Marco Polo: Reflections on the development of public affairs

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1920
• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Date: 01 February 2019
• Author: Phil Harris

RESEARCH NOTE

Marco Polo: Reflections on the development of public affairs

Phil Harris

Executive Director, Business Research Institute, Westminster Chair of Marketing and Public Affairs, University of Chester, Chester, England, UK

Correspondence

Phil Harris, Business Research Institute, Westminster Chair of Marketing and Public Affairs, University of Chester, Che ster, England UK. CH1 4BJ.

Email: p.harris@chester.ac.uk

“I have not told half of what I saw”

Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, 1300.

1|INTRODUCTION

Marco Polo, (1254–1324) was the son of Niccolo Polo, a merchant

from the city state of Venice now part of modern Italy and is famous

for his book Livres des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the

World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300). This was

the first book to introduce Europeans (the then West) to Central Asia

and China. It is the first text that outlines the different cities, commu-

nication processes, cultures, environments, political systems, and trade

routes linking China and Asia via the Middle East to Europe. It is the

earliest and best‐known European written guide to what is now called

the Silk Road, whether this be by land or sea via trade routes and has

consequently been used many times as a metaphor for dialogue,

sharing of ideas, science, and trade between China and Western

Europe. The Romans who built a major military base in my home city

of Chester imported Chinese Silk via the Silk Road and Constantinople

to Europe, which was highly prized. A further example of early

knowledge transfer, design, and sharing of goods and science can be

seen in a tile found in Chester Cathedral whose design origins are from

sixth century, Dunhuang, Western China, which were used in the

United Kingdom, Germany, and France. This tile from Chester and

our growing contemporary linkages to Beijing and Asia have stimu-

lated the birth of the Marco Polo Forum, which seeks to understand

our complex trading and regulatory relationships.

Polo's father and uncle had already made one visit to China in

1260 when Marco joined them for a second journey in 1271. They

spent the next 20 years living in the Beijing area and travelling in

the service of Kublai Khan throughout China, Asia, the Middle East,

and Southern Russia. They knew at first hand the trade of the Silk

Road and wrote in depth about business and manufacture around

Guangzhou (Canton) and other major Chinese cities and the Great

Khan's administration and government processes in Beijing and across

the country. He remarked about the quality and variety of the

products and the markets he saw and outlined that particular traders

produced well‐respected and desired goods and services and were in

high demand from traders from across the world.

There is evidence that Marco travelled widely throughout the

Mongol Empire, and in his work, he gives extensive insights into the

workings of the Chinese Mongol State, its communications, culture,

laws, production processes, public affairs, regulation, trade system,

and technology. He is the first writer to report the use of coal as an

energy product in use in China and on the development of transpar-

ency, fair dealing, and financial security throughout the Mongol

Empire. He also records trips to India and Burma and assesses the

growing trade between China and Europe. “The travels”is seen as

the first guide to China and Asia by a European.

We have seen a resurgence in the Silk Road Concept both cultur-

ally and economically, through such initiatives as the Chinese Gov-

ernment “One Belt: One Road”initiative now increasingly labelled

as the Belt Road Initiative, which is strongly supported internation-

ally and regular explorations via academic and policy discourse and

research. There is a growing “Golden Age”of strategic partnerships

between China and the United Kingdom, and this will continue to

develop as we build a greater understanding of one another as we

exchange and share students, staff, business ideas, science, and

culture.

The Marco Polo Forum Initiative was launched in October 2016

to aid this dialogue, teaching, and research on key issues that impact

on trade and public affairs communication between Europe and

China and is focused on links between the United Kingdom and

China. The initiative was formally launched at a one‐day symposium

at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and focuses on such issues

as follows:

•Branding, especially the development of Chinese Brands, the

development of the China Brand.

•Developments in modern Communications and Journalism.

•Trends in Chinese and International Consumer Behaviour.

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1920

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1920.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1920

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of2