1. No category

 A picture of the world around 1400  overall population of approximately 350 millions
 An agricultural economy
 environmental constraints to population growth
 Three regions densely populated: China, India and Europe  together count for 70% of the world population
 and most of the existing urban centers
 recall Braudel’s model
 isolated economies with the aim of self‐sufficiency
 A sketchy list of the main economy‐worlds around 1400
 Europe
 Islamic world
 India
 China
 and a number of other ones: Insulindia, Japan, Eastern
and Western Africa, Mesoamerica, Andean region
 Basic features:  population around 65‐70 millions, 20% share of world’s GDP
 a non‐unified political system
 the manor system is still the economic base
 trade and finance
 commodity flows outside the European economy‐world
 size matters:  population around 100 millions, 25% share of world’s GDP
 political unity and military power
 economic unity  a well‐organized trade system (including S.E. Asia)
 an efficient agriculture and highly esteemed handcraft
 the problem of money and the process of “silverization”
 the second major economy‐world:  population around 100 millions, 22‐24% share of world’s GDP
 lack of political unity (until 1526)
 developed agriculture and manufacturing: the role of cotton (from raw material to exclusive textiles)
 geography counts: Arabs and Chinese traders
 Ibn‐Battuta’s pilgrimage exemplifies how huge Islam was
 a time‐line that does not fit with the picture
 the “golden age” of the Abbasid (9th‐12th c.) and the Ottoman Empire (after 1400)
 population around 30‐40 million, 15 % share of world’s GDP
 highly developed commerce: brokerage of Asia and Europe  money: the economic role of dinars
 a world‐economy roughly coinciding with the Inca empire
 self‐sufficiency forced by geographic features, altitude:  the “vertical archipelago”  exchange circles in the Andean region
 barter: the lack of a medium of exchange
 weaknesses of the American economy‐worlds
 The Andean
vertical archipelago
 economy‐worlds need long range trade
 questioning Braudel’s emphasis on self‐sufficiency
 the Indian Ocean as the core of the trading circuits
 where are the Americas?
 8 trading zones interlinked by 3 main trade subsystems and 3 major routes connecting Europe to Eastern Asia
 Europe is peripheral. A position that will have relevant consequences