This essay discusses the main lines of current research on the social and economic history of the early modern Iberian worlds. It then goes on, in light of recent debates, to make the case for the value of a purposeful dialogue between global history and imperial history. The issues of primary concern here are the extent to which lateral, inter-regional relations in the Iberian worlds dominated vertical relations connecting particular areas to Madrid or Lisbon; how power and agency on local scales may be integrated into accounts of flows and interactions on larger scales; the ways in which the history of the Iberian empires through a global prism breaks with pre-existing nationalistic narratives; and whether or not the decentralized component of these empires was unique to them. Finally, examples are detailed of how Iberian imperial history can provide a fruitful basis for a polycentric history of globalization. The examples given take heart from critical engagement with the Great Divergence paradigm, the new analytical potentialities of global ecological history, the constructive and destructive impact of globalization upon empires, and the importance of studying the history of empires comparatively.

本文讨论了当前对早期现代伊比利亚世界社会和经济史研究的主要方向。然后，根据最近的辩论，继续论证全球历史和帝国历史之间有目的的对话的价值。这里主要关注的问题是伊比利亚世界的横向、区域间关系在多大程度上主导了将特定地区与马德里或里斯本连接起来的纵向关系；如何将地方范围内的权力和机构整合到更大范围内的流动和互动账户中；伊比利亚帝国历史通过全球棱镜打破先前存在的民族主义叙事的方式；以及这些帝国的去中心化部分是否是他们独有的。最后，例子详细说明了伊比利亚帝国历史如何为全球化的多中心历史提供富有成果的基础。给出的例子来自对大分流范式的批判性参与、全球生态史的新分析潜力、全球化对帝国的建设性和破坏性影响，以及比较研究帝国历史的重要性。