Chapter 2. History and trends of business globalization

• The origins and genesis of globalization in different eras
• Evolutions and shift of world economic powers and trade
• Evolution of money as unit of exchange
• The first international companies
• Mobility and communication technologies as key enablers of globalisation
• Industrial revolutions
• Differences of international business in Fordism and post-Fordism
• Questions for chapter review
• Chapter bibliography

“You have to know the past to understand the present”, was said by Carl Sagan (Sagan, 1980). This statement by a famous philosopher and critic of science in the 20^th century is the most appropriate justification for including a chapter on the history of business globalization in this book. It may appear that living in the age of artificial intelligence, social networks, and the internet of things, and it doesn’t matter what happened in the world a few thousand years ago or a few hundred years ago. It is common to think that humans live in a world in which there is an established permanent world order, in which there is a unified language of business and science, where major organizations are located in the United States and Western Europe, and production takes place in China. Some countries are economically strong and are called developed, while other countries are considered developing or emerging. The world is not stable, less than seventy years have passed since the World War II, Europe is at war again, tensions are growing in various regions of the world, and instead of the global world, such names as collective west or collective south are beginning to appear.

The economic interests of states, imperialism, and colonialism were what took a lot of people’s lives. Some nations’ lands were seized, some civilizations were killed, and those with economic and military power created the world in which everyone lives today. The value system of humanity, equality, and human rights created a society that began to critically review history at the beginning of the 21^st century. Monuments to glorified state leaders are no longer acceptable to a part of the public, the media can observe how they are considering abandoning monuments to former heroes of the USA, Belgium and other states. For some, heroes, tough conquerors and enslavers. Unfortunately, this is the world this generation has inherited. This book describes historical events from the perspective of an independent observer. Many authors of business and economics books are born and raised in the UK and USA, some in mainland Western Europe. Aspects of business globalization, their positive and negative sides are presented unbiased. To the reader, history may seem unimportant for today, but history allows us to understand why today some states seek economic revanchism in international relations. History explains why it is China that has overtaken all Western European countries in such a short time and competes with the United States, and why Chinese business organizations are beginning to conquer the world market in the field of the latest technologies. Due to the limited scope of the chapter, it does not present the entire history of globalization, but in the author’s opinion, the most important events that determined the structure of the business world in which people live today.

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