Well, it all boils down to silk being a major commodity of trade at this time period, so if you wanna think about the different things that were traded around the world, this is just a sample of it. Silk, which comes from cocoons of these silkworms that eat mulberry leaves, was considered a sign of wealth. It was considered the finest cloth, and China had a monopoly on how to make silk for many hundreds of years, even after the period that we were talking about right here, so you can imagine, around the world, people were interested in getting access to that Chinese silk, but silk wasn't the only thing that was being traded. In fact, in order to trade, you need to give something in exchange for even that silk. One of the Chinese motivations for trading with others is having access to horses. Horses were valuable not just for transporting goods, but also in war, especially fighting some of their northern enemies who had access to horses. They also were able to get gold from Europe, able to get cotton from India.