In earlier times, was only a small fraction of overall trade, mostly supplying luxury goods for the upper classes.

Although they had captured the imagination of many people in Karl Polanyi's own time, he argued that were, in fact, historical oddities.

were cross-cultural brokers who helped and encouraged trade between the host society and people of their own origin who moved along the trade routes.

Among the Aztecs, were the people who carried on long-distance trade which expanded steadily through the fifteenth century.

The , encouraged for every Muslim at least once during his or her lifetime, demanded international travel; trade connections flourished with it.

In Russia, Mongols and Turks merged with Slavs and Finns in a new Turkish-speaking ethnic group, the .

At the base of the economic system in China (at the time of Marco Polo's visit) were the , struggling to survive by producing commodities demanded by traders.

In 1411 the Ming reconstructed and extended the from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north as part of their efforts to reduce contact with the outside world.

The remote western fringes of Eurasia were emerging from the agrarian, localized and other worldly spirit which had marked the Middle Ages, the period from about 700 to about 1350 B.C.E.

The of Europe in the 13th century, needing both physical and legal protection from attack and looting, began to organize the townspeople to demand charters of independence from regional rulers.