Within this chapter, I was interested in “The great divergence” (Pomeranz, 2013). This essay highlights the relationship between Europe and China and how trade linked the two empires (Pomeranz, 2013). Throughout his discussion, we can understand further, China’s demand for silver and its effect on the economy, the author writes:

indeed… had China in particular not had such a dynamic economy that changing
its metallic base could absorb the staggering quantities of silver staggering in the New World over three centuries, those mines might have become unprofitable within a few centuries. (Kenneth Pomeranz, 2013, pg 160).

My understanding of this is lead by a more entrepreneurial position (Stein, 2015) where the benefits of a trade relationship between the two countries are of great vitality to the state of an economy but I was then reminded it is my job as a global citizen to not just focus on the national benefits and rather than minimizing my capacity to thinking globally is by seeing how this chapter can link me to being a better global citizen.

From this essay, I want to highlight the process of the cross-cultural transmission of food and religion, which along the way local cultures transformed and developed into their style of it (Pomeranz, 2013), we can learn from this mixing of cultures as an aspect that we should be open towards focusing on the cultural aspect rather than the materialistic side. About my aspirations for my Global Studies degree, striving for the improvement of New Zealand’s international relationships is a key goal as it is unrendered that our trade pathways are significant for our country, but also research and find other ways to involve common New Zealanders in achieving global citizenship as well.

“The 21st Century Will Be Asian” (Frank, 2014) The title alone wields its bold statement which was immediately brought to my attention. The West’s misunderstanding of the East Asian financial and economic crisis was taken and analyzed as proof of Asian weakness (Frank, 2014). I believe the idea of Asian and weakness in the same sentence is ridiculous given the fact that during the 20th century the improvement of the East Asian Industry engulfed the world’s industrial export market which was eventually the first time for an economic crisis to start in the east rather than the west(Frank, 2014). This just goes to show how much East Asia is indefinitely a vital part of today’s global economy, b