What he refers to as "world economies"—networks of economic connections of a geographically extensive sort—have existed prior to modern times, but these were notably different from the world system that has developed over the past three or four centuries. Earlier world economies were usually centred upon large imperial states and never covered more than certain regions in which the power of these states was concentrated. The emergence of capitalism, as Wallerstein analyses it, ushers in a quite different type of order, for the first time genuinely global in its span and based more on economic than political power—the "world capitalist economy."

DEFINE: Distinguishes Wallerstein's world economies (regional, imperial) from the modern world capitalist economy (genuinely global, economic power).

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 173