On: The tyranny of the wagon equation

[schoen]

> If there's enough local production to supply a caravanserai, caravans can take that route.

That's an interesting constraint; were there also extra-expensive caravanserai in places where that production wasn't quite local and some of those resources had to be trucked, er, caravanned in?

[samatman → schoen]

Sort of, mostly yes, but never fodder or water. This is the great advantage of the camel: if a camel train rolls into a caravanserai, and the available fodder at that oasis has been eaten, there's a good change they'll make it to the next oasis with thin, very unhappy, camels. Mules would just die.