Practice question · Multiple choice
Goods travelled the length of the Silk Road but individual merchants generally did not. What does that pattern imply about how the trade worked?
Hints
- Ask who a merchant in Samarkand actually bought from and sold to.
- Silk reaching Rome does not mean a Chinese trader reached Rome.
Show the answer
D. That it operated as a relay of many short-distance exchanges
Why
A relay, not a journey. This is also why goods travelled far better than information, each trader knew their neighbours, and nobody knew the whole route.
Practise Economic Geography and Trade Routes
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