the.com/trade route

means An established path by land or sea along which goods (and the people, money, and ideas riding alongside them) regularly travel between markets.

from A plain compound: 'trade' from Middle English/Middle Low German 'trade,' a track or course (literally a trodden path, related to 'tread'), and 'route' from Old French 'route,' from Latin 'rupta (via)' — a 'broken' or cut way, a path forced through. So the phrase literally means a path beaten through for commerce — an etymology that happens to match the essence almost too well.