In 1453, the Ottomans captured Constantinople and halted all trade with Christians, virtually cutting off the trade in spices between Muslims and Italians.
Around the same time, the Portuguese began sailing down the west coast of Africa.
Bartholomew Dias discovered the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, and ten years later Vasco da Gama reached the Indian Ocean.
This brought an end to the era in which Muslims monopolized trade between Asia and the West.
The glorious and enduring legacy of the spice-slave trade was shattered when the Mongols delivered a devastating gift to the Genoese's newly founded Black Sea port city of Kaffa.
The place name Kaffa is memorable.
Because it is a name that foretells the deaths of millions of Europeans, the collapse of Mongol rule in Asia, the weakening of Muslim trading empires, and ultimately the immortal rise of the West.
--- From Chapter 5 Medieval Spice Trade and Slave Trade

Trade and disease work both ways.
Just as trade fueled the spread of plague, plague changed long-standing trade patterns.
The 14th-century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun provided an insightful analysis of the impact of the Black Death on world trade.
In the mid-14th century, devastating plagues struck Eastern and Western civilizations, destroying nations and decimating populations.
Plagues devoured and destroyed the positive fruits of civilization and overthrew aging dynasties.
Cities and buildings were abandoned, roads and signs disappeared.
Settlements and dwellings were communalized, and dynasties and tribes lost their power.
It seems that the same thing happened in the East, although it may have been different depending on the civilization.
It was as if the world had responded to the voice of a being calling for oblivion and bondage.
The plagues of the 14th to 16th centuries swept through the world, destroying long-distance trade routes.
In the process, the great Muslim civilizations of the Middle East and the most advanced commercial societies, such as the import and export ports of India and China that dazzled Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, were also devastated.
Europe, too, was nearly destroyed, but within a few hundred years the survivors, combining religiously inspired brutality with genius, attacked the ruins and solidified the modern Western dominance of trade.
--- From Chapter 6, Disease Trade

The Portuguese king had entrusted Lopez de Sequeira, who led the expedition, with the task of establishing trade relations with Malacca.
While Aden, located at the western end of the Indian Ocean, controlled the goods heading to Europe, Egypt, Turkey, and Malacca, Malacca was located at the eastern end of the ocean through a narrow strait through which spices from the Spice Islands and luxury goods from China and Japan passed.
In April 1509 the fleet arrived in Cochin, where it restocked and repaired its ships.
On August 19, riding the summer monsoon winds, they set sail eastward, a territory unknown to European sailors.
The expedition arrived in Malacca on September 11, 23 days later.
--- From "Chapter 7: The Age of Exploration: The Portuguese Trading Empire"

Apart from the 'big ships' trade, Portugal had no real control over maritime trade in the Indies.
Then, sometimes, they used the method of raiding.
Portugal practiced violent extortion by issuing cartaz (passes), forcing Asian ships to buy goods.
Otherwise, there was a high chance that he would be detained or treated worse.
However, Portugal lacked the institutional capacity to implement cartas.
The passes themselves were sold for a nominal price and served as a means of forcing Asian ships to stop at Portuguese ports where customs duties were collected.
For example, in 1540 a ship from Gujarat was seized because the final destination in the Persian Gulf stated in the cartas did not correspond to its location in the Indian Ocean.
The fact that the tariff was as low as 6 percent of the cargo's value is evidence of Portugal's lack of control over Indian Ocean shipping.
If Portugal had focused its limited resources on trade instead of collecting large-scale cartas, operating warships, and fortifying its ports, it could have shipped spices, silk, fine cotton fabrics, porcelain, and pearls across the Cape of Good Hope, and become one of the wealthiest nations in Europe.
While the royal family, merchants, and captains made huge profits from the spice trade, Portugal itself went bankrupt from the enormous military expenditures it incurred in running its global empire.
Portugal was known as the "Genoese Indies," chronically indebted, indebted to Italian merchants, German banks run by the Fugger family, and the kingdom's major creditors. --- From "Chapter 7: The Age of Exploration: Portugal's Trading Empire"

To understand the roots of today's globalization and the discontent it brings, we must first understand five things:
First, within a few decades of Columbus's second voyage in 1493, crops such as corn, wheat, coffee, tea, and sugar were transported across continents, revolutionizing global agriculture and labor markets.
The exchange of crops did not always improve human living conditions.
Second, in the early 17th century, Spanish and Dutch sailors unlocked the last secret of the Earth's wind system.
Thanks to this, it was possible to cross the vast ocean relatively easily.
In 1650, all kinds of goods and people from all over the world could conquer most parts of the world.
Third, the discovery of massive silver mines in Peru and Mexico gave birth to a global monetary system (along with the overmining of silver coins, which led to murderous inflation).
The most commonly used Spanish 8-real coin was used today, much like the US $100 bill or Visa card.
Fourth, the 17th century saw the birth of joint-stock companies, creating a completely new trade order.
Joint stock companies had significant advantages over previous individual salespeople, family businesses, and royal monopolies.
Soon, large corporations dominated global trade, and their position on the world stage has remained unshaken ever since.
Fifth, change has left some people dissatisfied.
The new global economy of the 16th and 17th centuries brought in cheap, high-quality goods, which hurt textile manufacturers, farmers, and service workers.
In today's terms, it was French farmers asserting their rights and American auto workers.
--- From "Chapter 8: The Surrounded World: The Spanish Dollar Becomes a Reserve Currency"

Distribution of ownership was a core feature of 'Dutch finance' and was an excellent way to spread risk among entrepreneurs and investors.
According to court documents from 1610, a petit-bourgeois merchant owned shares in 22 ships.
There were 13 ships with a 1/16th stake, 7 ships with a 1/32nd stake, 1 ship with a 1/17th stake, and 1 ship with a 1/28th stake.
By holding fractional stakes, traders could take risks cautiously.
It also had the effect of increasing investors' margin of safety by mitigating the impact of losses or poor commercial results on specific vessels.
Accordingly, investors actively invested capital, which resulted in further decline in interest rates.
Another innovation in Dutch finance that mitigated risk (at least when used correctly) was the 'buy the herring before it was caught' strategy.
Essentially, in these markets, the price at which a fixed quantity of a commodity will be purchased at a specific point in the future is set in advance.
For example, the price of 1,000 pounds of herring to be caught in one year was set now, and these financial instruments could be bought and sold like real goods.
This financial product was not originally a Dutch concept, but was already well known in Southern Europe and the Muslim world.
But the Dutch took the product and institutionalized it to a whole new level.
Dutch farmers and merchants could sell futures to secure the price of their products six to twelve months in advance.
On the other hand, those who invested in futures were able to avoid the risk of commodity prices suddenly rising along the way.
In addition, through a risk-sharing device called marine insurance, insured carriers were able to prepare for the loss of cargo at sea.
Fractional ownership of shares, futures contracts, and marine insurance all promoted commerce.
--- From "Chapter 9: The Emergence of Corporations: The East India Company"

Most students learn about the "triangular trade" that took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the New World to Europe (coffee, cotton, sugar, rum, and tobacco), Europe to Africa (manufactured goods including textiles), and Africa to the New World (slaves) in the 17th to 19th centuries.
But in oversimplifying the overall picture, short-distance trade was ignored.
For example, a British ship would have carried indigo dye from Jamaica to Philadelphia, then loaded corn on the way to London, where it would then load wool on its way to Le Havre, where it would then load French silk on its way to the African slave coast.

Meanwhile, things were not going smoothly in the East.
The British were crazy about calico and intoxicated with tea, but they had a hard time finding trade goods to exchange for the self-sufficient and complacent Chinese.
We needed a system that would run smoothly, like in the Atlantic.
Just as the slave trade, a key component of the Atlantic Triangle, worsened race relations for centuries, the unequal trade with India and China in the 19th century continues to profoundly impact East-West relations to this day.

--- From "Chapter 10: Plantations and the Triangular Trade"