Hello, I'm Rob Young.

Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC.

World Trade is shaping up to be a key global flashpoint this year.

All this week on the programme, we're examining trade and tariffs.

But before we look at how things may change, today we're asking how we got to where we are.

That's the history of global trade on Business Daily from the BBC.

As the US president-elect Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, global trade has become a contentious issue again.

Mr Trump has said the United States is being ripped off by its trading partners.

He's threatened to impose tariffs, that is to say, taxes at the border,

on all goods imported from a host of nations, including neighbours, Canada and Mexico,

as well as economic rival China.

That risks igniting another trade war with companies and consumers around the world

affected. The first Trump presidency kicked off a trade conflict with allies and adversaries alike.

Has global commerce always been so contentious? Today, we're looking at some of the key

developments in international trade throughout history

to work out how we got to the system and practices we have today.

We'll speak to two experts on the history of trade in a moment,

but first I've been to the Docks of London,

which was for a time the biggest port in the world to have a look at some global trade history.

I'm inside the London Museum on London's Docklands by the River Thames,

and I'm staring at a cabinet, a very old wooden cabinet,

full of jars of products from all around the world.

...