The term "globalisation" was first coined in the 1980s, but the concept stretches back decades, even centuries, if you count the trading empires built by Spain, Portugal, Britain, and Holland.

Some would say the world was as globalised 100 years ago as it is today, with international trade and migration.

But the 1930s depression put paid to that. Nation states drew back into their shell on realising that international markets could deliver untold misery in the form of poverty and unemployment.

The resolve of Western states to build and strengthen international ties in the aftermath of World War II laid the groundwork for today's globalisation.

It has brought diminishing national borders and the fusing of individual national markets. The fall of protectionist barriers has stimulated free movement of capital and paved the way for companies to set up several bases around the world.

The rise of the internet and recent advances in telecommunications have boosted the already surging train.

For consumers and avowed capitalists, this is largely a good thing. Vigorous trade has made for more choice in the High Street, greater spending, rising living standards and a growth in international travel.

Asia has a ready supply of cheap labour

And that's just the tip of it. Supporters of globalisation say it has promoted information exchange, led to a greater understanding of other cultures and allowed democracy to triumph over autocracy.

But as the street protests against last November's World Trade Organisation conference in Seattle proved, there is a growing opposition to the forces of globalisation.

Critics say the West's gain has been at the expense of developing countries. The already meagre share of the global income of the poorest people in the world has dropped from 2.3% to 1.4% in the last decade.

But even in the developed world, not everyone has been a winner. The freedoms granted by globalisation are leading to increased insecurity in the workplace.

Manual workers in particular are under threat as companies shift their production lines overseas to low-wage economies.

National cultures and identities are also under threat thanks to the spread of satellite TV, international media networks and increased personal travel. In French cinemas, around 70% of filmgoers watch Hollywood movies.

At the heart of their concerns is the fact that huge trans- national companies are becoming more powerful and influential than democratically-elected governments, putting shareholder interests above those of communities and even customers.

Ecological campaigners say corporations are disregarding the environment in the stampede for mega-profits and marketplace supremacy. Human rights groups say corporate power is restricting individual freedom.

Even business folk behind small firms have sympathy for the movement, afraid as they are that global economies of scale will put them out of work.

But the mere fact the debate can take place simultaneously across countries and continents may well show that celebrated academic Marshall McLuhan's global village is already here.

Probably the stepper industry's nearest rival as a fundamental enabler of the electronic revolution is the silicon industry, which is also much overlooked in public discussions of the electronic age.

The truth is that only a handful of sophisticated companies are capable of making silicon to the standards required in the semiconductor industry. And just the top three of these companies- Tokyo-based Shin-Etsu Chemical, St. Louis-based MEMC Electronic Materials, and Munich-based Wacker- Chemie- account for over half the world market.

But there is a big difference between raw silicon found in nature and the highly refined silicon used in the semiconductor industry. In fact, the semiconductor-grade silicon is produced in only tiny volumes, and in the epitaxial form used for high performance computer chips, it costs more then $80 an ounce. That is the equivalent of nearly $2.9 million per metric ton- or nearly one thousand times the price of steel.

The silicon production process begins with quartz sand, which is reduced and refined to produce a material known as polysilicon. This looks like irregularly shaped gray rocks but boasts an almost incredible level of purity- just one foreign atom per one billion.

The polysilicon is then melted in combination with minute amounts of "dopant" elements such as boron and phosphorus and converted into cylindrical ingots of monocrystalline silicon. The dopant elements are special impurities that determine the precise electrical properties of the final silicon wafer.

Ingot- a mass of metal cast in a shape for convenient storage or shipment.

As with most manufacturing industries, the silicon business has been highly successful in creating excellent jobs for normal blue- collar workers. In fact, more then 80% of Wacker's silicon workers are mere high-school graduates.

The silicon industry is also notably knowledge intensive. The crystal growing process in particular in highly complex, and by dint of trial and error over the years the main producers have accumulated a huge stock of proprietary know-how.

The incumbents in the industry also enjoy a huge edge in productivity over would be entrants by dint of a large reserve of trade secrets.

The level of proprietary knowledge required is constantly rising as the industry moves rapidly to ever more sophisticated and varied products. Much of the variation comes from the "doping" process, which cab produce many different grades tailored to the precise needs of individual semiconductor makers. As reported by Barnaby Feder, MEMC, an affiliate of the German conglomerate Veba, now makes more then a thousand different types of wafers, each with its own exacting specifications for silicon purity, electrical properties, thickness, surface coatings, and many other characteristics.

Given the level of capital and knowledge needed, virtually all the key processes in the semiconductor-grade silicon industry are conducted by high-wage workers in First World factories.

Another key reason for locating in an advanced nation is that the silicon business requires notably high-quality labour.