Which goods traveled east and west along the Silk Road?

The Silk Road served as a vital network for the exchange of material goods between the East and the West. The flow of these commodities was generally categorized by their direction of travel:

• Westward: The primary export from China was silk, which was highly valued by Western buyers.12
• Eastward: Merchants transported goods such as wools, gold, and silver from Rome and later from various Christian kingdoms toward the East.12

Additionally, historical records indicate that the route was used as early as 300 BCE to transport jade from Khotan to China. Beyond material trade, the Silk Road facilitated the movement of religions, including Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity, as well as the unintended spread of diseases like the bubonic plague, which contributed to the Black Death in Europe.3124