At what point in history did the sail ship technology take off for the first time?
And by that I mean sail ships that significantly eased trade across water and which got produced in significant quantities over significant times.
There were Triremes back in classical times but the image is they were partially powered by slaves rowing down below indicating they weren't that advanced at the time. You can never row your way across large distances cheaply.
Then sailships were continuously becoming better in the 9th century in northern Europe, but I'm not sure how much further back their development goes and what was going on elsewhere.
I find this question important because the ability to send things cheaply from A to B (be it people, ideas or general trade) is a fundamental building block of civilization. Which makes the sail ship a very fundamental technology in history.