Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present
Editor/Author: Cynthia Clark NorthrupPublication Year: 2005
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 978-0-7656-8058-7
Category: history
Image Count: 169
Book Status: Available
The definitive reference on the history of trade in all time periods. It traces the historical and contemporary interaction of trade, commerce, and culture in fascinating detail.
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A more accurate title for this four-volume set would be the "Historical Encyclopedia of World Trade" as the emphasis of its approximately 445 articles is how trade developed globally and its effect on societies and politics. Entries include commodities (such as jute, guano, and minerals), overviews of countries, trade routes (the Silk Road, Santa Fe trail), individuals (Keynes, Richard Haklyut), cities (Petra, Venice), and trade issues (slavery, globalization). While most of the contributors are U.S. academics, the article coverage is truly international. Presented in double-column format on oversized pages, each entry has a one- or two-sentence summary heading the text of the signed article, which can run from half a page up to 10 pages, but the average is about a page and a half. There is an illustration on about every third page but only 17 maps (such as the Indian Ocean trade). Select bibliographies are found at the end of every article; while short, they are current and the citations are much more current than most multivolume encyclopedias. Writing quality is also much better and stylistically more consistent than similar reference works; although the long article on the Atlantic trade is both repetitive and needs to be reconciled with information found in other articles that deal with slavery. Articles on contentious topics like globalization fairly discuss differing views. Volume 4 contains an appendix with 57 whole or partial documents that are important to the history of trade, such as the charter of the British East India Company or the medieval Papal Edict on Usury. Each volume contains the 41-page general subject index, the 7-page biographical index, and the 13-page geographic index that provides access to all four volumes. Overall, the quality of the writing, indexing, and bibliography make this a recommended title for any library interested in the topic, from upper secondary grades to graduate school, but the most likely users will be undergraduates in history, economics, international trade, or political science.
Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present -
This multivolume, 1,552-page work provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world has been shaped by the influences of trade on culture. There is no similar resource in print today. Some entries are brief, but many are exhaustive essays. Essays are signed and provide extensive bibliographies and sources. Major essay headings are defined. Topics range from well-known subjects like "slavery" to relatively obscure ones like "hemp." They range from the expected, such as "North American Free Trade Agreement" or "Age of Exploration," to the unexpected, e.g., "Fall of the Roman Empire" or "Napoleonic Wars." In spite of the sweeping coverage provided, material may be easily located with the help of a topics finder, glossary, and see references. In addition to a general and a geographical index, readers may take advantage of a useful documents section and a chronology, starting with the Code of Hammurabi and ending with the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995; the documents themselves are also included. Although the LC classification places this work in the business section, this encyclopedia can easily serve students and researchers in a much wider range of subjects--history, geography, and sociology, to name a few. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. -- H. E. Schneider-Ricks, University of South Carolina Upstate
Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present
