This work is split up into four parts. These are 'Overviews', 'The Pacific as Linchpin of World Trade', 'Winners and Losers in the Global Silver Trade', and 'Birth of Globalization Debate: Ecological, Economic, Epidemiological, and Demographic Interactions'

This volume brings together a set of classic essays by Domenico Sella in which he reassesses the economic fortunes of Northern Italy, in particular Lombardy and Venice, during the 16th and 17th centuries