Globalization

The Secret Life of Ordinary Objects ← Series Home The Box That Changed Everything: How Standardized Shipping Containers Created the Global Economy The shipping container—a simple metal box, typically 20 or 40 feet long—is perhaps the most important, and least celebrated, innovation of the 20th century. This humble rectangular prism, stacked by the thousands on ships and trucks, fundamentally restructured the global economy. ...

Key Takeaways Unified Market: For the first time, a single political authority controlled trade from Korea to Poland. Standardized Systems: Common laws, protected routes, and consistent administration enabled commerce. Technology Transfer: Printing, gunpowder, and navigation tools moved from East to West. Cultural Exchange: Ideas, religions, and people crossed continents as never before. Unintended Consequence: The same routes that carried silk also carried the Black Death. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV sent an envoy named Giovanni de Plano Carpini to the Mongol court. His journey took two years and covered over 10,000 km through territories no European had crossed in centuries. ...