I have always found it curious that merchants would presumably have some form of guard to, at the least, ensure their personal well-being. Its a common fantasy staple for the caravan to have a rough and tumble assortment of guardsmen, but this has always appeared to be one of those medieval tropes that has more roots in the American west than it does in actual history.

But the problem is, those guards would of course presumably have some sort of homeland despite a career that would see them traveling an exceptional amount. While I have read about caravans having guardsmen in the form of knights and such traveling to a common destination, I haven't ever seen anybody talk about the more 'common' guard that may or may not have existed.

So how in an age where the average serf was not expected to leave their land (though understanding that this is a massive overgeneralization), do we have any knowledge of who exactly would be the type of person to guard a caravan as a sort of career? I am specifically trying to aim at the medieval era before the later period when more organized troops and expectations of protections from various realms may have provided such service, but am open to hearing about them since I presume that any sources on anything earlier would be scarce at best.