The World-Magnates Project is a multi-faceted study on “world-magnates” — the historical equivalents of today’s billionaires — from the mid-fifteenth century to the present. By identifying the epicenters of wealth accumulation in space, time, and industry, such a dataset is invaluable in addressing serious questions about the historical development of capitalism, processes of creative destruction, and inequalities.
The project is based out of the University of Maryland (College Park) under the direction of Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz (UMD) and I.
Publications from the World-Magnates project can be found below.
For more information, visit our website (in progress): http://world-magnatesdatabase.com/
World-Magnates Project Publications
Korzeniewicz, Roberto Patricio, & Corey R. Payne. (2019). “Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and ‘Coreification’ in the Longue-Durée,” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 25, Issue 2: 395-419.
Korzeniewicz, Roberto Patricio, & Corey R. Payne. (Forthcoming). “Rethinking Core and Periphery in Historical Capitalism: World-Magnates and The Shifting Epicenters of Wealth Accumulation,” in Political Economy of the World-System Annual Volume, Routledge.
Portuguese translation. (Forthcoming). “O centro e a periferia no capitalismo histórico: os epicentros cambiantes da acumulação de riqueza,” in Antonio Brussi, ed., Cultura Academica Editoria.
Albrecht, Scott, & Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz. (2017). “‘Creative Destruction’ from a World-Systems Perspective: Billionaires and the Great Recession of 2008,” in Global Inequalities in World-Systems Perspective: Theoretical Debates and Methodological Innovations, Boatca, M., Komlosy, A., & Nolte, H., eds. Routledge.
Corey R. Payne 