＇Globalization of the world economy＇ rolls trippingly off the tongue, The thing itself is 450 years old. By 1600 AD there was large-scale trade from the Americas and Asia into Europe. A poor country Spain - used its great new mineral wealth from the Americas to support all its old unproductive habits and to buy glory. The sun never set on the Spanish domains, the first global empire in history. It did not shine there for long.