Details — The Making of a Global World

1. The Pre-modern World

Travellers, traders, priests, pilgrims carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, germs. Examples: Indus–West Asia coastal trade (~3000 BCE); Maldivian cowries to China and East Africa; disease links clear by thirteenth century.

Silk routes

Land and sea routes linking Asia, Europe, northern Africa; thrived till ~fifteenth century. Chinese silk (and pottery); Indian/SE Asian textiles and spices; gold and silver from Europe to Asia. Also missionaries and Buddhism’s spread.

Food travels

Possible noodle→spaghetti / pasta via Arabs to Sicily. After Columbus, American crops (potato, maize, tomato, chilli, etc.) entered Europe and Asia. Potato improved European diets; Irish dependence → mid-1840s famine (~1 million dead; about twice that emigrated).

Conquest, disease, trade

Sixteenth century: sea route to Asia; Europe reaches America. Indian Ocean trade redirected partly toward Europe. American silver (Peru, Mexico) financed Europe–Asia trade. Spanish/Portuguese conquest aided by smallpox (no immunity among American peoples). By eighteenth century: African slave plantations for cotton/sugar. China/India among richest till early modern shift; China’s reduced overseas role and Americas’ rise moved world trade centre westwards to Europe.

2. The Nineteenth Century (1815–1914)

Three flows

Trade (goods: cloth, wheat)
Labour (migration for work)
Capital (short/long-term investment)
Interwoven; labour often more restricted than goods/capital.

World economy / Corn Laws

British population and urban demand raised food prices; Corn Laws restricted corn imports; industrialists/urban dwellers forced abolition. Cheap imports → British agriculture collapses in many areas → migration to cities/overseas. Global farming expands in Eastern Europe, Russia, America, Australia; railways, harbours, settlements; capital from London; ~50 million Europeans to America/Australia; ~150 million global migrants. By 1890, global agricultural economy. Punjab Canal Colonies grew wheat/cotton for export. World trade ×25–40 (1820–1914); ~60% primary products.

Technology

Railways, steamships, telegraph. Refrigerated ships (after 1870s): slaughter at source, frozen meat to Europe → cheaper meat, better diets, social peace + support for imperialism.

Late colonialism

Berlin conference 1885 carves Africa. Britain/France expand; Belgium/Germany new colonial powers; US takes Spanish colonies late 1890s. Explorations linked to imperial projects (e.g., Stanley).

Rinderpest (1890s Africa)

Africa: abundant land/livestock; little wage labour. Europeans need labour for mines/plantations → taxes, inheritance changes, compounds. Rinderpest arrives late 1880s via infected cattle for Italian soldiers in Eritrea; kills ~90% cattle; destroys livelihoods; strengthens colonial control of remaining cattle and forces Africans into labour market. South Africa gold: by 1890s >20% world gold.

Indentured labour from India

Contract: work ~5 years then return passage. From eastern UP, Bihar, central India, dry Tamil Nadu amid deindustrialisation, rents, debt. Destinations: Caribbean (Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam), Mauritius, Fiji; Tamils to Ceylon/Malaya; Assam tea. Agents’ false info/abduction; harsh conditions — ‘new system of slavery’. Cultural fusion: Hosay, Rastafarian links, chutney music. Abolished 1921 after nationalist opposition.

Indian entrepreneurs abroad

Shikaripuri Shroffs, Nattukottai Chettiars finance export agriculture in Central/SE Asia; Hyderabadi Sindhi traders’ worldwide emporia from 1860s.

India in colonial trade

British tariffs cut Indian fine cotton into Britain; Indian textile share of exports: ~30% (1800) → 15% (1815) → <3% (1870s). Raw cotton share 5% (1812) → 35% (1871); indigo; opium to China financing British tea imports. Britain’s trade surplus with India balances deficits elsewhere (multilateral settlement) and pays ‘home charges’.

3. Inter-war Economy

WWI (1914–18)

Allies vs Central Powers; first modern industrial war (machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemicals); ~9 million dead, 20 million injured; workforce loss; women in ‘men’s’ jobs; US becomes international creditor.

Post-war recovery

Britain: lost markets to India/Japan; US debts; 1921 — 1 in 5 British workers unemployed. Wheat glut after war → falling grain prices, farmer debt.

Mass production (US 1920s)

Henry Ford’s assembly line (Detroit); T-Model; wage $5 (Jan 1914) + ban unions; cars 2 million (1919) → >5 million (1929); hire purchase; housing boom; US largest overseas lender from 1923.

Great Depression (~1929–mid-1930s)

Causes: fragile postwar economy; agricultural overproduction (expanding output worsens glut); withdrawal of US loans; US doubles import duties. Effects: bank/currency failures; US — homes/cars lost; by 1933 >4,000 banks closed; 1929–32 ~110,000 companies collapsed.

India and Depression

Exports/imports nearly halved 1928–34; wheat prices −50%; jute prices crash >60%; revenue not reduced; indebtedness; gold exports; rural unrest during CD (1931). Urban fixed incomes relatively better; industrial investment with tariff protection.

4. Post-war Rebuilding

WWII: Axis vs Allies; ≥60 million dead (~3% of 1939 world population); mostly civilians outside battlefields. Two influences: US dominance; Soviet rise.

Lessons → Bretton Woods (July 1944)

Need mass consumption via stable incomes/full employment → government intervention; control of goods/capital/labour flows. IMF (external surpluses/deficits); World Bank (reconstruction). Operations from 1947; Western control; US veto. Fixed exchange rates: currencies pegged to dollar; dollar to gold at $35/ounce.

Early post-war

Trade growth >8%/year (1950–70); incomes ~5%; low unemployment; technology spread; developing countries import industrial plant.

Decolonisation

Asia/Africa independence; poverty; IMF/World Bank shift to developing world from late 1950s; G-77 demands NIEO (resource control, aid, fairer raw material prices, market access for manufactures). MNCs expand 1950s–60s partly due to high tariffs.

End of Bretton Woods / new globalisation

1960s US financial weakness → collapse of fixed rates → floating rates. Mid-1970s: developing countries borrow from private banks → debt crises (Africa, Latin America). MNCs relocate to low-wage Asia from late 1970s; China reforms and Soviet collapse reopen economies; India, China, Brazil transform economic geography.