Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
see that, in terms of economic geography, the processes of fundamental
change in the economic relationships associated with the most recent era
of globalization are leading to almost completely opposite outcomes of the
flat world thesis.
6.3
GLOBALIZATION AS A HISTORICAL
PROCESS: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS AND
TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP
Globalization is not a new phenomenon, in that the processes of invest-
ment internationalization and economic interdependence have been taking
place over several centuries (Bordo et al. 2003; Steger 2003). However, the
date at which globalization began is debateable, and there are various pos-
sible departure points which we may point to as being critical junctures in
this long-standing process (McCann 2008). Early developments along the
road to globalization include: the invention of double-entry book-keeping
and the banking systems which emerged in the fifteenth century Italian
city-states of Florence, Venice and Siena; the Dutch capitalist dynamic
(Roubini and Mihm 2010) following the invention of the joint-stock
company in the Netherlands in the early seventeenth century (Ferguson
2008); the growth of underwriting and insurance markets in the seven-
teenth century financial markets of London; the advent of industrializa-
tion in eighteenth century Britain; and the subsequent industrialization of
other parts of the world (Ferguson 2008).
Variations in the dates by which we might define stages of globali-
zation are not of themselves a problem. Different historical charac-
terizations are essentially a result of different theoretical perspectives.
Moreover, differences are likely to be driven not only by the variety of
analytical methodologies but also by that of the objectives of analysis.
Different commentators have defined the process of globalization using
different time markers (O'Rourke and Williamson 1999; Crafts and
Venables 2003; Steger 2003; Crafts 2004; Baldwin 2006; MacGillivray
2006; Maddison 2006), depending on the particular aspects of globali-
zation they were concerned with. For example, scholars focussing on
global migration behaviour (Hatton and Williamson 2005) would per-
ceive the 1850s and 1890s as critical break-points in globalization eras,
driven fundamentally by individual concerns rather than any questions
related to country or company. Banking historians would argue that
the validity of the network between individuals was paramount right up
until very recent times, with issues of country or company being of little
relevance. Similarly, monetary historians would stress the ways in which
