Similarly, there's nothing new about international trade, but its pace has also increased dramatically. In 1960, trade accounted for 24% of the world's GDP. Today it's more than doubled that. Almost no human being alive today lives with stuff only manufactured in their home country. But a thousand years ago, only the richest of the rich could benefit from the Silk Road. Still, trade isn't new, and while it's tempting to say that the types of goods being traded – pharmaceuticals, computers, software, financial services – represent something wholly new, you could just as easily see this as part of the evolution of trade itself. At some point, silk was seen as a new trade good.