Through the ages and in all parts of the world, communication between merchants has been the basic requirement for the integration of economic areas. The transfer of commercial know-how in different aspects such as trading customs, forms of payment and accounting, information on goods and their prices as well as knowledge of supply and demands, kinds and qualities did not only intensify the relationships of merchants or companies, but also of the different markets. The trading centres of the different regions across the continents - having always been the centre of economic knowledge - supported this process even further. From those centres new developments, techniques and learning processes were initiated and spread regionally and even worldwide. Thereby, the communication of merchants helped and forced the integration of new markets and areas into the emerging world economy.

The volume contains contributions by Michael Bibikov, Renate Pieper, Mehmet Bulut, Claudia Schnurmann, Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, Anne Radeff, Rafael Barquín Gil, Elena Lobanova, Gabriel Imboden, Om Prakash, Joan Carles Maixé-Altés, Markus A. Denzel and Margarete Wagner-Braun