Economic life of Asia Huns (Hsiung-nu)

Social and economic side of history is quite important for being main reasons of political history, in history studies. When social and economic structures of states and societies understood well, reasons and results of political events will be seen more clear. When history of Asia Hun (Hsiung-nu) State examined it is seen that foreign policy of state is founded on economic needs and changes. The main economic activity of Huns is stock raising. But this was not the unique economic activity of Huns. It is not possible that a society can meet all needs of people by just one economic activity. So Huns made other economic activites like agriculture, trade mining, weaving together with stock raising. They could meet most of theirneeds by stock raising but it was not enough for the Hun society. Like the other societis, Huns need foreign goods. They tried to meet these needs especially from Han China by trade, taxes and plundering. The most important factor that determines foreign policy of Huns is inclination of benefiting from China. The most important data that supports this idea is treaties between China and Huns. İmportant part of caluses in treaties were about economy. They were about border markets, taxes, trade etc. In this thesis, I have tried to examine how Hun state, society and foreign policy took on a shape by studying economic activities of Huns. Key Words: Huns, China, Economy, Stock Raising, Agriculture