Pim de Zwart examines the Dutch East India Company s intercontinental trade and its effects on living standards in various regions on the edges of the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to conventional views, De Zwart finds significant evidence of the integration...

In Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence the intercontinental trade of the Dutch East India Company and its effects on living standards in a number of its colonies are analysed to shed light on several major debates in economic history.

Empires that bleed -- Capitalism, slavery on imperial hinterlands -- Between war and peace -- The wealth of empires -- Spanish secessions -- Brazilian counterpoints -- Dissolutions of the Spanish Atlantic -- Crossing the Rubicon -- Revolution and sovereignty