Karl Gunnar Persson is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen and has taught comparative economic history and globalization studies over five decades. He has published widely in the leading economic history journals and was the founding editor of European Review of Economic History. His previous monographs include Pre-Industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization and Technological Progression in Europe (1988) and Grain Markets in Europe, 1500 1900: Integration and Deregulation. Educated in Sweden, he is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences.