A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
At the beginning of the 1500s, the new profession of the merchant capitalist emerged. Merchants purchased foreign goods cheaply and sold them to the European aristocracy for large profits. They persuaded craftsmen to sell them their goods and then traveled from town to town in search of the best price. This meant that craftsmen now competed with ot
... See moreSimone Stolzoff • The Good Enough Job: What We Gain When We Don’t Put Work First
Modern trade pacts can be traced back to the post–World War II period, when, in 1947, twenty-three countries signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. GATT’s emphasis was on reducing tariffs inhibiting the flow of manufactured goods, and in that the organization succeeded: the average global import tariff on goods has more than halved, fal
... See moreRichard Haass • The World
Globalization has been linked, approvingly, with the advantages, benefits, creative destruction, modernity, and progress it has brought to entire nations. China has been by far its greatest beneficiary, as the country’s reintegration into the global economy helped to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty by 94 percent between 1980 a
... See moreVaclav Smil • How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
At the start of the sixth age of globalization, around 1820, the world was still overwhelmingly poor and rural. Perhaps 85 percent of the world’s population sustained itself through farming, almost all of it at a level at or near subsistence. Around 93 percent of the world lived in rural areas. Most people never ventured far from their birthplace,
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