This unit comprises up to 26 lecture hours and 12 tutorial hours. This unit is one of a suite of units in economic history. By the late 19th century a global economy had come into being, centred on Western Europe and encompassing the entire world in an integrated network of capital and labour flows, trade and exchange relations. How did the global economy originate and how was it structured? This unit seeks to provide answers to these questions. It outlines the formation of the global economy in late mediaeval Europe; it traces the historical process of globalisation, and evaluates some of the consequences of this process for the modern world.