Global Trade and the Development of Economic Theory

• In Event: 305 - Regular Session. Comparative Sociology: Historical Processes

Abstract

Debates over the relationship between the expansion of overseas trade and the onset of the industrial revolution have at times overshadowed and thereby obscured other important ways that the expansion of global commerce has shaped the modern world. This paper focuses on the relationship between the conduct of overseas trade between England and Asia and its effect on the development of modern economic theory. Our goal is to consider, one, the extent to which overseas commerce stimulated the development and systematization of economic theory in Europe and, two, what characteristics of the relationship between Europe and its overseas trade partners played an important role in that development. By identifying the relevant characteristics of the relation between regions and countries, we contribute to a generalizable or heuristic model for interpreting and identifying the impact of global relations on domestic cultural and institutional forms, as well as illuminate the social process through which economic theory was constructed.

Authors

• Emily Anne Erikson, Yale University

• Yingyao Wang, Yale University