The modern world system is structured chronologically. Each volume can be read independently. Together, they create a panoramic picture of the formation of the capitalist world system in the long 16th century (Volume I), the consolidation of the world economy under Dutch hegemony in the 17th century (Volume II), the further economic and spatial expansion in the 18th and early 19th centuries (Volume III), as well as the emergence of the liberal center as a social hegemon (Volume IV).