Aiming at nothing less than documenting the history of world trade over the last 1,000 years, ...appears to be required reading...for the purposes of better understanding how the world works.

This magisterial volume presents an analytical history of world trade from 1000 CE to the present, with informed speculation about future trends thrown in for good measure. It is a very considerable achievement, for which Findlay and O'Rourke deserve great praise.

[A] splendidly ambitious new book...an excellent reference book for anyone wanting a better understanding of economic developments in the last millennium.

[T]he best book of its sort since David Landes' .

The excellent new book explains why some countries are rich, and why others are not. [Recent books] all try to explain the biggest question of the modern world: why some [countries] are rich and other poor. Now, we have..., a tome that combines the interpretive focus of the new school of explainers with the breadth and depth of the old narratives. They also put neoliberal economic theory to the historical test by asking what it would predict, and then contrasting those forecasts with history's actual path. Findlay and O'Rourke tell their tale exceptionally well.

A work of extraordinary scope and ambition and a major achievement. Findlay and O'Rourke show how international trade opens an illuminating window onto fully a millennium of world economic history.

[A] solid new book. is an ambitious endeavor that examines the works in the second millennium in light of globalization, deglobalization, reglobalization, and globalization as we know it today. The book fills a gap by scrutinizing the technological and political causes behind the long-term trends during the past thousand years. [The authors] have drawn exhaustively on the historical, political, and economic literature of the relevant periods for virtually all the major regions in the world.

In this magnificently conceived and executed work, Findlay and O'Rourke set out the history of global trade and show how it has been influenced by economic development and politics over the last thousand years. The authors have an important story to tell and they tell it superbly. This is a work brimming with scholarship, deftly combining narrative history with accessible economic analysis. This is a goldmine of a book. Open it where you will, there are nuggets to be extracted. It will remain the standard work on the history of world trade and indeed the development of the world economy for many years to come.

is a wide-ranging survey, both of the facts and of the literature, not an essay organized around a single thesis. It takes on, and treats seriously, a ton of material. Bearing that in mind, it is...engaging...well written, spiced with nuggets of fascinating information and dry wit. [Findlay and O'Rourke's] economics is sophisticated and mainstream...but enriched with an unusual attention to noneconomic factors--or, as the authors put it, 'a sustained emphasis on conflict, violence and geopolitics.'

This new history of the last thousand years of world trade is remarkable in both its grand sweep and its scholarly depth. It pieces together the story of global commerce from the medieval spice traders and nomads of Central Asia to the discovery and incorporation of the New World, to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Europe, and to the globalizing forces of the postwar world economy. One theme is the importance of the 'vast webs of interrelationships' between western Europe and other regions that, beginning in the medieval period, set the stage for modern economic growth. The other theme is the critical role of war in propelling economic change through upheaval and adaptation.

Trade has been the economic foundation of international integration and globalization. But, as Findlay and O'Rourke show in this masterful, state-of-the-art historical survey, it has also been a very frequent cause of rivalry between nations and maritime conflict. No better book exists on the role that commerce has played in generating both the wealth of nations and the wars between them. The authors command the literature the way Victorian admirals ruled the waves.

Ronald Findlay is the Ragnar Nurkse Professor of Economics at Columbia University. He is the author of "Factor Proportions, Trade, and Growth"and "Trade, Development, and Political Economy". Kevin H. O'Rourke is professor of economics at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the coauthor of "Globalization and History".

Acknowledgments xiii

Preface xvi

Chapter 1: Introduction: Geographical and Historical Background 1

Western Europe 4

Eastern Europe 11

North Africa and Southwest Asia: The Islamic World 15

Central (or Inner) Asia 24

South Asia 29

Southeast Asia 33

East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan) 37

Chapter 2: TheWorld Economy at the Turn of the First Millennium 43

The Golden Age of Islam 48

China: The Sung Economic Miracle 61

The Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian Trade 67

The Pirenne Thesis 71

Eastern Europe: The Viking Connection 73

The Economy ofWestern Europe 80

Chapter 3: World Trade 1000-1500: The Economic Consequences of Genghis Khan 87

Trade and War in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, 1000-1350 88

The Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, 1000-1350 98

The Pax Mongolica and Overland Trade, 1000-1350 101

Eurasia on the Eve of the Black Death 109

The Black Death 111

Trade between Western and Eastern Europe, 1350-1500 120

Overland Trade, 1350-1500: The Aftermath of the Pax Mongolica 124

The Emergence of Russia 126

The Middle East, the Mediterranean, and International Trade, 1350-1500 127

Southeast Asia and China, 1350-1500 133

Quantifying the Late Medieval Spice Trade 140

Chapter 4: World Trade 1500-1650: Old World Trade and New World Silver 143

Portugal, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean 145

Spain, Portugal, and the New World 158

The Pacific and East Asia 167

The Dutch Rise to Primacy in World Trade 175

Russia, Sweden, and the Baltic, 1500-1650 187

Southeast Asia during the Age of Commerce 194

The Cape Route, Venice, and the Middle East 204

Silver, Silk, and Spices 212

Chapter 5: World Trade 1650-1780: The Age of Mercantilism 227

Origins of the British Empire: Trade, Plunder, and Settlement 229

Mercantilism, Commercial Rivalry, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars 238

Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic 245

Britain and France: Commercial Expansion and the Second Hundred Years'War 247

India: The Disintegration of the Mughal Empire and the Transition to Colonial Rule 262

Southeast Asia and the End of the Age of Commerce 275

TheManchu Empire 284

China's Overseas Trade 286

Chinese and Russian Overland Trade 295

Conclusion 304

Chapter 6: Trade and the Industrial Revolution 311

Trade during the Industrial Revolution 324

Trade, Overseas Expansion, and the Industrial Revolution 330

Why Britain? Why Europe and Not Asia? 346

Conclusion 364

Chapter 7: World Trade 1780-1914: The Great Specialization 365

War and Revolution 366

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Short-Run Implications 369

The Revolutionary and NapoleonicWars: Long-Run Implications 371

The Industrial Revolution and Transportation Technology 378

Bulk Commodities and Heckscher-Ohlin Effects 383

Nineteenth-Century Imperialism 387

Nineteenth-Century Trade Policy 395

Commodity Market Integration, 1815-1914 402

Complementary Factor Flows and the Great Frontier 407

Trade and the Global Division of Labor 411

Trade, Tropical Frontiers, and the Great Divergence 414

The Terms of Trade 424

Conclusion 425

Chapter 8: World Trade 1914-39: Deglobalization 429

WorldWar I 429

The Aftermath of War 435

Interwar Commercial Policy 443

Transport Costs 455

The Volume of World Trade 458

Price Convergence and Divergence 461

The Great Depression, the Collapse of World Trade, and the Developing Countries 465

The Collapse of the Ottoman Empire 469

Conclusion 471

Chapter 9: Reglobalization: The Late Twentieth Century in Historical Perspective 473

World War II 473

Geopolitical Consequences: Communism, the Cold War, and Decolonization 476

The Gradual Reconstruction of the Atlantic Economy: 1950-70 489

Policy Divergence: 1945-80 493

Reglobalization: 1980-2000 496

International Transport Costs 501

Trends in Openness: Quantities and Prices 505

Unraveling the Great Specialization 512

Openness and Convergence in the Late Twentieth Century 515

Conclusion 525

Chapter 10: Globalization at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century 527

The Future of Globalization: Economic Challenges 534

The Future of Globalization: Political Challenges 539

Bibliography 547

Index 593