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How does Slavers Bay function as a trading hub?


Tyrion1991

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In Storm of Swords its mentioned that Daenerys can't march overland to Volantis without having to pass near some sort of "death road" near the doom of Valyria. In ADWD there is an additional conversation about this by both Daenerys and the Golden Company; they both conclude that any land crossing to Slavers Bay is suicide. 

We then see that Victarions attempts to sail around said Doom sink a good chunk of his fleet and these are some of the best sailors in the world. So clearly getting into and out of Slavers Bay by sea is extremely difficult and is presented as an extraordinary feat.

So, how can Slavers Bay be the world centre of slavery and be completely geographically cut off? These are completely contradictory notions. If people can easily be moved across the world to and from slavers bay then it should be easy for Daenerys to move people to other parts of the world from Slavers Bay. For example, apparently this doom road is the only land route and it kills anyone who crosses it or drives them mad. In other words nobody uses it. So how do the Dothraki bring their slaves to Slavers bay if there isn't a safe overland route? This is big contradiction.  I mean how did the Unsullied from Astapor march to Qohor if there wasn't a land route to the Free Cities? If there was a safe land route then why did Harry Strickland and Daenerys not mention it? The only land route that is ever discussed is the doom road.

Likewise, if the Iron Fleet can barely make it from Volantis to Slavers Bay then how can normal trading vessels easily ply the waters? Normally a trading hub is selected because it is easy to access and has safe harbours or good transport links. "All roads lead towards Rome" and all of that. Apparently Slavers Bay is the opposite. 

Basically it doesn't make any sense. Either Slavers Bay is this centre of world trade with easy access to other parts of the globe. Or, its an isolated enclave that is dangerous to travel around. it seems bizarre that a region would have such a huge slave trade and be impossible for a certain silver haired character to easily leave....

 

 

 

 

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Slavers bay isn't the end of the world. It lies between the free cities and qarth, yi-ti and asshai. The dothraki are a mayor supplier of slaves and slavers bay is most confenient for them. 

More so even in the old days when Valyria still existed or the Ghiscari empire before that. Their whole economy is build on trading slaves so why build another hub. 

It isn't as isolated as you describe and sea travel always will have its dangers. Even crossing from Kings Landing to Dragonstone is described by cersei as potentialy deadly

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19 minutes ago, Deepbollywood Motte said:

Slavers bay isn't the end of the world. It lies between the free cities and qarth, yi-ti and asshai. The dothraki are a mayor supplier of slaves and slavers bay is most confenient for them. 

More so even in the old days when Valyria still existed or the Ghiscari empire before that. Their whole economy is build on trading slaves so why build another hub. 

It isn't as isolated as you describe and sea travel always will have its dangers. Even crossing from Kings Landing to Dragonstone is described by cersei as potentialy deadly

 

How can Slavers Bay be easy to reach? If 8000 Unsullied can march from Astapor to Qohor then why can't Daenerys march out with 10,000 without losing the entire army? Or the Golden Company? It is discussed multiple times and the discussion always amounts to it being impossible to move a large army into and out of Slavers Bay. If there was an alternate route it would have been mentioned and likely used because all of these parties wanted to be on the move. So how can a Khalessar move from the Dothraki Sea to Slavers Bay. Why would Dany and JonCon insist on taking the Doom Road when they could just move along the edges of the Dothraki Sea. Which is clearly possible as shown during the Battle of Qohor when 8000 unsullied must have passed through it to reach that city. The answer is that GRRM knew that Dany probably would have left if the journey would have been easy and needed her to stay put; even though it runs counter to the idea of this place being a centre of trade. As you point out, most of this trade involves the movement of huge numbers of people and armies by the Dothraki; but we are told Dany cannot even move a fraction of those numbers out of Meereen. 

There is potentially dangerous and losing a third of your experienced fleet. These are not portrayed as fluke or random events. Its all shown as being part of the dangers of skirting the edge of Valyria. 

 

Basically if it wasn't that isolated then the discussions Daenerys and JonCon had, which had massive repercussions on the plot do not make any sense and are a contrivance. If you are saying that it is easy to move large numbers of people overland, which must happen if Dothraki Khallessars herd tens of thousands of people to Slavers Bay, what Khal Drogo planned to do in the first novel; then how does any of that make any sense. As proven by the Battle of Qohor it is perfectly possible for an army to cross the Dothraki Sea. If they have access to the Dothraki Sea then why did that never come up as a possibility? It is never once mentioned. They do not say that "oh no Jon, if we cross the Dothraki Sea the horse lords will kill us all". They talk as if its only possible by boats or by the hell road that drives people mad...

 

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1 hour ago, Tyrion1991 said:

 

How can Slavers Bay be easy to reach? If 8000 Unsullied can march from Astapor to Qohor then why can't Daenerys march out with 10,000 without losing the entire army? Or the Golden Company? It is discussed multiple times and the discussion always amounts to it being impossible to move a large army into and out of Slavers Bay. If there was an alternate route it would have been mentioned and likely used because all of these parties wanted to be on the move. So how can a Khalessar move from the Dothraki Sea to Slavers Bay. Why would Dany and JonCon insist on taking the Doom Road when they could just move along the edges of the Dothraki Sea. Which is clearly possible as shown during the Battle of Qohor when 8000 unsullied must have passed through it to reach that city. The answer is that GRRM knew that Dany probably would have left if the journey would have been easy and needed her to stay put; even though it runs counter to the idea of this place being a centre of trade. As you point out, most of this trade involves the movement of huge numbers of people and armies by the Dothraki; but we are told Dany cannot even move a fraction of those numbers out of Meereen. 

There is potentially dangerous and losing a third of your experienced fleet. These are not portrayed as fluke or random events. Its all shown as being part of the dangers of skirting the edge of Valyria. 

 

Basically if it wasn't that isolated then the discussions Daenerys and JonCon had, which had massive repercussions on the plot do not make any sense and are a contrivance. If you are saying that it is easy to move large numbers of people overland, which must happen if Dothraki Khallessars herd tens of thousands of people to Slavers Bay, what Khal Drogo planned to do in the first novel; then how does any of that make any sense. As proven by the Battle of Qohor it is perfectly possible for an army to cross the Dothraki Sea. If they have access to the Dothraki Sea then why did that never come up as a possibility? It is never once mentioned. They do not say that "oh no Jon, if we cross the Dothraki Sea the horse lords will kill us all". They talk as if its only possible by boats or by the hell road that drives people mad...

 

Well, IIRC we don't know if the march started with 8000 unsullied, we only know that that many fought. Dany has more reasons to stay than just not being able to leave (learn to rule, I don't like the reason but it is one). The golden company and (f)Aegon have many reasons to not march to dany to maybe join her, probably fight her, while westeros is for the taking just a little sailtrip away. 

Victarion starts his trip from (the far side of) Westeros, a whole continent ignored by slavers because there is no slavery there so his trip is longer than usual, in the autumn, a season known for bad storms.

What I guess I'm trying to say is; JonCon and Dany have a lot more reasons for their actions than just not being able to reach Slavers bay and both land and sea travel will always lose men. If the Dothraki would try to bring their slaves to other cities then those on slavers bay they would probably be met with more resistance. IIRC they are in some sort of understanding with the cities on slavers bay.

I'm on my phone so I'm not able to fact-check this stuff quickly but I think I'm not far off 

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Dany is fully prepared to move on from Mereen twice during the books. It's taking the Death March that dissuaded her both times. GRRM would not have laboured the geographical reasons so heavily if those other reasons were compelling enough to justify it. The GC in particular labours this point. Dany wanted to just take all the slaves and move on like she did with Yunkai.

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When did they march to Qohor? 300 years is not a long time the legand of Thermopylae still gets talked about, if the date not given a land road could have been in place when they made the journey.

Dothraki Sea probably isn't the easiest place to navigate, endless plains no way points questionable water and food supply for such a large army over such a large distance, if they had a few Dothraki scouts it might be doable (next book maybe?)

As mentioned Autumn not the best time to travel.  Slaver Bay no harder to get to than the rest of the East, Dothraki provide the Slaves, Slaves bring the trade, centrally located, so either no Easy West trade or Slaver Bay is in the ideal location.

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1 hour ago, elder brother jonothor dar said:

When did they march to Qohor? 300 years is not a long time the legand of Thermopylae still gets talked about, if the date not given a land road could have been in place when they made the journey.

Dothraki Sea probably isn't the easiest place to navigate, endless plains no way points questionable water and food supply for such a large army over such a large distance, if they had a few Dothraki scouts it might be doable (next book maybe?)

As mentioned Autumn not the best time to travel.  Slaver Bay no harder to get to than the rest of the East, Dothraki provide the Slaves, Slaves bring the trade, centrally located, so either no Easy West trade or Slaver Bay is in the ideal location.

 

If you look at a map of Essos, Dany being able to march her army to Qohor would give her a clean run to Pentos. If Slavers Bay was as easy to access then why does the whole Essosi plot hinge upon it being suicide for Dany to move her Unsullied out over land and impossible for the Golden Company to go to Mereen. They do not talk about the seasons and the Dothraki Sea is never mentioned. The obvious insinuation is that such routes do not exist because both parties would have used them. Which contradicts the place having overland trade routes that involve the movement of large slave armies and Dothraki. 

I mean it's an obvious contradiction that Volantis and the other slave cities can easily move hundreds of thousands of soldiers AND ship the Golden Company to Westeros but it's repeatedly stated as being logistically impossible for Dany to move the Unsullied. Why aren't the Slavers having the same problems moving such an enormous army with units from as far afield as Qaarth and Volantis.

 

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The only route that it's mentioned as very dangerous from or to the Slaver's Bay is the Demon Road, that connects Mereen and Volantis. Most slaves come from the North and the East from the Dothraki Sea, and from the South in Sothoryos. There's no problem in those directions.

And when they are sold, they are usually taken via ship.Dany's situation is somehow exceptional because of the sheer number of unsullied that she wants to transport. She needs a whole fleet, or use the Demon Road.

 

 

 

 

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On 25/10/2017 at 1:13 AM, Tyrion1991 said:

 It is discussed multiple times and the discussion always amounts to it being impossible to move a large army into and out of Slavers Bay. If there was an alternate route it would have been mentioned and likely used because all of these parties wanted to be on the move. So how can a Khalessar move from the Dothraki Sea to Slavers Bay. Why would Dany and JonCon insist on taking the Doom Road when they could just move along the edges of the Dothraki Sea. Which is clearly possible as shown during the Battle of Qohor when 8000 unsullied must have passed through it to reach that city. The answer is that GRRM knew that Dany probably would have left if the journey would have been easy and needed her to stay put; even though it runs counter to the idea of this place being a centre of trade. As you point out, most of this trade involves the movement of huge numbers of people and armies by the Dothraki; but we are told Dany cannot even move a fraction of those numbers out of Meereen. 

There is potentially dangerous and losing a third of your experienced fleet. These are not portrayed as fluke or random events. Its all shown as being part of the dangers of skirting the edge of Valyria. 

 

Basically if it wasn't that isolated then the discussions Daenerys and JonCon had, which had massive repercussions on the plot do not make any sense and are a contrivance. If you are saying that it is easy to move large numbers of people overland, which must happen if Dothraki Khallessars herd tens of thousands of people to Slavers Bay, what Khal Drogo planned to do in the first novel; then how does any of that make any sense. As proven by the Battle of Qohor it is perfectly possible for an army to cross the Dothraki Sea. If they have access to the Dothraki Sea then why did that never come up as a possibility? It is never once mentioned.

 

Very big plot hole you bring up here which I had frankly never thought of before, good job OP.

Also why would any merchant risk trading in the free cities if there's like 50/50 chance of his ship never getting there? Perhaps the chances are even lower than that. The ironborn whom are perhaps the best sailors in planetos lose a lot of ships travelling to Slavers bay, Tyrion's ship also sinks, seems risky as hell,  yet despite all this, these cities are all presented as thriving trading environments. Given how dangerous sea travel is there should at least be a secure and stable road connecting slavers bay with the free cities for this to make sense.

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7 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

The only route that it's mentioned as very dangerous from or to the Slaver's Bay is the Demon Road, that connects Mereen and Volantis. Most slaves come from the North and the East from the Dothraki Sea, and from the South in Sothoryos. There's no problem in those directions.

And when they are sold, they are usually taken via ship.Dany's situation is somehow exceptional because of the sheer number of unsullied that she wants to transport. She needs a whole fleet, or use the Demon Road.

 

 

 

 

Why doesn't Dany just go to Qohor and then Pentos via the Dothraki Sea then? 

 

The route you are suggesting is never brought up. But there is no logically reason it wouldn't be viable and get Dany safely to Westeros. They talk as if the Demon Road is the only road.

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On 10/24/2017 at 7:42 PM, Deepbollywood Motte said:

Slavers bay isn't the end of the world. It lies between the free cities and qarth, yi-ti and asshai. The dothraki are a mayor supplier of slaves and slavers bay is most confenient for them. 

More so even in the old days when Valyria still existed or the Ghiscari empire before that. Their whole economy is build on trading slaves so why build another hub. 

It isn't as isolated as you describe and sea travel always will have its dangers. Even crossing from Kings Landing to Dragonstone is described by cersei as potentialy deadly

:)  Good answer.

The value of the human commodity is very high and thus lucrative.  The  more lucrative, the more incentive for the traders to take the risk.  The Dothraki are a powerful force in Essos, the most powerful, and they can go anywhere they please.  Mantarys will not win a fight against the horse lords and they will be smart enough to just the Dothraki pass.

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On 10/25/2017 at 0:11 AM, Tyrion1991 said:

Dany is fully prepared to move on from Mereen twice during the books. It's taking the Death March that dissuaded her both times. GRRM would not have laboured the geographical reasons so heavily if those other reasons were compelling enough to justify it. The GC in particular labours this point. Dany wanted to just take all the slaves and move on like she did with Yunkai.

It isn't just her troops. It is all her followers/subjects and they have been growing since her march through the red waste. The demon road means a big fight and the difficulty of keeping a moving column supplied. 

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1 hour ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

It isn't just her troops. It is all her followers/subjects and they have been growing since her march through the red waste. The demon road means a big fight and the difficulty of keeping a moving column supplied. 

That only counts in ASOS and it means there's no safe land route out of Slavers. The Kyzai Pass contradicts that entirely. In Dragons both Dany and JonCon discuss using it for purely military means with a force of 10k. Dany in the event of a Qaartheen peace agreement. It is dismissed as suicidal and that both armies would be destroyed.

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The Iron Fleet left from the Stepstones, not Volantis (here's a good map for reference), and only some of the ships sunk on the way. Most of them simply failed to arrive at the meeting point in time.

Like others have said, they traveled in autumn when storms are stronger than usual. Large fleets are more exposed during storms, because there is a risk of ships crashing against each other on the waves. Most likely they had to spread out to avoid this, so many ships got separated from their squadrons. The Ironborn are good sailor, but they don't know the Summer Sea. Most captains wouldn't know where the dangers are or how to get to the Isle of Cedars on their own if they got lost (not fast enough, anyway).

The same chapter tells us that Victarion managed to capture nine merchant ships and slavers, so we know there is a fair amount of marine traffic in the area. The Qartheen fleet also got there without  issues.

Slave traders can also travel across Slaver's Bay to Tolos and Mantarys and then continue by land, avoiding most of the Demon Road. Mantarys would have been a threat to Dany and her freedmen, but it has a good relationship with the Ghiscari cities, so there's no reason why slavers wouldn't be able to get supplies there.

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3 hours ago, Tyrion1991 said:

That only counts in ASOS and it means there's no safe land route out of Slavers. The Kyzai Pass contradicts that entirely. In Dragons both Dany and JonCon discuss using it for purely military means with a force of 10k. Dany in the event of a Qaartheen peace agreement. It is dismissed as suicidal and that both armies would be destroyed.

That pass is in the wrong direction from where they want to go. Dany is going west, not east, and even if she wants to go a long route, she will still have to deal with the khalisars on the sea. 

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This may be an appropriate time to ask about another dimension of Slaver's Bay as a trade hub... How exactly does this economy function?  How would it remain a trade hub at all now that slaves are no longer on the market? I know that currently Meereen is the only city free of slaves by the end of ADwD so I'll limit my questions to it.

I realize that Meereen razed the lands surrounding their city before Daenerys arrived so that they could not forage. However, even after she has established herself in it the surrounding lands do not seem to be all that fertile still. If the soil was ever fertile then razing it is basically mimicking the ol' slash-and-burn farming technique...

So... where the hell is Meereen getting their food now that slaves are no longer a commodity?

My first thought was that they could still buy raw materials and process them into goods for trade, but is that really what merchants came into Slaver's Bay to trade for? What product could Meereen provide to tradesmen that they couldn't get somewhere else (including Astapor and Yunkai)? Now that food is in high demand in Meereen, I imagine that the trade ratio for products would be quite favorable to the visiting merchants. Perhaps people are trading in their luxury goods they once held onto for food, but this is limited resource and will only hold them out for so long.

So basically, I question how things will ever last there if we don't receive any mention about how these cities, specifically Meereen, could maintain themselves without slave trade... Fishing? Husbandry? There's no mention of farms, quarries, game, etc. that I can recall. There's plenty of mention of dogs and whatnot that they eat, but animals take time to breed and mature for maximum gains for slaughtering. And they also require substantial amount of food to fatten them up. I'll stand corrected on this one if someone can provide me with a quote, but it seems they don't have the local resources to survive without the slave trade.

A thought occurred to me about how the Fighting Pits reopened, but it's a gamble to rely on it economically because there is no guarantee people will always be willing to gamble with their lives. In the past, you could just force slaves to fight, and could also introduce spectacles to please the crowds like they had planned for Tyrion and Penny before Daenerys forbade it. It seems like the Fighting Pits could easily become a bore compared to the entertainment it used to provide. Astapor and Yunkai could easily steal the Fighting Pits concept away from Meereen since they have the slaves to make sure the entertainment is always packed.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge about economy (especially in those times) could enlighten me. It's something that's always bothered me about the Slaver's Bay arc.

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1 hour ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

That pass is in the wrong direction from where they want to go. Dany is going west, not east, and even if she wants to go a long route, she will still have to deal with the khalisars on the sea. 

 

You go up and then you go West. Its not even a particularly big detour.

 

If 8000 Unsullied at Qohor could beat 100,000 Dothraki I am not sure a Khal would try his luck. None of the Khals have such a large host. Plus you are assuming that Dany would care given her attitude of kill what is in front of her. Dany only refused the demon road twice because it was essentially "if you go, your army dies." so she took that to mean it is impossible to leave. 

 

Plus its far more important that this route is not mentioned as a possibility. In every instance we are only told about this demon road to Volantis as if it is the sole land route out of Slavers Bay. That is contrived, especially since in ADWD they introduce the pass which allows a Dothraki Khallesar to come down on Dany when she could have used that road to leave. Either this pass didn't exist until ADWD, or GRRM avoided mentioning it because he couldn't think of any reason Dany would not use it to leave during the peace negotiations and didn't want the GC going to Mereen. 

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On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 0:12 AM, Tyrion1991 said:

In Storm of Swords its mentioned that Daenerys can't march overland to Volantis without having to pass near some sort of "death road" near the doom of Valyria. In ADWD there is an additional conversation about this by both Daenerys and the Golden Company; they both conclude that any land crossing to Slavers Bay is suicide. 

We then see that Victarions attempts to sail around said Doom sink a good chunk of his fleet and these are some of the best sailors in the world. So clearly getting into and out of Slavers Bay by sea is extremely difficult and is presented as an extraordinary feat.

So, how can Slavers Bay be the world centre of slavery and be completely geographically cut off? These are completely contradictory notions. If people can easily be moved across the world to and from slavers bay then it should be easy for Daenerys to move people to other parts of the world from Slavers Bay. For example, apparently this doom road is the only land route and it kills anyone who crosses it or drives them mad. In other words nobody uses it. So how do the Dothraki bring their slaves to Slavers bay if there isn't a safe overland route? This is big contradiction.  I mean how did the Unsullied from Astapor march to Qohor if there wasn't a land route to the Free Cities? If there was a safe land route then why did Harry Strickland and Daenerys not mention it? The only land route that is ever discussed is the doom road.

Likewise, if the Iron Fleet can barely make it from Volantis to Slavers Bay then how can normal trading vessels easily ply the waters? Normally a trading hub is selected because it is easy to access and has safe harbours or good transport links. "All roads lead towards Rome" and all of that. Apparently Slavers Bay is the opposite. 

Basically it doesn't make any sense. Either Slavers Bay is this centre of world trade with easy access to other parts of the globe. Or, its an isolated enclave that is dangerous to travel around. it seems bizarre that a region would have such a huge slave trade and be impossible for a certain silver haired character to easily leave....

 

 

 

 

There is an overland route from Slavers Bay to Western Essos, via the Dothraki Sea.  But that's not  readily available for Daenerys and her soldiers, because of hostile powers along the way. 

Likewise, the Demon Road Westward is arduous, and there is at least one hostile power along the way, Mantarys. 

Perhaps she could fight her way through, in both cases, but why would she want to incur unnecessary casualties?  And, there's little doubt that the non-combatants that she liberated would either have to be left behind at Meereen, or else they'd die in droves along the way.

As for trade, it's quite straightforward for the Dothraki to drive slaves South to Slavers Bay.  Then they can be shipped across the Seat, either to Volantis in the West, or Qarth in the East.  Separate shipments would leave from those cities.

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55 minutes ago, SeanF said:

There is an overland route from Slavers Bay to Western Essos, via the Dothraki Sea.  But that's not  readily available for Daenerys and her soldiers, because of hostile powers along the way. 

Likewise, the Demon Road Westward is arduous, and there is at least one hostile power along the way, Mantarys. 

Perhaps she could fight her way through, in both cases, but why would she want to incur unnecessary casualties?  And, there's little doubt that the non-combatants that she liberated would either have to be left behind at Meereen, or else they'd die in droves along the way.

As for trade, it's quite straightforward for the Dothraki to drive slaves South to Slavers Bay.  Then they can be shipped across the Seat, either to Volantis in the West, or Qarth in the East.  Separate shipments would leave from those cities.

 

You are making an insinuation not supported by the text. On three occasions this subject of marching out of Slavers Bay comes up. Not once, not once is the Dothraki Sea mentioned as a route. It is omitted. Why would the characters, who are all actively looking for any vague possibility of travelling not going to mention this route? That's trying to justify a plot hole.

Given how extreme the Demon Road is, my guess is that GRRM wanted to make Danys decision to stay in Mereen and Jon Con to leave for Westeros appear like an impossible scenario. Really, she's no more in danger on the Dothraki Sea than she is in Slavers Bay. It isn't  the hostile powers like Mantarys that puts either side off, it's the environmental effects of the Demon Road. These are not present using the Kyhzi Pass.

You have a clear contradiction. A safe route to the Dothraki to enter Slavers Bay. But three times in which it is emphatically stated that  no army can march into or out of Slavers Bay.

If Dany had been told, we can take the Kyxai pass, but MAY fight some Dothraki her reaction would have been to fight them. She can't beat the Demon Road she can beat Dothraki.

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Seems to work very well

Slaves come from pirates raiding the various  islands and mysterious continets nearby as well as dothraki comming overland.

The slaves are trained up amd shipped by sea past quarth (or sold there) and on the way back the empty slave ships fill up with goods from ghe free cities  quarth or even westeros for long journey back to sell in slavers bay

Even if the trip was dangerous seems easy way to get very rich hence prob a lotta traffic 

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