 
around.  But I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think the lowly 
soybean would justify itself being traded.  While it was valuable in 
China for its oil, for tofu, and for being used as cotton fertilizer, I 
think that the Europeans wouldn't have a niche for it in their food 
system. So while it's a possibility that yes, it would have been traded, 
I think it would be unlikely for (a) the soybean to make it to Europe by 
the 13th c.; and (b) for it to also be turned into tofu.

Oh, well.  The lab assistance are giving me evil looks to get out of 
here.  ^_^

-Crescentia 
>>
>>
>tofu is chinese. marco polo was in china in about 1280 to 1295. (he was 
>in at the chinese court of fifteen years.) even so, the silk road 
>carried many items and foods from china to constanstinopole, to europe. 
>things like oranges, roses, spagetti. i seem to remember the peak of 
>business on the silk road accured during the han dynasty (around 600AD 
i 
>think). so tofu may have been introduced to spain by 1300. you may want 
>to check my dates just to be sure.
>km
>

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