A single theme is pursued in this book - the trade between peoples of differing cultures through world history. Extending from the ancient world to the coming of the commercial revolution, Professor Curtin's discussion encompasses a broad and diverse group of trading relationships. Drawing on insights from economic history and anthropology, Professor Curtin has attempted to move beyond a Europe-centred view of history, to one that can help us understand the entire range of societies in the human past. Examples have been chosen that illustrate the greatest variety of trading relationships between cultures. The opening chapters look at Africa, while subsequent chapters treat the ancient world, the Mediterranean trade with China, the Asian trade in the east, and European entry into the trade with maritime Asia, the Armenian trade carriers of the seventeenth century, and the North American fur trade. Wide-ranging in its concern and the fruit of exhaustive research, the book is nevertheless written so as to be accessible and stimulating to the specialist and the student alike.

菲利普·D·柯丁，美國約翰·霍普金斯大學赫伯特·巴剋斯特·亞當斯曆史學教授，一直是非洲曆史現代研究的先鋒人物，共齣版瞭19部著作，如《非洲印象》（Tile Image of Africa）、《大西洋奴隸貿易：一項人口調查》（The Atlan—tic Slave Trade：A Census）等，所著的《遷移緻死：19世紀歐洲遭遇熱帶世界》（Death by Migration：Europe’s Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteentb Century）被《美國曆史評論》雜誌譽為“開創性的作品”；1983年任美國曆史協會主席，並曾獲得麥剋·阿瑟奬。