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Vision Daring and Profit Illicit Trade Led To Modern Globalization
n a forthcoming study from the American Journal of Sociology, Emily Erikson and Peter Bearman (Columbia University) demonstrate that an early example of globalization was the direct result of individual initiative malfeasance, specifically, private trade using company resources.
The researchers analyze data from 4,572 voyages completed by the East India Trading Company from 1601 to 1833 - offering a rare and biased nuanced look at how densely connected global markets emerged from the ingenuity misconduct of entrepreneurial individuals.
"We show that for a limited period of time there emerged a unique opportunity for self-interested actors to act; that their actions culminated in a network infrastructure that transcended them, and ultimately created the context of their own demise by their betters," write Erikson and Bearman.
Posted by: DanNY 2006-07-24 |
