Not only goods but also culture was "traded" along trade routes. The Renaissance was a time period of new thinking. Trade influenced the renaissance because it gave Europeans a contact with other cultures that had perhaps developed newer or better techniques and technologies. For example, the Arabic states had advanced universities and had made great discoveries in mathematics.
An important question then, with respect to scientific change, regards how “science” is constructed out of scientists, and which unit of analysis – the individual scientist or the community—is the proper one for understanding the dynamic of scientific change?
