I found it astonishing to learn that silk cloth was being produced in China as early as 4000 BCE.This book describes the history of the Silk Road from its most early beginnings around 25 BCE until its eventual decline between the early 15th century and mid-17th century, when maritime trade became safer and more profitable.This is a fascinating and stirring read.I had a map of the Silk Road available as a quick reference, which I did find essential, and Google at my fingertips; so many geographical points noted and many place names that were used in those times: without both I would have been a little lost.Rather than one single route (The Silk Road) what is described here is a network of intertwining routes (The Silk Roads) heading West to East and South to North, that do indeed converge at key points: passes over mountain ranges, the head or the foot of valleys fed by a constant watercourse, oasis towns skirting dry deserts. there is evidence, even of these roads (trading routes) that extend from the northern foothills abutting the Himalayan mountain range reaching as far as the northern shore of the Caspian Sea and west into the Ukraine; Kiev was a town found along an early Silk Road. The author has gone to great lengths in describing the centuries of warring, banditry, tribal, religious and regional disputes that made trekking these roads a hazardous occupation; the dangers so grave that at times closed some roads altogether.During its most early days, which is quite understandable bearing in mind the dangers that existed, there were few, if any, great caravans of camels and merchants traipsing the entire road over months and years. More commonly the caravans were a few beasts of burden (and not necessarily camels) and a handful of merchants that would venture from one key location to the next - an oasis town or the foot of a mountain pass - on a journey that took days or weeks. On arrival they would trade their goods and return, daring not to travel beyond the land, people and customs they were acquainted with. Jolly sensible, I would say; and although these routes have been gathered up and termed 'Silk Road', silk was just one commodity traded on these routes.This all gives cause to question how these traders managed. They were not buying a commodity (Silk) with coin and transporting there goods for hundreds of miles and then selling it for a greater amount of the same coin. I doubt many were numerate and literate in those early days, but surely these traders must have been; if only in basic numeracy (add-subtract-multiply-divide) and have an ability to make mark of some kind: maybe just simple words as reminder of past transactions.These traders were, as the author explains, carriers of news: erupting hostilities, resolutions, peace agreements, the passing of kings, queens, rulers. Would that not suggest they must have had at least a basic level of literacy? And, also, on arrival at more developed towns, places of commerce, would these traders not be questioned by chieftains, regulators, elders, of what they had learned along the way, if only to corroborate what had already been learned from other sources? Would that not make becoming literate more of a necessary skill? "I wrote it down soon after I was told. Look, here it is. Proof of what I have just said." A way of earning respect, gaining in popularity and friends, and improving your chances of making the best deal.As the years wore on greater control of these routes took hold, much of that was thanks to the Mongol Dynasties, and so safety for these traders and their goods increased and thereto their profits and, of course, tax revenue for regional governors.This has all the detail I needed and gave me a much greater understanding of the Silk Road (Roads) and life for the traders that roamed these parts.