The
Economist (July,
2009) has a prosaic and practical conception of the term: "
the more
or less simultaneous marketing and sale of identical goods and services
around the world. ...The statistic that perhaps best reflects the
growth of globalisation is the value of cross-border
world trade expressed as a percentage of total global GDP.
.(
what is wrong with this graph?)
..Globalisation “is the freer movement of goods, services, ideas and
people around the world” ...A former chief executive of Coca-Cola
admitted that the company had once upon a time changed its
globalisation strategy. “We used to be an American company with a large
international business,” he said. “Now we’re a large international
company with a sizeable American business.”".
More recently, the Economist reports on a survey of
attitudes towards globalisation across 19 countries, which finds a
"split
between emerging markets and the West, which is increasingly turning
its back on globalisation. Beset by stagnant wage growth, less than
half of respondents in America, Britain and France believe that
globalisation is a “force for good” in the world." (18.11.2016)
The
Levin Institute - State
University of New York, has a
comprehensive
Globalisation
101 site, and defines Globalisation as "
Globalization is a
process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations, a process driven by international
trade and investment and aided by information technology. This
process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political
systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical
well-being in societies around the world." There is
a wealth of basic information and explanation on this page.
2. When did it actually start?
12000BC(E): our
hominid ancestors had settled all five continents from their origins in
East Africa: see, e.g.
The
National Geographic's Genographic
Project
8000BC(E):
Cultivation (Farming)
begins in the Fertile Crescent, north-central China, North
Africa,
north-western India and New Guinea -> increased populations, settled
permanent villages and fortified towns – powerful (and relatively rich)
communities based on agriculture and food production -> distinct
‘craftsman’ (innovation and invention of new tools and artefacts) +
professional soldiers and bureaucrats (governors). (see, e.g.,
History
World International)
3000BCE:
Writing invented
in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Central China; + the
Wheel in South-West
Asia, rapidly diffusing throughout Eurasia (geography and climate, and
our principal food crops and domestic animals) c.f. the Inca, who
managed a mighty empire without either) –
world population, about 45 million
1600
- 1100BCE - Shang Dynasty in
China providing our earliest recorded written history
221BCE: Qin Emperor unified
much of north-west China -> Han, Sui, T’ang, Yuan and Ming dynasties
ruling large empires to 1500CE, and included major advances in
astronomy, maths and chemistry: - new ploughshares, hydraulic
engineering, gunpowder, tapping natural gas, the compass, mechanical
clocks, paper, printing, and sophisticated metalworking -> vast
irrigation and water transport systems, codification of laws,
standardisation of weights and measures, values of coinage, -> the
Silk Road, linking to the Roman empire – only to succumb to ‘fateful
political decisions’ to turn inwards, halt overseas navigation and
trade and mandated a retreat from further technological development
(according to Stenger,
op cit.).
–
world population, about 118 million
[For an impressive depiction of the
growth of these trade networks
between 3500BC and 1500AD see Andrew Sherratt, ArchAtlas (University of
Sheffield) Trade
Routes - Growth of Global Trade.
Consequences: economic
and cultural exchange -> major migrations and population increases.
1350AD Plague kills up to 1/3
of population in China, Middle East and Europe, spreading in both
bubonic and pneumonic versions from Asia and China - the
Black
Death, and eventually, in the 1500s (16th C) an estimated 18million
native Americans.
world population, about 393 million in 1300, and 389m. in 1400
1452: Printing: The
Gutenberg
Bibles printed - the founding of the 'modern' globalisation?
1492: Columbus
finds the Americas, instead of the Asian spice islands, and begins the
European colonisation of the Americas.
1500 – 1600: the (European) Renaissance:
a (the?) transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern era as the
're-birth' and beginning of modern history. "a rediscovery of rational
civilization (exemplified by Greece and Rome) after the medieval
centuries - seen as superstitious and artistically primitive."
(
world population, about 461 m. in 1500, and 554m. in 1600)
1600-1750: The European
Enlightenment: (see, also, the
New
World Encyclopedia)
Wikipedia:
“
The Enlightenment is held to be the
source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy,
and reason as primary values of society. This view argues that the
establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market
mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance,
and the organization of states into self-governing republics through
democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in
particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the
essential change.” + the reformation (of the Catholic Church)
-> major European growth and expansion of trade: National Joint
Stock companies of Dutch
East India Company, and the
British
East India Company (and
East
India Company) both formed in the early 1600s., and, of course, the
archetypical example of the evils of trade, exploitation and greed –
the triangular slave
trade.
1607: The first permanent
British settlement in North America –
Jamestown,
Virginia – whose prosperity grew through tobacco, and the slaves
used to grow, harvest and process it.
1620: the
Pilgrim
Fathers sail to America on the Mayflower, a ship belonging to the
Plymouth Company (main interest, cod fishing), which had a royal
charter to found and govern new colonies in America.
1648:
Sovereign States: the
Treaty of
Westphalia (ending the thirty years war, and, arguably, the
predominance of religion as the basis of common rule) and giving birth
to the ‘western common model’ of independent sovereign states.
1700: world population, 603m.
1698:
Savery invents a steam driven pump.
1705: Newcomen invents and patents his steam engine, to pump water from mines, and the technology of the Industrial Revolution begins.
1720:
South
Sea Bubble - the second major European speculative
bubble, after the tulip bubble in the Netherlands in 1593.
1765: Arkwright invents the water (spinning frame) (water powered) - the first 'factory' machine.
1769: James Watt patents his seperate condensor and fathers the modern steam engine.
1776: Adam Smith publishes An Inquiry into the nature and casues of
The Wealth of Nations - the founding of the economics discipline as we know it.
1800: World Population: 990m.
1804:
Trevithik's steam train moves coal by tramway (rather than rail), for the first time, and
the rail age is born
1815: The end of the European war (Waterloo), and introduction of the "Corn Laws" in the UK
1821: UK establishes the
gold standard in law, following
de
facto use for more than 100 years.
1825: the
Stockton & Darlington Railroad Company
began as the first railroad to carry both goods and passengers on
regular schedules using locomotives designed by George Stephenson.
1832: First Reform Act - beginning the widening of the franchise in the UK
1838:
Brunel's Great Western steamship enters service - e
xtending steam transport from London to America.
1846: Repeal of the Corn Laws - prompted by the
Irish Potato Famine (1845 - 1851)
1848: Marx and Engels
publish the
Communist
Manifesto:
which neatly encapsulates a critical essence of globalisation: “
The discovery of America prepared the way
for might industry and its creation of a truly global market. The
latter greatly expanded trade, navigation, and communication by land.
These developments, in turn, caused further expansion of industry. The
growth of industry, trade, navigation and railroads also went hand in
hand with the rise of the bourgeoisie and capital which pushed into the
background the old social classes of the Middle Ages. .. Chased around
the globe by its burning desire for ever-expanding markets for its
products, the bourgeoisie has no choice but to settle everywhere;
cultivate everywhere; establish connections everywhere. .. Rapidly
improving the instruments of production, the bourgeoisie utilises the
incessantly easing modes of communication to pull all nations into
civilisation – even the most barbarian ones. .. In a nutshell, it
creates the world in its own image.” (Steger, p 32)
1850: world popn. 1.26bn.
1859: Charles Darwin publishes the
Origin of the Species by natural selection (if this had preceded Adam Smith, we might think about economics differently)
1866: Transatlantic
telegraph link finally becomes fully operational (after first cable
laid in 1858)
1873: The beginning of the Great Agricultural Depression.
1885:
Canadian
Pacific Railway (CPR) completed - and Canada becomes a country
(actually established under the British North America Act of 1867)
1897/99:
Crow's
Nest Pass Agreement between the Canadian Government and the CPR,
fixing and freezing freight rates to and from Western Canada "into
perpetuity", with consequences (e.g. Harvey,
1980) which lasted until 1995, when the effective subsidisation of
grain freight rates was finally repealed.
1900: world popn. 1.65bn.
1913:
Major European
colonisation of the South, massive trade (12% of GDP for the
industrialised countries, not surpassed until the 1970s); world wide
brands – Coca Cola, Campbell Soups, Singer sewing machines, Remington
typewriters. “
There is no question
that interstate rivalries intensified at the outset of the twentieth
century as a result of mass migration, urbanisation, colonial
competition, and the liberalisation of world trade. The ensuing period
of extreme nationalism culminated in two world wars, a long global
economic depression, and hostile measures to protect narrowly conceived
political communities.” (Stenger, 2009, p 35).
Trade
=> Empires or Empires => Trade? where Prof. Ken Morgan
concludes that "
The current consensus
is that trade and empire were significant for British economic growth
in the Hanoverian period, even if they were not decisively important.
British hegemony in empire and trade by 1815 was such that Britannia
did rule the waves; but this would not have been achieved without the
strong support provided by the 'military-fiscal' state and the Royal
Navy. "
1914-18:
The Great War:
Grim
statistics: 65m mobilised, 8.5m killed.
1917: The
Russian
Revolution.
1922: Soviet Republics united
into the
United Soviet Socialist
Republic (USSR), on which
Leon
Trotsky commented in 1936: "
It is
a lie and a triple lie to alledge that socialism has been realized in
the USSR." Others simply said that the USSR was a lie in every
word
1929: The Great
Crash -> the Great Depression.
1933: The
New Deal
launched by President Roosevelt in the US.
1933:
Nazi Government
in Germany – the Third Reich.
1939 – 45: World War II.
50-70m
killed, of whom, 20-25m military.
1944: POST WAR 'CONCENSUS: Bretton
Woods: International ‘summit’ meeting - Establishment of the World Bank
(International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - IBRD) and the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) as major arms of world governance, and
the foundation of the GATT
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, signed in 1947), as the
intended companion of the Internatinal Trade Organisation (ITO),
eventually to become the World Trade Organisation (
WTO) in 1995, to complement the United Nations (1945
- see here
for a brief history, and here for a brief
outline of the organisation and its agencies).
1945: - Hiroshima and Nagasaki
destroyed with US (allied)
atomic
bombs. WWII ends, and the nuclear age begins.
1945: United
Nations Charter comes into force (24th October), this
day has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948.
1946: Cold War
begins as the
Iron Curtain
descends across Europe from Stechin (Stettin) on the Baltic to Trieste
on the Adriatic.
[See, also, the
changing map of
Europe]
1947: IMF begins operations.
1947: GATT signed, eventually to become
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.
1950: world popn. 2.5bn.
1951: Treaty of Paris establishes the
European Coal and Steel Community (the
beginnings of the EU)
1957: Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community (EEC).
1961: The
Berlin Wall is
erected.
1962:
Cuban Missile Crisis
1971: UK, Ireland and Denmark join
the European Union.
1971:
Collapse of
the Bretton Woods Fixed exchange rate system - and the beginning of
'floating' exchange rates (and, as a result, of the importance of
inflation and the primacy of Monetary policy.
1972: The Great
Grain Robbery - USSR buys 440m. bu. wheat (10-15m tonnes, c.f.
'normal' years' purchases of 300 - 400k tonnes) from the US, greatly
exceeding forecasts of their imports, and leading to major commodity
price spikes - wheat prices tripled by the end of 1973, corn and
soybean prices more than doubled, and wholesale food prices climbed 29%.
1973: OPEC
embargoes oil exports to the US in response to the Yom Kippur war and
the US support of Israel. US oil prices rose almost 4 fold. "on October
17, OPEC struck back against the West by imposing an oil embargo on the
U.S., while increasing prices by 70% to America's Western European
allies. Overnight, the price of a barrel of oil to these nations rose
from $3 to $5.11. In January 1974, they raised it further to $11.65."
[These 3 events - the floating
(depreciating) $; Food
Commodity Price
Spike; OPEC's oil price spike
- led to fears of Malthusian catastrophe
and also to rapid monetary expansion (especially in the UK and US) to
avoid raw material price driven recession -> double digit inflation
(25% in the UK for almost 2 years). See UNCTAD
stats for commodity price index history (nominal
terms). It
practically coincided with the Club of Rome's
publication of the Limits to Growth report (1972) - the Malthusian prophesy revived.
1980: world popn. 4.4bn.
1986: GATT Uruguay Round of Negotiations begins.
1988: The International Panel on Climate Change (
IPCC),
established by the UN’s World Meterological Organisation and the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP), which has
three working groups and one task force,
as the world begins to recognise the possible dangers of climate change. Its several reports can be found
here.
9/11/1989:
Collapse
of the
Berlin
wall, following Gorbchev's "
Perestroika"
(restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness)
1990: world popn. 5.3bn.
1991: Iraq invades
Kuwait, and the first Iraq war (
Desert Storm)
results, driving Iraq out of Kuwait.
1994: GATT Uruguay Round Agreement signed.
1995: World Trade Organisation (WTO) formed - see a
Principled History of the GATT and WTO (Brookings Institute)
1999: 30,000 demonstrators
disrupt the WTO summit in
Seattle
2000: world popn. 6.1bn.
2001: China joins the
World Trade Organisation.
9/11/2001: al-Qaeda
coordinated attacks on Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, New York
and the Pentagon, Washington using hijacked airliners, killing almost
3,000 people, including 19 hijackers, leading to war in
Afghanistan to 'destroy' Osama bin
Laden's base - in this case the
Wikipedia
entry is about as good as any other.
March, 2003:
The 2nd Iraq War
7/7/2005: London subject
to 4 suicide bombings, killing 52 and injuring 700, in an apparent
response by British Islamic fundamentalists against the Iraq war. on 21
July, another bombing attempt failed.
2006 – 2008: World
Commodity Price Spikes. (Wikipedia, in this case, is a reasonable summary
site - though the World Bank, FAO and OECD and IFPRI are also relevant).
April, 2007: New Century
Financial, which specialises in sub-prime mortgages, files for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and cuts half of its workforce.
August 2007: French bank BNP
Paribas suspends three investment funds with exposure to US sub-prime
mortgage stocks
September 2007: Northern
Rock suffers a run (the first on a British bank for ?? years), and
is forced into public ownership.
15/9/2008: Lehman
Brothers bankruptcy – the final ‘trigger’ for the Credit
Crunch.
April 2009:
EU orders France, Spain, the Irish Republic and Greece to reduce their
budget deficits - the difference between their spending and tax
receipts, the beginnings of the Euro Crisis. (and also here)
2010 world popn. 6.9bn
August 2012: Russia joins WTO, following 19 years of tortuous negotiations.
November 2014: IPCC publishes Fifth Assessment Report – known as the Synthesis Report
December 2014: NATO ends combat operations in Afghanistan
2015: world popn. 7.4bn.
2016: The European Migrant Crisis;
UK 'Brexit' Referendum;
(Cameron resigns as PM, May 'elected' by the Tories to lead a Brexit
Government, with Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary etc.)
US elects Donald Trump
March 2017: UK triggers Article 50, beginning the Brexit process.
-> the end or a new beginning??
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For an excellent summary of where we have got to as a planet, and some cautions about using data:
Statistics that change your world view. Hans Rosling ('inventor' of GapMinder World)
3. What's
different now?
- The world is pretty full
- CEISIN
- SEDAC: Socio-economic Data and Applications Centre. There is
virtually no 'new territory' for expansion -
No more scope for such major migrations as happened between 1850 and
1914, when a million people a year emigrated to the new world
from Europe. - World population growth (Bn.) {Max
Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2016) – ‘World Population Growth’.
Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from:
https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth/ [Online Resource]}

- There is no away to throw to - we run the risk of being
buried or drowning in our own refuse, destroying our natural environment, and of seriously
altering our climate (probably for the worse).
- We appear to be running a substantial risk of undermining, if not destroying trust in our institutions, governments, and experts. Are we sure that we can do better without them?
- Why do we trade, and what are the implications?
-
How do macroeconomic systems work?
-
How do foreign exchange and stock markets work ?
- What does economic integration mean?
-
Why and how does economic development happen?
- What about economic development and the global environment?
-
What are the implications for the future?
Questions
or comments?
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Index