Space / Time Convergence of the World Transport System

In time, improvements of transport technology enabled a gradual space / time convergence. Until the industrial revolution, transport technology only permitted limited access to other regions of the world. Technological innovations in the domain of transportation were essentially used to increase the economic efficiency of advanced economies enabling them to have access to resources and markets. This began with mercantilism and gradually shaped the global economic space leaning on the transmission of information and fast and cheap transport systems. It is important to mention that the global space / time convergence is not uniform in space, implying that some regions benefit more than others. For instance, space / time convergence in Western Europe and North American, and over the North Atlantic, has taken place at a faster rate than other regions of the world, such a Latin America or Africa.