Ethnographic accounts of the interaction between caravan drivers and agriculturalists may be colored by the comparatively low status of caravan drivers in modern circumstances. Among isolated agricultural valleys in prehispanic Andes caravan drivers likely represented an important link to both information and non-local products. As the owners of the means of transport and the initiators of long distance interaction, caravan drivers were in a strong position to influence trade negotiations with dedicated agriculturalists that did not have their own llama herds or did not have schedules that permitted them to undertake long voyages. Strong links and commitments between herders and particular agriculturalists are, then, in some ways against the interests of herders because in a market context they "held the cards" in terms of negotiating favorable conditions of exchange. From the perspective of regional economic interaction two principal groups that, as per Dillehay (1993: 253), largely complement one another and may result in a relatively stable political and social environment:

(1) Mobile herders with an economic focus on hunting, pastoralism, and who are limited in their scheduling by the needs of the herd and annual cycle caravans.

(2) Relatively sedentary agricultural communities, often with an animal husbandry component as well. These households are largely restricted in their scheduling and long distance travel due to the requirements of agriculture.

In this configuration the mobile herders have greater autonomy, but they depend on articulation with dedicated agriculturalists. The relationship between mobile pastoralists and sedentary agriculturalists in Old World contexts has been the subject of comparative study by Khazanov (1984: 198-227). One common pattern is for trade between nomads and sedentary society to be manipulated for political purposes by administrators and elites in the regional centers. In the fifteenth century, the Chinese state sought to regulate exchange with nomadic tribes occurring at trading posts on the frontier. A recurring pattern occurred where the Chinese government would attempt to control the nomads by restricting trade, and nomads would, in turn, "acquire the right to trade by using arms." (Khazanov 1984: 206). That is, if exchange was curtailed the nomads would resort to violent means as described by Levi-Strauss (1969: 67) and Sahlins (1972: 302) who note the link between exchange and warfare (Section 2.2.5).

In the Near East, nomads were in a more profitable position because often they were the essential link between isolated oases. While administrators may have sought to control nomads trading with their communities, the demand by farmers for the milk and meat products from nomads, and the transportation services offered by nomads, often placed the herders in an advantageous position (Khazanov 1984: 208). In the Andes, a similar pattern linked agricultural valleys like the Colca in the high sierra, the mid-altitudes, and perhaps the littoral, by way of camelid caravans, although by the Late Prehispanic it appears many valley communities had their own large herds pastured in the adjacent puna.