Includes bibliographical references and index.

Beginnings of European Commercial Expansion -- Mediterranean Commerce -- Voyages of Discovery -- Portuguese Commercial Empire -- Spanish Commercial Empire -- Dutch Commercial Empire -- English Commercial Empire -- Commerce and Taxation in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- Sources of Tax Revenue -- Commercial Agriculture -- Literacy -- Political Economy of Mercantilism -- Taxation of Maritime Commerce -- Commercial Expansion in the Eighteenth Century -- Imperial Commerce -- Colonial Commerce -- Industrialization and Imperialism -- Imperial Impulse -- Imperial Acquisition -- Establishing Imperial Governance -- Institutionalizing Imperial Governance -- Central Governments -- Monetized Taxation -- Infrastructure Construction -- Literacy -- Interpretations -- Independence -- Exploitation -- Victimization -- Imperial Governance as Revolution -- Revolution Defined -- Imperial Legacies -- Central Governments -- Infrastructure Institutions -- Anonymous Markets -- Tropical Medicine -- Export Commodities -- Agenda of Independence -- Retaining Power -- Preventing Communal Violence -- Preventing Urban Riots -- Showcase Projects -- Interpretation -- Imperial Commerce Becomes Global Commerce -- New Foundation of Global Commerce -- The Global Vision -- Bretton Woods Agreement -- European Common Market -- European Union -- NATO -- Implementing Global Commercial Policies -- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade -- International Monetary Fund -- World Bank -- Regional Trade Agreements -- Agriculture -- Demise of the Last Commercial Empire -- Global Corporations in the Twenty-First Century -- Purpose of Globalization -- Big Corporations Become Global Corporations -- National Markets Become Global Markets -- Global Corporations -- Peasant Nations.

Analyzes the origins and evolution of trade and economic development that resulted in the creation of a global market.