This is the first title in The Growth of the World Economy series and collects together the most significant research and scholarship on a crucial period in the growth of international trade, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

This three hundred year span saw a dramatic expansion in the volume of world trade. Trade during this period became more truly international due to the rise of the nation-state in Europe.

Articles are written by leading scholars around the world and take up such topics as the emergence of new world trade routes, trade in particular goods and commodities, European trade policies and mercantilism. With its focus on the beginnings of world trade, Trade in the Pre-Modern Era, 1400-1700 will be an indispensable reference source for all researchers concerned with the initial development of both international trade and the expansion of the world economy.