When did ‘the world economy’ start? There is, as you can imagine with all academic topics, a robust debate on when globalization began. One school of thought is that the key moment was 1492 or within the century thereafter, which connected the Americas with the rest of the planet, started the Columbian Exchange, and made the world as we know it. Others argue that globalization did not begin until after the 1820s when trade and other flows – especially migration – affected the everyday lives of ordinary people like never before. The key driver of change in the 19th century…

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