Trade networks before modern globalisation

Long-distance exchange networks predate the modern label of globalisation. States have traded through linked networks for as long as organized states have existed. Merchants made money by moving goods from abundance to scarcity and sometimes by joining several markets into triangular routes. Those flows could be taxed, giving states a direct interest in protecting or controlling transit. Without a wider trade network passing Malta, the island's strategic value would collapse. Its geography connects commerce and taxation with state power.