Predictable winds made trade a lot less risky, like back in the day when the only power for ships were sails and oarsmen, your cargo might not arrive on time, or it might spoil, or you might die, all of which are bad for the health of global economic trade. But predictable winds meant lower risk, which meant cheaper trade, which meant more trade, which meant more people could have awesome sword handles. Thanks, Thought Bubble. Okay, there are a few more facets of Indian Ocean trade worth mentioning. First, Indian Ocean trade incorporated many more people than participated in Silk Road trade. There were Jewish people and people from Africa and Malaysia and India and China all sailing around in setting of trading communities where they would act as middlemen, trying to sell stuff for more than they'd bought it for and trying to find new stuff to buy that they could sell later. But despite this diversity, for the most part, especially on the western half of the Indian Ocean basin, the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants.