I agree, it seems more likely to me that it operated similarly to the principles that held the Silk Road together. Almost no one did a Marco Polo and went all

I agree, it seems more likely to me that it operated similarly to the principles that held the Silk Road together. Almost no one did a Marco Polo and went all the way from the Mediterranean to Peking; instead most of the trade was bucket-brigading goods from one market town to the other.