The term globalization has been used to describe many aspects of our growing world. The term "economics" is one of the largest spectrums that is loosely thrown around in the world of economics. Throughout time in the modern era, globalization has played a huge role in the economic development that we have come to know today; however, the last century has shown much more growth than in previous centuries. But to what extent has globalization played a role in economic development and what exactly is globalization? Throughout this essay, I will touch on the ideas and assess just what that role is, and how it has shaped the economic development that exists today because of it.
             Vaclav Smil stated it as, " the phenomenon of globalization- the planet-spanning process of economic exchanges and information links, of complex flows of social and political influences, and of unprecedented environmental consequences." (Smil 2010, page 1) To break that down in simple terms, we can say that globalization is nothing more than the mere international growth as a world economy. Looking further into it, we pull the international financial trade, free trade between countries, the wealth of information and knowledge that is being shared, and the overall costs that we as a society pay because of such exchanges throughout the world. From globalization, we move on to where we get into the many different ways in which it has played a large role in shaping the economic development of the modern world today.
             We start by looking at the way in which trading all began and the concept of the first international markets that were created. Since the beginning and as far as we can remember, there have always been limits to the amount of goods that we can produce. There are goods that will always be sought after but unattainable to a majority whether they be necessary or luxury goods. This could be simply because the costs are too great, the resources are in...