Silk Road trading proposal

Silk Road trading proposal

You are a trader on the Silk Road. You can be Chinese, Mongolian,
Arabian, Byzantine, or Venetian. Your job is to gain access to spices, incense,
glassware, and other commodities the elite demand. Remember that trade in this
age has followed the old contours of gift exchange (items intended for elite
consumption and redistribution in order to solidify political alliances). What
if you made these goods available to a broader audience? What if you took the
profit made transporting these goods and used it to leverage business growth
against native and foreign competitors? For you to succeed in this scheme, you
must get eliminate of some of the middle men. Then, you must secure alternative
safe passages to the main caravan hubs in central Asia. Will you need naval
power to accomplish this bold and audacious plan? Consider your options
wisely.

Present an update on the status of your plan to usurp the silk
trade from a powerful and cutthroat competitor. Use words with precision and
skill as you present your step-by-step plan to gain control over the silk trade.
Present an overview that makes an explicit argument. This will serve as your
thesis statement. Then, in a systematic and logical fashion, lay out your bold
and cunning strategy in your initial post of at least 300 words. Think about these issues as you draw up your
proposal:

• An adventure of this scale is costly. How do you propose to
  raise the money without incurring the wrath of your already heavily taxed
  subjects?
• Do you plan to use military forces for this operation?
  • If so, are you asking for specialized elite forces to play the
    role of merchants in disguise?
• How do you propose to usurp trade from a rival empire that
  marks up the price of luxury goods that arrive in your empire? They are the
  cause of your negative balance of trade, and the time has come to bypass the
  middleman. Unfortunately, diplomacy has failed to reach a negotiated settlement
  because the stakes are too high for each side to make concessions.
• Do you seek out religious minorities within your rival’s domain
  and empower them in an effort to politically or economically undermine your
  adversary? Is there a potential for backlash?
• Do you seek to take advantage of social or economic divisions
  within your rival’s domain in an effort to politically or economically undermine
  your adversary? How certain are you that encouraging dissent will weaken, rather
  than strengthen, your rival’s hand?
• Do you dispatch envoys to China in an effort to monopolize the
  export of goods such as silks, spices, and exotic herbs? Who will you
  send?