How is that even a discussion? Trade carts need a new set of techs, a new infrastructure, can only collect 1 res and are way more expensive than vills (yes, even with silk road), so obv they lose to a regular 4tc boom.
Silk road is a great tech. Italians are all about the momentum. They advance through ages earlier than the rest of the civs (except for malay) and have a great early imp. In that context, having to spend less gold in trade catts/cogs allows you to keep that momentum longer, spending more gold in army.
Do not need to be reworked
naturally, this technology was not invented from scratch and it makes sense, but it is the only technology in the game that can only be useful in TGs, and it does not even benefit the allies
The tech is good in TGs, my only point is that it is a useless tech in 1v1 for probably the weakest 1v1 civ.
Maybe a secondary effect for 1v1 can be added.
For instance, to make Italians more viable, I proposed to nerf the dock discount and give them a gold trickle from feudal (20 g/min, equal to one relic). Silk road may improve the trickle by 1.5 (30g/min).
I was thinking, what if they get to trade with themselves? 
. Italian cities were in fact extremely independent.
This mechanism exists in AoM, but it is much different since you can trade between TC and market.
It would be too much in 1v1 late game imo…
I still don’t understand what this means?
In my opinion, it is used as shortcut, do not use it when working 