In this session we outline the course information including the upcoming sessions and the papers that need submission. We also beginning looking at core economic concepts to understand out capitalist structured global commercial system.

In the first session we will look at the growth of commerce in history as it developed from simple barter to more organised empire highways. We also examine the feudal system of political economy in the Islamic world and in Europe. In the second session, we examine the massive growth of European Empires, colonialism, and European dominance and exploitation of the worlds resources from 1500s onwards.

In the first session we examine the current imbalance in the world economy, between north and south. We briefly look at the possibility of emerging markets in non-Western areas, and also the possible legal and political risks of non-established markets. In the second session we examine rise of the Asian tigers, especially China.

In the first session we examine the theory and possibility of free markets existing. We ask: does the world work in the way predicted by free market theory? Would we want it to be that way? In the second session, we look at the way in which the business and economic cycles continually repeat themselves. We examine the idea of laisser faire capitalim, and of creative destruction.

In this session, we examine the role of governing structures that can provide a strong or very light intervention into a national economy by way of state planning, organization, or mixed-economy models. We then examine the even lighter mechanism of exploiting core ideas about economic behavior to encourage consumers, savers and investors via monetary interventions.

We examine the way in which natural resources are distributed and extracted around the world; and we look at a few examples of production chains. In the second session, we examine how the manufacturing process is undertaken in a variety of industries.

In this session we move on to examine supply chains and the processes of distribution of semi- and fully finished goods . We also examine the concept of just-in-time production. In the second session we look at the range of retail sector participants and the challenges that they face.

In this section, we look at the way culture shapes consumer’s interests and activities. We also examine how consumer sentiment makes or breaks firms. In the second section we look at how firms try to impact the consumer through branding and marketing.

In this session, we look at the growth of th concept of property rights, and its role in history. We finally examine the role of property for investment and speculation in the 20th century. In the second section we examine the issue of construction activity and its role in the economy.

In this session, we examine the services sectors; looking at the composition and activity of the tourism, hotel, restaurant and other industries. We then shift attention to the role of the state: particularly the welfare and the warfare state..

In this section, we first look at the growth of big data, which promises to unleash firms´and governments´capacities to understand thier consumers, markets, and trends. But cna the promise of integrated consumer-producer relations and predictive analytics outweigh the dangers of surveillance an unequal power between corporations, states and consumers? In the second session we check out the way in which the concept and application of blockchains can implement a chain of custody for goods, services and IoT interactions. We finish with a look at cryptocurrencie

Key concepts/issues: Environmental damage; Corporate Social Responsibility In this session, we examine the systemic and existential challenge posed by global warming. We then move on to examine the idea of corporate social responsibility and we evaluate whether this has been a useful concept.

In this section, we look at the growth of the new disruptive technologies, often adopted and promoted by online born global businesses. We then examine the so-called “attention economy” and ask whether the traditional idea of products and services is shifting toward experiences and interest

This week, we will recap the aspects of commerce that we have examined.