The latest EconTalk is a conversation with Timothy Brook, author of Vermeer’s Hat, a lovely book that looks at the dawn of globalization in the 17th century by examining Vermeer’s paintings and other bits of Dutch culture. We talk about the beaver trade (that supplies the fur that becomes the felt that becomes the hat of a wooing officer in a Vermeer painting) and porcelain from China (that holds fruit in the foreground of another). We also discuss how different attitudes toward the foreign and the novel affect the evolution of a nation’s prosperity.
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