Merchants have walked the route for centuries, but now the first handful of tourists are discovering this unique trek, known as the Chadar.
As products move through the supply chain, the tax paid on the products by acquiring merchants can be deducted from the tax that the merchants then charge to their customers.
Before writing Black Gold, Smith researched the difficult relationship between African farmers and Western merchants in the cocoa and chocolate industry.
They were westernised in education and behaviour, and made a good bridge between the Gujarati merchants (whose language they spoke) and the British overlords (whose ways they emulated).
If you go to their web site, they link back to many of the very same groups whose activities we documented in Merchants of Doubt : the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, Competitive Enterprise institute, the Heritage Foundation.
Is it fear of socialism - a kind of post-Cold War paranoia that you identified in Merchants of Doubt?
Q: So you worked in Australia as a geologist, toured here to promote Merchants of Doubt and had an academic role at the University of Western Australia, so you've seen a bit of how things have played out.
Marsh gave up his day job last June and is now selling Pinkster through wine merchants and online shops like Ocado.
Then came the austerity merchants, to, literally, devastating effect.
Having attracted in James Cordern, an actor who is popular in the UK from his TV work and hot name in theatre circles in the US, as well as the interest of fellow golden-touch merchants the Weinstein brothers as executive producers, Cowell must have been quietly confident he could pull off a Billy Elliot-style transatlantic hit.
Homeowners and merchants are already using sand and bags left over from last year to fortify their own properties.
