The 13th Century World System The world has been economically connected since the dawn of civilization. People would travel far and wide to acquire certain luxury goods, such as Chinese silk, Indian spices, or English cotton. However, to say that this kind of global exchange was a world system in the thirteenth century would be to assume that this trade was sustainable for society at this time. However, this far-reaching trade was only for the materialistic benefit of the wealthy, not the society. There was no world system in the thirteenth century, but rather a collective of world-economies that sustained their geographical areas with trade, security in exchange for labor, and culture. Fernand Braudel makes a compelling argument for the
