ABSTRACT
No historian questions the fact that in premodern times the great majority of the population in every civilized society lived as agriculturalists or otherwise devoted their working lives to the production of basic foods. Yet every historian likewise grants a special place to the role of movement and trade in civilization. Implicit in assigning this privileged place to the history of trade and cultural contact is the notion that change is of particular interest and that throughout history a great deal of change has been externally generated.
