Rome was an exceedingly large city at the start of the Roman Empire, and it required massive grain imports to feed its population. We (grain merchants) organized these imports and used a variety of mechanisms to deal with the informational problems of long-distance trade at that time. Long-distance trade in the many centuries before the telegraph was beset by information problems. There was the uncertainty present to all when ships set out and people awaited their return with little or no news. There was also the need to transact business at a distance when information travelled slowly, often by using an imperfectly controlled agent.
At times, we have to wait weeks to find out if our ships had sunk or if a harvest had wiped out the grain supply in a particular location. Our government cleared the Mediterranean of pirates in 67BC, thereby reducing greatly one major source of risk for us.
