Shipping was the most dynamic sector of the economy of Europe from the fourteenth into the nineteenth century. Europeans who moved goods by sea dramatically improved their efficiency, laying the foundations for greater economic growth to come and for domination of the world’s oceans.

Across Colonial Lines takes a multi-perspective approach to the study of empire and commodities, and encourages readers to look at commodity histories in alternative spatial and temporal contexts. It offers a comparative understanding of commodities in the Venetian, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British Empires. Highlighting the interwoven character of multiple commodity networks, this book situates commodities like gold, coffee, tea and indigo, to name a few, within pre-existing networks of labour, consumption and knowledge production. It explores the nexus between the local and the global, and highlights the role played by individual producers, petty traders, sailors and even consumers in creating regional circulations within a global political economy. In this volume, commodity networks are not just sites of production and trade, but also of political control, social organisation and consumption choices. They provide the impetus for globalisation from as early as the thirteenth century. Each chapter takes an individual commodity to illustrate the history of commodity transmission within imperial contexts. From early modern Venetian commerce to the trade networks of the Eurasian world; from the trading ambitions of British sailors to Portuguese global imperial ambitions; from the cross-imperial knowledge networks of indigo to the assertion of indigenous agency in Angola; and from the commodification of labour to the experience of tourism in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean World, Across Colonial Lines uses commodity networks as a lens to study empire building across varied yet connected geographies and chronologies.

This collection of essays explores the inter-imperial connections between British, Spanish, Dutch, and French Caribbean colonies, and the 'Old World' countries which founded them. Grounded in primary archival research, the thirteen contributors focus on the ways that participants in the Atlantic World economy transcended imperial boundaries.

The first comprehensive history of marine insurance transacted in London from the industry's beginnings, to the early-nineteenth-century, when legislative change ended parliamentary monopolies over the business.This book describes the development and evolution of the customary, legal, and commercial institutions of marine insurance, alongside its developing organisational structures. It analyses major market interventions during the period, including state-sponsored initiatives in the late sixteenth century, the introduction of new corporate forms in the early eighteenth century, and the formation and maturation of Lloyd's of London. The book examines the impact of crises such as the Smyrna catastrophe of 1693 and the South Sea Bubble, and makes comparisons with developments in other marine insurance markets. In revealing how the London insurance market changed over centuries, the book discusses issues of risk and uncertainty, the financial revolution, the development of trade, and the reciprocal developmental roles of markets and the state. Overall, it highlights the ways that efficient and effective marine insurance capable of adapting according to circumstance was vital to the growth of trade and the economy.l roles of markets and the state. Overall, it highlights the ways that efficient and effective marine insurance capable of adapting according to circumstance was vital to the growth of trade and the economy.l roles of markets and the state. Overall, it highlights the ways that efficient and effective marine insurance capable of adapting according to circumstance was vital to the growth of trade and the economy.l roles of markets and the state. Overall, it highlights the ways that efficient and effective marine insurance capable of adapting according to circumstance was vital to the growth of trade and the economy.

This anthology aims to explain why some Nordic shipping companies became world leaders while others failed to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. The authors analyse political and institutional patterns alongside the various corporate responses to the many upheavals of global shipping.

In 1602, the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands chartered the first commercial company, the Dutch East India Company, and, in so doing, initiated a new wave of globalization. Even though Dutch engagement in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans dates back to the 16th century, it was the dawn of the 17th century that brought the Dutch into the fold of the general movement of European expansion overseas and concomitant globalization. This volume surveys the Dutch participation in, and contribution to, the process of globalization. At the same time, it reassesses the various ways Dutchmen fashioned themselves following the encounter and in the light of increasing dialogue with other societies across the world. As such, Exploring the Dutch Empire offers a new insight into the macro and micro worlds of the global Dutchman in Asia, Africa and the Americas. The result fills a gap in the historiography on empire and globalization, which has previously been dominated by British and, to a lesser extent, French and Spanish cases.

The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business draws together a wide array of state-of-the-art research on multinational enterprises. The volume aims to deepen our historical understanding of how firms and entrepreneurs contributed to transformative processes of globalization. This book explores how global business facilitated the mechanisms of cross-border interactions that affected individuals, organizations, industries, national economies and international relations. The 37 chapters span the Middle Ages to the present day, analyzing the emergence of institutions and actors alongside key contextual factors for global business development. Contributors examine business as a central actor in globalization, covering myriad entrepreneurs, organizational forms and key industrial sectors. Taking a historical view, the chapters highlight the intertwined and evolving nature of economic, political, social, technological and environmental patterns and relationships. They explore dynamic change as well as lasting continuities, both of which often only become visible – and can only be fully understood – when analyzed in the long run. With dedicated chapters on challenges such as political risk, sustainability and economic growth, this prestigious collection provides a one-stop shop for a key business discipline. Chapter 31 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.