Introduction

International business is an ancient phenomenon. Indeed, the promise of new trade routes and trading partners provided the motivation for much of the world’s geographical exploration. With the establishment of world-wide networks of trading posts, entire cultures were often brought in contact with each other for the first time through travelling merchants. The changing patterns of international trade and finance shaped the world’s political economy for centuries, with the wealth and power of nations being directly tied to their ability to establish and manage effective trading links and financing arrangements within their widespread empires and networks of partners.