The Fruits of the Early Globalization

This book presents an unusual view on one of the most influential periods in world economic history: the Early Globalization. By this term, the notion that a process of genuine globalization took place in the Early Modern Era is defended. The authors propose that the canonical globalization—that of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—was preceded by a century-long increasing economic integration between continents that were non-existent before 1492. The economic aspects of the Early Globalization, like market integration, price co-movements and international silver circulation, were very important. Notwithstanding, other dimensions of human life, which were affected by unprecedented intercontinental contacts, including free and forced migrations, changes in tastes and consumption, etc. The Fruits of Globalisation deals with some of the most important issues among the former and the latter. The book combines approaches from different disciplines, including quantitative and non-quantitative economic history, econometrics, international trade and demography. Overall, the vision of the Early Globalisation offered in this book is less pessimistic than in mainstream literature on the period. Rafael Dobado-González is Professor of Economic History, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He was Tinker visiting Professor at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA, in the second semester of 2010, and visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, USA, on several occasions. He has numerous publications in economic history journals and books. Alfredo Garcia-Hiernaux is Associate Professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain and researcher at Complutense Institute of Economic Analysis (ICAE). His research interests include econometrics and economic history.