TABLE OF CONTENTS: The instruments of exchange. Europe: the wheels of trade at the lowest level -- Europe: the wheels of trade at the highest level -- The world outside Europe -- Concluding hypotheses -- Markets and the economy. Merchants and trade circuits -- Trading profits, supply and demand -- Markets and their geography -- National economies and the balance of trade -- Locating the market -- Production : or capitalism away from home. Capital, capitalist, capitalism -- Land and money -- Capitalism and pre-industry -- Transport and capitalist enterprise -- A rather negative balance sheet -- Capitalism on home ground. Capitalist choices and strategies -- Individual firms and merchant companies -- Back to a threefold division -- Society : `A set of sets' -- Social hierarchies -- The all-pervasive state -- Civilizations do not always put up a fight -- Capitalism outside Europe -- By way of conclusion.