02.05.2024

Publication: Hans Ulrich Vogel, "Marco Polo e l’economia politica dell’impero Yuan"

Hans Ulrich Vogel, "Marco Polo e l’economia politica dell’impero Yuan: Realta e rappresentazioni ideologiche" [Marco Polo and the Political Economy of the Yuan Empire: Realities and Ideological Representations], in: Samuela Simion and Eugenio Burgio (eds.), Marco Polo: Storia e mito di un viaggio e di un libro, Roma: Carocci editore, 2024, pp. 277-308.

In this article, the author undertakes some inroads into the question of how much of the political economy of the Mongol Yuan empire found its reflection in Marco Polo’s account. His point of departure will not necessarily be a modern concept of political economy, but rather an indigenous perception more or less contemporary with the Venetian’s stay in China. One of the aims will then be not only to see how much of this is also referred to in Marco’s report, but also to get an idea what went unrecorded, either being deemed unnecessary by the Venetian to be included or because of his unawareness or lack of knowledge. Given the vast amount of topics that potentially fall under the label of Yuan-period political economy, it is hardly surprising that the Venetian did not cover each and every topic, as such a systemic approach rather represents the work of the historiographical compilers in imperial China or that of modern research than something that could have been achieved by a single foreign individual during his stay in Kublai Khan’s empire. A further target will be to carry out a reality check of Marco’s descriptions of themes related to the Yuan political economy. Because of the large number of relevant topics, Vogel limits himself to present some selective case studies based on different versions of Marco Polo’s account and by relying on modern research literature, while from time to time also going directly into primary sources. Eventually, it will also be interesting to see how much idealisation is contained in the Devisement dou monde in its description of topics within the scope of this article, though this is not only an issue present in the Venetian’s account but also in Chinese sources. This article can only be a first attempt for a more in-depth study for which there is still plenty of room.
See the table of contents of the book edited by Samuela Simion and Eugenio Burgio. The publication of an English version of Vogel’s article is in preparation.