How did the silk road encourage the spread of goods, ideas/inventions, culture and disease?

The Silk Road gave merchants an easier way to get their goods to dofferent places along the road. Merchants met other merchants and talked, sharing their culture with each other. Merchants and the people who traveled on the Silk Road heard of all the different cultures and ideas and told others about them, therefore spreading them. If someone was sick and interacted with someone else on the silk road they would give the other person the disease and then that person would give to their family, friends, other merchants, people close to them. Hope this helped♡