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that allowed the development of the Japanese automotive industries in the middle of the 20 th century, when companies were allowed and encouraged to import production technology from abroad, but nevertheless required to produce 90% of components locally. Modern computer simulation tools may help shed some light on the processes that take place in complex systems, by carrying out increasingly large scale agent-based simulations. In these simulations, agents must represent businesses that interact with each other, and also with the “landscape” that represents the world. The test of the validity of the model is obviously its ability to predict financial and economic situations that are observed in practice. Notable attempts to develop such agent-based, complex systems models of global wealth flows have been reported [12]. [4] [5] [6] [7] OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION The different aspects of globalisation touched upon in the brief outline presented here stand in complex, interactive relationships with each other. The size and complexity of the modern global economy, finance, manufacturing and engineering design present a great challenge to politicians, economists and engineers alike. Under the umbrella of such complex systems, decisions made by significant players may have effects that are profound and often difficult to predict. Therefore, efforts aimed at identifying and developing network metrics would seem well-placed, e.g. measures of impact of particular decisions on the global system. REFERENCE [1] A. Sherratt (2004), “Trade Routes: the Growth of Global Trade”, ArchAtlas, January 2008, Edition 3, http://www.archatlas.org/ Trade/Trade.php, January 2010. [2] A. Offer, The British empire, 1870-1914: a waste of money?, Economic History Review, XLVI, 1993. [3] M. Flandreau, C.-L. Holtfrerich, and H. James. International Financial History in the [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Twentieth Century: System and Anarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 278 pp. L . Lynn, H. Salzman, “The ‘New’ Globalization of Engineering: How the Offshoring of Advanced Engineering Affects Competitiveness and Development”, 21st European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Berlin, 2005. A. Camuffo, “Rolling Out a “World Car”: Globalization, Outsourcing and Modularity in the Auto Industry”, to be published. I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi H., The knowledge creating company, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. S. Helper, J.P. MacDuffie, “E-volving the auto industry: E-business effects on Consumer and Supplier Relationships, paper prepared for E-business and the Changing Terms of Competition: A View From Within the Sectors”, The Fischer Center on the Strategic Use of Information Technology, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, 2000. S. Helper, J.P. MacDuffie, F. Pil, M. Sako, A. Takeishi, M. Warburton, “Project Report: Modularization and Outsourcing: Implications for the Future of Automotive Assembly”, IMVP Annual Forum, MIT, Boston, 1999. M.A. Schilling, “Toward a General Modular Systems Theory and Its Application to Interfirm Product Modularity”, Academy of Management Review, 25, 312-334, 2000. R. Rycroft, “Technology-Based Globalization Indicators: The Centrality of Innovation Network Data”, Occasional Paper Series, GW Center for the Study of Globalization, 2002. P. Krugman, Rethinking International Trade, Boston: The MIT Press, 1994. R.- C. Damaceanu, “An agent- based computational study of wealth distribution in function of resource growth interval using NetLogo”, Applied Mathematics and Computation 201, 371–377, 2008. 33