Going the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400-1700

A historical look at the early evolution of global trade and how this led to the creation and dominance of the European business corporation

Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch...