Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence

Download or read book Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence written by Pim de Zwart and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence Pim de Zwart examines the Dutch East India Company’s intercontinental trade and its effects on living standards in various regions on the edges of the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to conventional views, De Zwart finds significant evidence of the integration of global commodity markets, an important dimension of globalization, before the 1800s. The effects of this globalization, and the associated colonialism, were diverse and could vary between and within regions. As globalization and colonialism affected patterns of economic development across the globe they played a part in the rise of global economic inequality, known as the ‘Great Divergence’, in the early modern period.