The Origins of Globalization
World Trade in the Making of the Global Economy, 1500–1800
New Approaches to Economic and Social History Series

For better or for worse, in recent times the rapid growth of international economic exchange has changed our lives. But when did this process of globalization begin, and what effects did it have on economies and societies? Pim de Zwart and Jan Luiten van Zanden argue that the networks of trade established after the voyages of Columbus and Da Gama of the late fifteenth century had transformative effects inaugurating the first era of globalization. The global flows of ships, people, money and commodities between 1500 and 1800 were substantial, and the re-alignment of production and distribution resulting from these connections had important consequences for demography, well-being, state formation and the long-term economic growth prospects of the societies involved in the newly created global economy. Whether early globalization had benign or malignant effects differed by region, but the world economy as we now know it originated in these changes in the early modern period.

1. Introduction; 2. Global connections: ships, commodities and people; 3. Consequences of conquest in Latin America; 4. Africa and the slave trades; 5. Export-led development in North America; 6. Global trade and economic decline in South Asia; 7. The 'age of commerce' in Southeast Asia; 8. East Asia and the limits of globalization; 9. Europe and the spoils of globalization; 10. Conclusion.

Pim de Zwart is Assistant Professor of Rural and Environmental History at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. His publications include the book, Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence (2016). He was awarded the Thirsk-Feinstein Prize by the Economic History Society in 2016.
Jan Luiten van Zanden is Professor of Global Economic History at Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, honorary Angus Maddison Professor at Groningen University and honorary professor at Stellenbosch University. He was president of the International Economic History Association. His many publications include An Economic History of Indonesia, 1800–2010, with Daan Marks (2012).