Steven TopikCritiques

This book presents various topics on how trade created the world as we know it. Many regions and peoples of the world are represented, their interconnections and interdependencies, provide different cultures of trade are exquisite. Commodities change their local identity when they begin to be traded by various peoples. Trade created new opportunities and demands, but also changed the fates. New and old sources of ingenuity become used differently in other cultures.
The book is organized not by the timeline of history, but by sections such as transportation, violence, and commodities. Each section has various short examples on different aspects that represent that topic. The authors wrote the pages with eloquence. Rather then just explain what happened, the success of the book is in targeting the lessons to be learned from the particular trade aspect.
One of the problems of the book is that it is written in a more deterministic style. The conclusion to the book represented the volatility of events that shape the various potential futures, but the historic examples provided are more linear.

A great introduction to economic history through vignettes of various trade goods throughout history. Enjoyable and informative.