Big Data Mining, digital tools, and methods to compare China and the West: The new agenda in global (economic) history

The paradigm of the new global (economic) history aims to present new case studies cross-referencing western and Asian sources and using new tools and methods from other disciplines such as digital humanities and computer sciences. Within such an interdisciplinary approach new digital solutions are being conceptualized and implemented to renew global history research and revise the Great Divergence debate. The GECEM Project Database is presented as example that follows the paradigm of the “Complex-Systems Landscape” metaphor used and developed in this special issue. Thus, the core hypothesis in these papers is based on the role and agency of merchants and the networks they formed which ultimately changed consumer behavior and fostered the global circulation of goods in early modern China, Europe, and the Americas.