In this essay, I will be attempting to explain to what extent is globalisation a relatively new process in world politics. The definitions of globalisation and it's history; from which can debated if there is an actual history to globalisation or is it just a recent process in world politics. This essay will making the argument that it is not a new process but just recognised recently as such. Globalisation is an intensely contested and often misunderstood concept.
To state that globalization is a new concept is to state that international trade is a new phenomenon. It has been a concept, and a major precept of Classical economists, ranging from the physiocrats to David Ricardo. He talked a lot on Mercantilism. Mercantilism was a prevalent economic strategy during the sixteenth century and up till the seventeenth century, because it supported the political structure and the economic circumstances of that time. Mercantilism is an economic strategy that makes the assumption that wealth is finite. To become wealthy, a country must colonize to search for new sources of species (precious metals), take other countries' wealth, and maintain a favourable balance of trade. This meant the government must dictate economic activities, internally and externally, making the country into a closed economic system. However, the physiocrats believed that government intervention not only artificially inflates prices; government intervention is also a detriment to the development of higher quality products. Reforming economic choices towards free market was the first step to globalization. Ricardo also wrote about a world where countries should specialize in a particular industry and trade with each other for the greater good. The shift from mercantilism to classical economic ideas caused the British, French, and Germans to trade openly with each other, which is a perfect model of globalization.