Global Trade Networks

9 Key excerpts on "Global Trade Networks"

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  Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks : Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia

  • Jason Neelis(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Brill

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER THREE TRADE NETWORKS IN ANCIENT SOUTH ASIA Te survey of ancient and early medieval South Asian history in the preceding chapter amply demonstrates that establishing and maintain-ing control of trade networks and arteries of cross-cultural religious transmission was a signifcant impetus for political dynamics. Based on this diachronic foundation, our attention now shifs to a synchronic exploration of specifc route systems in the Indian subcontinent. Tis treatment of transregional networks emphasizes religious and cul-tural geography more than economic patterns, since available literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological sources do not permit a quantitative assessment of early trade. 1 Te aim of retracing routes and identifying nodes is to understand how trade networks shaped patterns of Buddhist transmission and how Buddhist ideologies provided an impetus to cross-cultural mobility and material exchanges. Trade can be broadly understood as a form of exchange involving the movement of commodities with fuctuating values conditioned by a wide range of economic, environmental, geographical, social, cultural, and reli-gious factors. Combining Karl Polanyi’s general defnition of trade as “the mutual appropriative movement of goods between hands” (1957: 266) with Neville Morley’s sense of trade as the “movement of goods across diferent sorts of boundaries” (2007: 11) as starting points, this examination is more concerned with exchanges across relatively long distances and interconnections between regional nodes than with local distribution and exchange networks. 2 Rather than focusing on 1 Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal. Studying Early India: Archaeology, texts, and histori-cal issues . New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003, 217–231 (= Chattopadhyaya, Brajadu-lal. 1988–89. “Trends of Research on Ancient Indian Economic History.” Journal of Ancient Indian History 18: 109–131) remarks that “.

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  Human Geography

  People, Place, and Culture

  • Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Murphy(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  The original backbone of economic globalization was trade. Trade across vast distances has taken place for centu- ries, and many debates over globalization continue to focus on trade. To visualize how trade fosters globalization, examine a map of shipping routes (Fig. 14.5). The density of the networks on the map tells us how extensively connected the world really is. But what are the consequences of those connections? The arguments in favor of globalization were explained by econ- omist Keith Maskus (2004), who noted that “free trade raises the well-being of all countries by inducing them to specialize their resources in those goods they produce relatively most efficiently” in order to lower production costs. He concluded that “competition through trade raises a country’s long-term growth rate by expanding access to global technologies and promoting innovation.” The view that free trade raises the wealth of all countries underpins a set of neoliberal policies that together form the Washington Consensus (Chapter 10). Western international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the Inter- national Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and investment banks are all part of the Washington Consensus. Together these institutions created a set of policies, including structural adjustment loans, that encouraged neoliberalism. 14.2 Identify Networks and Explain Their Role in Globalization. Author Field Note Commemorating Tragedy in New York, New York “The 9/11 Memorial commemorates those who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The wall includes the names of those who died in each tower, the first responders, those who died at the Pentagon, and those who died on each flight involved in that day’s attacks. I had given a talk in the World Trade Center just a few years earlier, and it seemed almost impossible that the great buildings crowning lower Manhattan were no longer there.

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  Globalization in Prehistory

  Contact, Exchange, and the 'People Without History'

  • Nicole Boivin, Michael D. Frachetti(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  We must hence move beyond notions of a unified and hierarchically structured system of exchanges that was constructed by, and for the benefit of, so-called cores of civilization outside of central Eurasia and embrace configurations that defy any attempt at singularizing or systematizing formulation (cf. Morris 2006). Globalization, on the other hand, denotes “a complex, overlapping, dis- junctive order, which cannot any longer be understood in terms of existing center–periphery models” (Appadurai 1990: 6). Within such webs of interactions, various cultural elements and entities accrue, conglomerate, and conflict (Featherstone 2006: 390). Exchanged items and transmitted ideas sometimes even coalesce into new incongruous cultural materials or practices. Through varied manners of consumption, common elements engender not a unifying global culture (Hannerz 1989; Smith 1990) but rather a cultural “weft” of connectivity across a “warp” of distinct yet interwoven societies. These threads serve as strategic cross-cultural expressions of affiliation between members, often elites, of otherwise distinct and disparate societies (Schortman 1989; Prestholdt 2008). A framework of globalization is thus apt for archaeo- logical investigations of pan-Eurasian exchanges between the first century bce and first century CE, as such a framework entails a motley matrix of distinct local cultures that are interconnected through their differential engagements with components of a “global” vocabulary of culture. In this chapter, we heed the call of C. Knappett (2017) to analyze patterns of globalization through network analytical constructs. Networks thinking considers both the modes (i.e., ties) and arbitrators (i.e., nodes) of connectivity and addresses their configurations simultaneously at multiple scales of analysis (see Knappett 2011). It accommodates fluid and de-centered

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  Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550-1800

  Connectors of commercial maritime systems

  • Manuel Sánchez, Klemens Kaps, Manuel Sánchez, Klemens Kaps, Manuel Herrero Sánchez, Klemens Kaps(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  45 the transformation of consumption patterns, and the densification of trade routes. The definition is, indeed, very broad, and it incorporates not only economic but also social and cultural factors. It is very clear that such a process had already taken place when the Old and the New Worlds came together, but also that it does not amount to economic globalisation; more accurately, the phenomenon should be addressed as internationalisation.

  Putting it simply, globalisation is the phenomenon that leads to the construction of an international market by lowering barriers and improving transport. The economic definition of globalisation involves three different aspects: commodities, barriers and transport systems. Regarding the first aspect, most historians know that Atlantic trade was based on luxury goods and not on commodities.46 Of course, this is only true for imports. European exports are a very different issue: the top five include olive oil, wine and even cereals, three basic components of the Mediterranean diet.

  Concerning barriers, historical evidence is very clear. In the Atlantic, trade barriers did not decline but actually increased. Specific new taxes, for example, were created for commercial transactions with the Spanish colonies. This is the case with the Almojarifazgo de Indias or the Averia , two very different taxes which were, nevertheless, tailor-made for trade with the New World.47 It is commonly accepted that the Spanish monopoly in America was not really a monopoly from an economic point of view, but rather an apparatus designed to raise revenue via taxation.

  Finally, the issue of the development of the transport system and the reduction of freight costs is more controversial. The period that followed the discovery of America was one of vast improvement in shipbuilding and navigation technologies, resulting in a very significant reduction in shipping costs. The statement by K. O’Rourke and J. Williamson about the slight reduction of freight costs in Atlantic trade in the sixteenth century is supported by little evidence. They use Hamilton’s classic data for the trade in dried codfish between Andalusia and Valencia to argue that progress in navigation during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries had no effect on freight costs. It seems nonsense to extrapolate trading conditions among Spanish ports to the Atlantic trade.

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  Free Trade and the US–China Trade War

  A Network Perspective

  • Yoon Heo(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  4 explores social movements in a network society and reports that such networking depends on communication; further, he argues that autonomous communication is the essence of social movements. These social movements are spread through the internet and move toward the occupation of urban spaces, motivated by a common interest. Finally, members build their projects by sharing their experiences. Indeed, networked social movements have different characteristics in different forms, such as the hybridization of cyberspace and urban spaces (this unity constitutes the third place, referred to as the space of autonomy) and the creation of togetherness. Movements are simultaneously local and global and usually leaderless, and they are political in a fundamental sense.

  Network theory has been used in many studies of trade. For example, Hamashita (2001)5 uses network theory to present East Asia’s entry into the era of negotiation from the 1830s to the 1890s, which marked a shift from a tribute order to a Western trading-type order. He reports an increased dynamism in relationships within East Asia, as treaty ports were interwoven with commercial networks and novel and redirected trade routes throughout Asia and between Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Degain et al. (2017)6 use network analysis to present the evolution of global value chains (GVCs) and to show how, between 2000 and 2015, the GVC network changed dramatically. In particular, GVCs of the North American Free Trade Area, East Asia + Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the European Union (EU), respectively, became relatively isolated. Scholars are developing an increasing interest in economic regionalism, such as the formation of networks of free trade agreements (FTAs) and the developed understanding of FTA-network formation as a game (Goyal and Joshi, 2006;7 Furusawa and Konishi, 2007;8 Daisaka and Furusawa, 20149 ).

  Studies that adopt a network perspective share some common ground. First, each individual’s actions are understood to have implicit and explicit consequences for others connected to that individual. Second, the role of leadership is not broadly recognized. The function of a leader is, mostly, to facilitate communication among members. Finally, networks are not static but dynamic. A network expands or contracts, its links are strengthened or sometimes severed, and its nodes can get stronger or weaker or even exit the network altogether.

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  Trade and Civilisation

  Economic Networks and Cultural Ties, from Prehistory to the Early Modern Era

  • Kristian Kristiansen, Thomas Lindkvist, Janken Myrdal(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  This map provides an overview of the dense, but not yet strictly controlled network in the fifteenth century. THE NETWORK AROUND 1000 In most of Eurasia and Northern Africa, the period from around 800 to 1200 forms an era of expanding economy and population increase that eventually led to a new level of long-distance trade. Janet Abu-Lughod argued in her book from 1989 that a confluence of trading systems had occurred before and around the thirteenth century.This trade was not dominated by a single power, but was instead a network, primarily among important cities. Long-distance world trade forced a certain degree of commensurability among social, political, and economic organizations into existence in the various interacting cultures. The network could be subject to disruptions that caused shortages in various luxury goods, for instance, because of plundering and the taking of tributes. This activity forced a higher degree of organization and planning to establish secure long-distance trade. However, trade was able to continue even under more politically fragmented conditions due to the deft management of numerous petty merchants (Beckwith 2009: 256). Overland transport was substantial. The dromedary was the means of trans- port in the Sahara, and the Bactrian camel in Central Asia. A caravan of 5,000– 6,000 Bactrian camels could carry as much as a large sailing ship, with one difference being that the caravan could not transport bulky goods (Braudel 1994: 62; Bulliet 1990). Caravan routes linked discrete trading spheres.The Silk Road through Central Asia, made up of numerous tracks and routes, created cities like Samarkand and Bukhara where merchants from the east and west met. Control over the exchange of goods and caravan routes through the Sahara likewise laid the foundations for kingdoms such as Mali and Songhay, where a city like Timbuktu was a cultural and economic center.

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  Advanced Introduction to Global Production Networks

  • Neil M. Coe(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Edward Elgar Publishing

    (Publisher)

  15 2 A global production network world? Broadly speaking, global production networks have risen to prominence in the world economy in the period since 1990. This chapter seeks to chart and explain their rise as a foundation for what follows in the book. It does so in three stages. First, the growing interest in global production networks and associated data collection efforts among international organizations over the past decade will be profiled (Section 2.1). Second, the global production network era is put in historical context by compar- ing and contrasting it to preceding international divisions of labour. Brief consideration will also be given to developments in the decade following the global financial crisis that unfolded in 2007–2008 (Section 2.2). Third, the political-economic drivers underlying the development of global production networks are explored (Section 2.3). Oddly, these critically important capitalist dynamics have not hitherto been thoroughly scruti- nized in the broader global chain and network literatures. 2.1 Parameters One indication of the contemporary significance of global production networks is how highly they now sit upon the agendas of international organizations with economic remits. While a decade ago, discussion of the topic was sparse, now it is commonplace. Rather than global produc- tion networks per se, and although the core phenomenon in question is the same, it is important to note that these debates are couched predom- inantly in terms of global value chains – in large part due to the relative parsimony of the GVC framework, the intuitiveness of the chain notion, and the outreach activities of its key progenitors. As Gereffi (2019b: 199) describes, ‘virtually every international organization with a mandate

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  Globalization and the Nation State

  2nd Edition

  • Robert J. Holton(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  One important strand here is the development of a richer and more sophisticated appreciation of global connections within historical scholar-ship by writers such as Hopkins (2002a), Bayly, (2004), Euben (2006), McNeely and Wolverton (2008). History of Global Structures and Networks If we associate globalization with developments such as the emergence of world markets for commodities and technological improvements to communication, then the search for origins attention shifts back five centuries. Wallerstein (1974), for example, cites the sixteenth century as a crucial watershed in the development of a capitalist world-economy. This is symbolized by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in AD1492. In the next three centuries, Western Europe developed not only the Industrial Revolution based on wage-labour, but also the plantation economies of the Caribbean and southern states of America using slavery, the West African region from which slaves were obtained and the serf-based landed estates of Eastern Europe. All these are connected through the international exchange of commodities, be they Barbadian sugar, Polish grain, West African slaves, or Manchester textiles. In contrast with Marx, it is not the presence of ‘free’ wage-labour relations that is crucial for capitalism but rather the integration of production within an international division of labour geared to capital accumulation. In this sense, Wallerstein regards slavery or serfdom as perfectly compatible with the operation of the capitalist world-system. This conceptual revision of orthodox Marxism enables him to draw attention to many facets of the global expansiveness of capitalism The Long History of Globalization 35 over a 400-year period that have been played down by analysts who focus mainly on indigenous change within the core region of Western Europe. Wallerstein’s emphasis on the sixteenth-century origins of the capi-talist world-system is not by any means conclusive.

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  Europe and the Maritime World

  A Twentieth-Century History

  • Michael B. Miller(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  From the start, however, estate growth depended on adequate transport links with deep-water harbors through some combination of rail or riverboat feed- ers and regular, timely connections across oceans to markets and sources of supply. Comparably, home ports provided city trading conditions and resources for investment; trading and shipping companies directed mas- sive shipments back to them. The three sectors therefore complemented one another, but they also created synergies of growth. By now it should be clear that these happy junctions were far from circumstantial or the work of providence. Networks accounted for global flows, and maritime networks aggregated into three great sets – port, shipping, and trading – each coiled around the others. Main port net- works overseas were symbiotic with shipping and trading networks, and these were often caduceus-like in their own relationships. A key convergence point was markets, or the venue of trading. Markets altered profoundly following the introduction of steamships and overseas cables. The former promised high-volume delivery of 55 MMM/OA 4B/192. Trading Companies and Their Commodities 131 distant commodities with relative dispatch and on-time arrival. The latter effected near instantaneity in communications between regions of supply and regions of demand. Under these conditions, it was pos- sible to replace scattered, local markets with large formal exchanges that communicated with each other and set world prices. If harvests or supplies failed in one corner of the world, it was possible to off- set these with information about substitute shipments from another. In particular, steamships and cable encouraged the rise of futures trading, where contracts merely promised purchase and delivery at some later date. Whether futures speculation evened out price differentials across world markets is debatable. But future markets did lower the threshold of stockholding and thus its accompanying carrying costs.

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