History Without Borders

Astride the historical maritime silk routes linking India to China, premodern East and Southeast Asia can be viewed as a global region in the making over a long period. Intense Asian commerce in spices, silks, and ceramics placed the region in the forefront of global economic history prior to the age of imperialism. Alongside the correlated silver trade among Japanese, Europeans, Muslims, and others, China's age-old tributary trade networks provided the essential stability and continuity enabling a brilliant age of commerce.

Geoffrey C. Gunn is a graduate of Melbourne, Queensland, and Monash universities. He has published a number of dedicated country studies on East-Southeast Asia (Brunei, Laos, Macau, East Timor), which have been translated into Portuguese, Indonesian, and Chinese. He is also the author of a world history text, First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500-1800. He has taught in universities in North Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia, and currently teaches international relations in the Faculty of Economics, Nagasaki University, Japan.