Provides the first global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation until the modern era.

1. Theorizing trade and civilization Kristian Kristiansen; 2. Cloth and currency: on the ritual-economics of Eurasian textile circulation and the 'origins' of trade, fifth to second millennia BC Toby C. Wilkinson; 3. Prices and Values Origins and early history in the Near East David A. Warburton; 4. The rise of Bronze Age peripheries and the expansion of international trade 1950-1100 BC Kristian Kristiansen; 5. Interlocking commercial networks and the infrastructure of trade in western Asia during the Bronze Age Gojko Barjamovic; 6. Mycenaean Glocalism: Greek political economies and international trade Michael L. Galaty; 7. Deconstructing civilisation: a 'neolithic' alternative Michael Rowlands; 8. Marginalizing civilization: the Phoenician redefinition of power ca. 1300-800 BCE Christopher M. Monroe; 9. The birth of a single Afro-Eurasian world-system (second century BC-sixth century CE) Philippe Beaujard; 10. On the Silk Road. Trade in the Tarim? Susan Whitfield; 11. Trade, traders, and trading systems: macro-modeling of trade, commerce, and civilization in the Indian Ocean Rahul Oka; 12. Trade and civilization in Medieval East Africa: socioeconomic networks Chapurukha M. Kusimba; 13. Conflictive trade, values, and power relations in maritime trading polities of the tenth to the sixteenth centuries in the Philippines Laura Junker; 14. The Hanseatic League as an economic and social phenomenon: archaeo-ceramic case studies in cultural transfer and resistance in Western and Northern Europe, c. 1250-1550 David Gaimster; 15. Elliot Smith reborn? A view of prehistoric globalizaton from the island southeast Asian and Pacific margins Matthew Spriggs; 16. Trade-light: the political economy of Polynesian and Andean civilizations Timothy Earle; 17. Long-distance exchange and ritual technologies of power in the pre-Hispanic Andes Alf Hornborg; 18. Empire, civilization, and trade - the Roman experience in world history Peter Bang; 19. World trade in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries Thomas Lindkvist and Janken Myrdal; 20. Postscript: getting the goods for civilization Jonathan Friedman.