Concept:
- The statement is best proved by showing that the same physical route carried two very different kinds of cargo at the same time.
- One route, the silk routes, supplies the whole argument on its own.
Step 1: Establish what the route carried as trade.
The silk routes linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa and are known to have existed since before the Christian era. Chinese silk, Chinese pottery, and Indian and South East Asian textiles and spices moved west, while gold and silver moved east from Europe.
Step 2: Show that the same route carried belief.
Christian missionaries almost certainly used these routes to reach Asia, and Muslim preachers followed a few centuries later. Long before either, Buddhism had spread out of eastern India in several directions through the points where these routes crossed.
Faith moved on the roads that merchants had opened.
Step 3: Show that the same movement carried daily habits.
Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they visited. Noodles are believed to have moved west from China and turned into spaghetti, and Arab traders carried pasta to Sicily in the fifth century.
Step 4: Draw the conclusion.
A merchant does not travel as goods alone. He carries his religion, his language and his cooking with him, and leaves some of each behind. That is why trade and cultural exchange cannot be separated in the pre-modern world.
Final Answer: The silk routes prove the point on their own, since the same roads that carried silk, spices and precious metals also carried Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, and traders on them spread foods such as noodles and pasta from one continent to another.