The Making of a Global World

Globalisation as economic term emerged in last 50 years, butmovement of trade, people/migration in search of work,movement of capital were present in all centuries.

Silk Route………

Not only items for trade reached many distant places but thecoustoms and food too. Eg spaghetti of Italy is noodlestravelled from China

Common food such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize,tomatoes, chillies (red), sweet potatoes came from Americandiscovery by Columbus.

Precious metals silver and gold came from the mines located inPeru and Mexico---El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.

Conquest of America was done not only by firepower butbiological warfare ( smallpox). In the words of John Winthorp,governor of New England “Smallpox signaled God’s blessing forthe colonists”. In Africa Rinderpest, the Cattle Plague in 1890’skilled 90% of the cattle

Three types of flows within international economicexchange

1st -- Cloth or wheat2nd – Migration of people in search of employment3rd – Capital for short or long term investments over long

distance.

Case study of India; agriculture: canals to get cotton, wheat, indigo,timber, rubber; railways; forests laws to get labour, minerals: coal andiron.Role of TechnologyRailways, steamships and telegraph , refrigerated ships

Indentured labourCase study of Caribbean islands—Trinidad, Guyana and SurinamNew system of SlaveryIn Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into ariotous carnival called ‘Hosay’. In which workers of all races andreligions joined.The protest religion of ‘Rasta-farianism’ made famous by Jamaicanreggae star Bob Marley.Chutney music popular in Trinidad and Guyana is another example.VS Naipaul novel capture the sense of loss and alienation. Also forShivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.The word cooliesFortunes for Indian Bankers:- Shikaripuri Shroffs / NattuKottaiChettiars / Hyderabadai SindhiWorld between the Two WarsMass Production and Consumption Eg. A well known pioneer of massproduction was car manufacturer Henry Ford. T- Model Ford. Massproduction lowered the costs and prices of engineered goods. Thanksto higher wages more people could now afford to purchase durable

consumer goods such as cars. ‘Hire purchase’(i.e.,on credit repaid inweekly or monthly instalments)

The Great Depression 1929-1930’sWorldwide impact…………The famous economist John Maynard Keynes thought that Indian goldexports promoted global economic recovery. They certainly helpedspeed up Britain’s recovery, but did little for the Indian peasants. RuralIndia was in unrest when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil-Disobedience movt. at the height of the depression in 1931.The Post War EraThe war caused an immense amount of economic devastation andsocial disruption.Economists and politicians drew two key lessons:- An Industrial society based on mass production cannot be sustain

without mass consumption. A country’s economic links with the outside world.

United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA. It established IMFto deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations.

The International Bank for Reconstructions and Development—World Bank was set up to finance post war reconstruction.Sometimes referred as Bretton Woods twins.

The Bretton Woods system inaugurated an era of unprecedentedgrowth of trade and incomes for the Western industrial nationsand Japan.

These developed countries of 1950-60’s organized in G-77 todemand a new international economic order (NIEO). Which meansbetter access for natural resources, fairer prices, manufacturedgoods and market.

This also marked end of Woods system and beginning ofGlobalisation. 1970’s saw the era of MNC’s shift of productionhouses in low wage Asian countries.