Trade routes and merchant ships

[JRSCline]

On river traffic... a more recent example which might shed some light:<br>
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For the recent deployments to the Middle East, rather than trucking units' heavy equipment to ports in the low countries, all the equipment was uploaded onto barges at various German river ports.<br>
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Barges in Roman times would have been pulled by animal teams along well established routes, smaller routes/rivers joining larger ones. Barges are very safe and surprisingly fast, as well as capacious. I have no idea how large Roman barges were but there is evidence for them. Going downstream, perhaps hauling was not needed and they used cargo boats instead, which are well attested for liquid cargo (barrels) from carvings.<br>
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I would imagine river transport was the best way to get heavy bulk cargo to Britain.<br>
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Cheers<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>