How could merchants gain more power (maybe even more than kings?) (Silk Road)

Explanation:

Merchants on the silk road transported goods and traded at bazaars or caravanserai along the way. They traded goods such as silk, spices, tea, ivory, cotton, wool, precious metals, and ideas. Use these resources to explore this ancient trade route with your students this means without merchants they wouldn't be able to make any money. So the king relies on the merchant and the merchant controls how much money they make.

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they gained control over the philippines, east dutch indies/indonesia, much of new guinea, the solomon islands, guam, and other strategic areas all over the western pacific. japan even occupied part of the aleutian islands, which belonged to alaska.

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