i'm looking for a well written book on the history of trade and it's impact on specific states or cultures. i am looking for more of a macro view than a micro one. something that touched on the major historical trade routes like say the silk road, the triangular trade, spice routes etc. any recommendatiuons?

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Hey, I just say a book on trade recently at my local bookstore, ironically.

This is the book I was talking about:Seems to be pretty popular
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World

Here is another I found:
Power and Plenty: Trade and the World's Economy in the Second Millennium

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Can't say trade specifically is something I've focused on. However, the way it fits into the larger picture of more general European expansion is frequently mentioned in various books I've read recently. Two of the smaller, more accessible, books may be useful:

- The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History by Douglass C. North and Robert Paul Thomas
- The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century by Robert B. Marks

Both are examples of global history. The former is a classic of the genre, by now slightly out of favour but as far as I can tell during the 90s it formed the basis of much of the work on global economic history. The latter is a more recent work - it's not necessarily great on its own, since it makes quite a large number of hasty conclusion and condenses a lot, but as introduction into global history and an overview of the available literature and current debates it is extremely useful.

When it comes to trade, the former focuses on the institutional developments aimed at protecting trade in Europe (as part of a more general narrative of institutional development), the latter on European-Asian trade and what it says about the shifting balance of power.

Plenty of literature cited in their notes and bibliography, it's likely that you can find a lot more there.

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thanks for the tips gentlemen.

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No Problem

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