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vision can foster more dynamic approaches to spatial hierarchies and
2
this can be especially useful in taking on globalisation processes .
In fact the word ‘globalisation’ does not necessarily indicate solely
an expansion of a center or of a functioning model on the world’s
surface and/or the unification of the various parts making up the
world. It can, above all, be read as an indication of a phase in which
interconnections and relationships take primacy over borders and
territories. Furthermore, the quality of these inter-connections
should not be evaluated on the basis of distance but rather on the
basis of proximity which, in globalisation phases, varies in
accordance with technological developments, too. From this
perspective the 18th century and the period from 1973 onwards
would seem to be comparable both in terms of the primacy of
globalization processes and in terms of the overlapping of diverse
globalization hypotheses and the way these clash with other spatial
3
hypotheses based on borders and territories . Attention to spatial
expansion processes generates a tendency to favour visions based on
the dissemination of a centre and a modernising and/or hierarchizing
model. For example, in our own day, many readings identify
commercial expansion as a tool in this dissemination. At the same
time 18th century trading companies are seen as the forerunners of
today’s multinational and transnational firms and thus agents in
modernity. Thus the centre’s objective and functional practices are
seen as determinant elements in its success as compared to the
4
marginal, personalised and backward practices of the peripheries .

2 F. Braudel, La dinamica del capitalismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1981; I. Wallerstein, Il
concetto di spazio economico, Appendice, in Id., Il Capitalismo storico, Einaudi, Torino,
1985, pp. 91-107.
3 The debate on the times, ways and phases of globalization is very wide and still
ongoing (A.G. Hopkins, Globalization in World History, Pimlico, London. 2002; J. O. Jür-
gen Osterhammel, Niels P. Petersson, Storia della globalizzazione, Il Mulino, Bologna
2005). In the context of this debate, nineteenth-century globalization is sometimes
referred to as the first globalization. In any case, it develops in parallel with the affirma-
tion of imperialist policies and modern nations. For this reason it appears to be very dif-
ferent and not easily comparable with that of the eighteenth century.
4 N. Robins, The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company
Shaped the Modern Multinational, Pluto Press, London, 2006; D.C. North, Institutions,
Transaction Costs, and the Rise of Merchant Empires, in J.D. Tracy (ed.), The Political Econ-
omy of Merchant Empires, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991, pp. 22-40;
E.L.J. Coornaert, European Economic Institutions and the New World: the Chartered Com-
pany, in The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, IV, Cambridge University Press, Cam-
bridge, 1967, pp. 200-274; E. Erikson (ed.), Chartering Capitalism: Organizing Markets,
States, and Publics, Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, 2015; R. Suddaby, W.M. Foster,
A.J. Mills, Historical Institutionalism, in M. Bucheli, D. Wadhwani (eds.), Organizations in
time: History, Theory, Methods, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, pp. 100-123.

n.44 Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XV - Dicembre 2018
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)