More: A History of the World Economy from the Iron Age to the Information Age

A sweeping history that tracks the development of trade and industry across the world, from Ancient Rome to today.

From the development of international trade fairs in the twelfth century to the innovations made in China, India, and the Arab world, it turns out that historical economies were much more sophisticated that we might imagine, tied together by webs of credit and financial instruments much like our modern economy.

Here, Philip Coggan takes us from the ancient mountains of North Wale...