Moving From The Early Stage Of Capitalist Development To That Of High Imperialism And Beyond, This Volume Investigates How The World Economy Was Governed By The Needs Of Merchant Capital And High Imperialism From 1500 To 1750, And By Shifts In The Process Of Industrial Revolution In The Subsequent Period, From The 1870S To The 1940S.

"This is the story of silver's transformation from soft money during the nineteenth century to hard asset today, and how manipulations of the white metal by American president Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s and by the richest man in the world, Texas oil baron Nelson Bunker Hunt, during the 1970s altered the course of American and world history. FDR pumped up the price of silver to help jump start the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, but this move weakened China, which was then on the silver standard, and facilitated Japan's rise to power before World War II. Bunker Hunt went on a silver-buying spree during the 1970s to protect himself against inflation and triggered a financial crisis that left him bankrupt. Silver has been the preferred shelter against government defaults, political instability, and inflation for most people in the world because it is cheaper than gold. The white metal has been the place to hide when conventional investments sour, but it has also seduced sophisticated investors throughout the ages like a siren. This book explains how powerful figures, up to and including Warren Buffett, have come under silver's thrall, and how its history guides economic and political decisions in the twenty-first century"--Publisher's description

Precious metals played a key role in inter-continental trade between Europe and Asia in the early modern period. An assured supply of these metal was indeed a pre-requisite to the procurement of Asian goods such as spices, textiles and raw silk. Once these metals had been imported into Asia, they were converted into the coinage of the country concerned. The 'bullion for goods' pattern of trade had important implications for the level of output, income, employment and prices in the Asian societies. This collection of essays by Professor Om Prakash explores these issues in relation mainly to the Dutch East India Company. Given the scale of its operations, as well as its unique character as the only European corporate group to engage in large scale intra-Asian trade as an integral part of its overall trading strategy, the VOC is a particularly appropriate medium through which to analyse these issues. Les métaux précieux jouèrent in rôle clef dans le commerce international entre l’Europe et l’Asie au début de la période moderne. La présence d’un stock assuré de ces métaux était, en effet, un facteur nécessaire afin de se procurer des produits asiatiques tels les épices, les textiles et la soie grège. Une fois importés en Asie, ces métaux étaient convertis dans le monnaie du pays concerné. La structure commerciale du bullion for goods avait des implications importantes en ce qui concernait le niveau de production, l’emploi et les prix au sein des sociétés asiatiques. Cette collestion d’essais du professeur Om Prakash explore ces questions en relation plus particulièrement avec la conpagnie hollandaise d’Inde Orientale. Etant donnée l’envergure de ses opérations, ainsi que son caractère unique en tant que seule corporation européenne engagée dans un commerciale, le VOC est un particulièrement bon exemple à travers lequel analyser ces questions.

The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways. The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans' commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses how over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of these interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period. This collection of essays will be of interest of the historians of India and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.

This title was first published in 2000. This is a history of the monetary developments in the international economy of the 19th century. It reviews the monetary developments in the core economies of the period: Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and also India. Particular attention is given to the expansion of the gold standard in the context of the intense national and international debates about the role of precious metals and the author also examines the conflict between supporters of gold, silver and bimetallism, both in terms of competing financial and economic theories and in terms of the varying social and cultural backgrounds that informed them. The main thrust of the work is that the sheer plurality of ideas and contexts helped to ensure the eventual victory of the gold standard, despite the inherent superiority of bimetallic systems.

To counter Eurocentric notions of long-term historical change, Wet Rice Cultivation and the Emergence of the Indian Ocean draws upon the histories of societies based on wet-rice cultivation to chart an alternate pattern of social evolution and state formation and traces inter-state linkages and the growth of commercialization without capitalism.

Guiding the reader through the many guises of global economic history, this book uncovers its key issues, debates and subjects. With contributions from leading scholars around the world, it delves into the economic histories of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas from the 16th to the 20th centuries. From the environment to The Great Divergence, finance, consumption, trade, industrialisation, commodities and labour regimes, it demonstrates the global nature of economic history, and highlights how indispensable it is and has been. Updated throughout, this new edition boasts an expanded introduction and four new chapters on capitalism and political economy, European empires and colonialism, North Africa and the Middle East, and the North American Economy. A comprehensive introduction to global economic history, this textbook provides students with a confident grasp of the field, its key debates and essential issues.