A Way of Trade
Trade most likely made the ancient world go round. A location had to be an ideal place for trade with lost of trade routes in order to prosperous.
Just a simple stop for trade with numerous merchants and traders from all over could make a small town along a trade route a bustling center of commerce with great wealth. Some trade and caravan routes like the silk road stretched for more than 5000 miles with camel caravans carrying most of the goods along the dry and harsh regions along the way. Some important items that were traded back and forth were silk from China and salt from salt mines.
The camels in the caravans provided the merchant with meat, milk, wool, and manure that can be useful for living and for trading to get goods that the merchant needs. A profitable trans-Saharan trade occurred in gold and slaves from West Africa, salt from the desert, and other products from cities on the Mediterranean coast, along with trade in jewels, spices, perfumes, dyes, metals, rare woods, ivory, oils, and textiles. Caravans carried the cloth, salt, glass beads, and other products south while from the south they carried slaves, gold, kola nuts, leather, and pepper.
Trade was very significant and important in a way that it made the ups and downs, the rise and falls of the ancient empires. In the rough terrain of this ancient world, camel caravans have made it through, helping it all to happen.