“Every year the king of the country of Ta-shih (the Arabs of the Khalif empire) who is styled Su-tan (Sultan) sends tribute-bearers, and if in the country some trouble is apprehended, he gets the Ta-shih to use their military force in restoring order.... The products of the country consist in opaque glass, corals, raw gold, brocades, sarcenets, red cornelian stones and real pearls”

- Chinese official letter documenting the Song and Yuan dynasties, translated and published in China and the Roman Orient: Researches Into Their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records, published 1885


This passage BEST demonstrates which of these?

A) the military conquest of Asia by the Chinese
B) the growing influence of Chinese Buddhism on the western world
C) the commercial interactions between China and the western world
D) the attempt of Sultans to create military alliances with Song dynasty