Changing Patterns of Trade

European colonial empires were at their peak in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and this had important consequences for the trade routes under their control. Yet by the mid-twentieth century, the balance of political power had shifted once again. The trade in goods of all sorts between east and west continues today, now adapted to the technological advances of modern society, but still passing through many of the same cities, whose wealth and history is intrinsically linked to these trade routes.