This CRP addresses the TECT program through an examination of the evolution of cooperation tying together the self-organizing commercial networks of the first global age (1400-1800). The CRP will produce new theoretical insights about cooperation in the context of the dynamic complex system of which these evolving networks were a part. Through a convergence of methods unusual in the historical social sciences, the CRP
will reveal the mechanisms of cooperation that permitted merchants and others to establish and sustain these often long-distance trading networks. In the social science literature, it is often asserted that greater human cooperation in trading became possible with the increasing effectiveness of the State. However, these networks were characterized by
a diffusion of authority and frequently by-passed the segmented political hierarchies characteristic of the period's governments. Moreover, these networks served as the source of the creativity and innovation necessary to respond in a flexible manner to the era's endemic disruptions to transportation and capital flows. Focused archival research and an
extensive review of published information will create a shared database with a sufficient variety and quantity of data about the neglected topic of cooperation during the first era of globalization to increase confidence in the CRP's analyses. The CRP will employ Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a data integration engine and visualization
tool to bring together layers of information necessary to understand the high levels of cooperation. The CRP will use spatial statistics and mathematical modeling to compensate for incomplete data due to the fragmentary survival of sources and to discern the possible impact of layers of interaction of which there are few surviving traces. It will also utilize various types of mathematical modeling to explore the emergence of new forms and cause-and-effect relationships, to validate or corroborate hypotheses, and to identify unexpected tendencies or trends.