Description
Book SynopsisWhen the Genoese merchant, Marco Polo, first arrived in Dynastic China he was faced with a society far advanced of anything he had encountered in Europe. The ports were filled with commodities from all over the eastern world, while new technology was driving the economy forward. It would take another 400 years before European trade in the Atlantic eclipsed the Pacific markets.
From China''s phenomenally successful Sung dynasty (c. AD 960-1279), Cargoes reveals the power of the Mughals merchants of Gujarat, who built an empire so powerful that, even in the 17th century, the richest man in the world was a Gujarat trader. It was not until the opening up of the spice routes and the discovery of South American gold that medieval Iberia came to the fore. It was only then that the Atlantic Empire of the west came to dominate world trade, first the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century, then the British Empire in the age of the Industrial Revolution, American supremacy in
Trade Review
Eye-opening in revealing the flow of wealth through 800 years of world history -- Kim Jin Hyuk * Samsung Economics Research Lab *
Shows how fundamental the exchange of commodities and the development of logistics have been to human history * Livraria da Folha *
Deals with the ways commerce has changed the world in the last 800 years, opening the way to globalization * Diário do Nordeste *
Recommended * Segye *
