Trade encouraged peaceful communication and interchange; it broadened the horizons of thought and imagination; it stimulated technological advances. In more recent times trade of this sort has continued, and it continues to contribute greatly to human welfare.Tropical fruits can be enjoyed by persons living in temperate climates while those living in the tropics can have foods that grow only in the temperate zone. Trade among human communities has been a part of normal human life for tens of thousands of years. Coastal tribes traded with those in the mountains and deserts, each gaining prized goods they could not otherwise have enjoyed.