The state and the city were born in fourth millennium BC Mesopotamia, leading the way to trade routes and empires, awakening the lands around it. Around 3000 BC, Egypt created the first territorial nation state in human history, consisting of the Nile Valley north of the first cataract and the Nile Delta on the shores of the Mediterranean. The whole area was governed by a king whose lineage created kingship, while building up a bureaucracy managing the country so that, in the late second millennium BC, Egypt was the greatest of the great powers when international politics were born. This...

This volume is dedicated to the historical context forming the background of contemporary philosophical, social and economic issues. It summarises the origins of economic activity in Eurasia and Egypt with an interpretation of the development of economics, economic thought and social thinking that takes us up to the present day. It argues that globalisation is not really new. Transpacific communications began shortly after the first states appeared in the Near East and continued intermittently during the following millennia, leaving curious traces. The book's fundamental claim is that lessons...