The period of the new imperialism and belle époque, 1870-1914, was shaped by territorial imperialism. Western countries then controlled 3 much as 96 percent of the earth’s surface: no wonder that economics at the time seemed highly internationalized and open. What happened since then was the Depression, the Second World War, and decolonization, and this is what contemporary globalization should also be measured against. In taking 1870-1914 as a yardstick one is in effect measuring how internationalized the British Empire was. This further conceals what is distinctive about contemporary globalization: that it is not territorial and imperialist in the classic sense (at least until the recent American imperial turn). Hirst and Thompson further argue that the number of genuine transnational corporations (as against multinational corporations as essentially national corporations with an international reach) is small. A rejoinder is that they are trendsetters in production; besides this does not settle the issue of location of foreign direct investments