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I. INTRODUCTION
IN these days, when thank God, all corners of the earth are under our control and that of Genghis Khan's illustrious family, and philosophers, astronomers, scholars and historians of all religions and nations - Cathay, Machin [North and South China], India, Kashimir, Tibet, Uyghur, and other nations of Turks, Arabs, and Franks - are gathered in droves at our glorious court, each and every one of them possesses copies of the histories, stories, and beliefs of our people.
Rashad al-Din
Compendium of Chronicles1
In 2001, my book, Trade and the Developing World in the 21st Century, was published.2 I would now like to call attention to a much earlier trade precedent.
Genghis Khan and his heirs conquered three billion people. Before that time, no one in Europe had heard of China; no one in China knew of Europe. Khan and his heirs organized the disjointed cities along the Silk Road into history's largest free trade zone.3
Claiming descent from the Huns of Siberia, Khan smashed the feudal system of aristocratic privilege based on birth to create a new order predicated on individual merit, loyalty, and achievement.4
His fame reached as far as England.
This noble king was called Genghis Khan
Who in his time was of so great renown
That there was nowhere in no region
So excellent a Lord in all things.
Geoffrey Chaucer5
Vestiges of this Empire remained for more than seven centuries under an eclectic assortment of titles - Khan, Emperor, Sultan, Shah, King, Emir, and DaIi Lama. Under the name of "Moghul," his descendants turned India into the world's greatest manufacturing and trading nation.6 They ruled in India until the British drove out Badajur Shah II and beheaded his son and grandson in order to bestow this title on Queen Victoria.7 What many of us consider the world's most beautiful building, the Taj Mahal, was built by Khan's descendant, Shah Jahan.8
The Aryan, the non-Aryan, the Dravidian,
The Huns, the Pathans, and the Moghuls -
They have all merged here into one body.9
Nonetheless, over time the very word "Mongol" came to acquire a negative connotation in the West. The British physician, Dr. John Down, and his son claimed that imbeciles in the West came from Mongolian stock...