one point re Richard Moore's personal w-s perspective:
he says before the 15th century there was no world-system because
limitations in communications and logistics.
this must mean that richard is assuming that a world-system must be
global in spatial extent. by this assumption there has only been a
world-system since the 19th century. but it is more useful to allow for
regional world-systems that are not global and to track the emergence of
a global system from the incorporations by larger world-systems of
smaller ones. this is what tom hall and i do and this allows us to use
the world-system as a new unit of analysis for studying social evolution
over the last twelve thousand years. try it. you will like it.
chris