Conclusion To Part Three

Abstract

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts on the incorporation of Asia in the modern world system. To Wallerstein, there were several world economies, of which the modern world system was the only one to which India until the mid-eighteenth century was an external area and China until the mid-nineteenth century. To Gunder Frank there was only one world system that was in the early modern period still Asia-centered until it was highjacked by the Europeans in the mid-eighteenth century. Furthermore, Gunder is no doubt right too if he argues that already by the sixteenth century the broad intercontinental flows of goods displayed a cyclical pattern. To Wallerstein the seventeenth century was an age of consolidation of the central state on the one hand and the rise of capitalism on the other. Perlin tentatively argued these were worldwide tendencies, exerting a global pull on global trade.Keywords: Gunder Frank; modern world system; rise of capitalism; Wallerstein