Trade Networks in the First Global Age. The case study of Simón Ruiz company: visualization methods and Spatial projections

Abstract

This chapter intends to present the research plan of DynCoopNet-Pt , the Portuguese team contribution to an international and interdisciplinary research project, developed within the scope of TECT (The Evolution of Cooperation and Trade), an EUROCORES program of the European Science Foundation. The paper will also present for discussion some scientific outputs of two research experiences undertaken under methodological proposals of network analysis and spatial analysis, for which visualization methods turned out to be essential. We intend to argue, with empirical evidence, how this still innovative methodological approach to the field of history, combined with a renewed theoretical framework developed by DynCoopNet, enabled us to generate new historiographical perspectives with significant impact upon the historiography of the First Global Age (1400-1800).