The course explores the origin and the evolution of the global market from the 16th Century. The colonial Empires: Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, England, freely or with violence, traded with each other, and as explorers met other civilizations in Asia, Africa and America, their trade routes expanded and connected to the trade routes already in place in those countries. With the industrialization the commerce took off in volume and covered enterely the World. Sailing ships were replaced by steamships, then by railroad and finally by planes and large cargo vessels. Industrialization, tranports and telematics changed the World radically. International production, trade and investments are increasingly organised within so-called global value chains (GVCs) where the different stages of the production process are located across different countries.