In the nineteenth century, the Netherlands and its colonial holdings in Java were the sites of dramatically increased industrialization. Led by a group of “merchant kings” who exemplified gentlemanly capitalism, this ambitious trading project transformed the small, economically moribund Netherlands into a global power. Merchant Kings offers a fascinating interdisciplinary exploration of this episode and reveals not only the distinctive nature of the Dutch state, but the surprising extent to which its nascent corporate innovations were rooted in early welfare initiatives. By placing colony and metropole into a single analytical frame, this book offers a bracing new approach to understanding the development of modern corporations.
First published in 1967, this superb collection of essays on trade in the Middle Ages has been a major contribution to modern medieval studies. Professor Carus-Wilson examines: * fifteenth-century Bristol * trade with Iceland * the Merchant Adventurers of London * the thirteenth-century cloth industry (with its highly developed capitalist system) * the export of English woollen cloth * the wine trade. Each paper is firmly rooted in original research and contemporary sources such as customs returns and company minutes, and, in addition, her expose of the dubious accuracy of Aulnage accounts is widely recognised as a classic.
The first new translation in over 400 years of one of the great works of the Renaissance: an African diplomat's guide to Africa. In 1518, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, a Moroccan diplomat, was seized by pirates while travelling in the Mediterranean. Brought before Pope Leo X, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity, in the process taking the name Johannes Leo Africanus. Acclaimed in the papal court for his learning, Leo would in time write his masterpiece, The Cosmography and the Geography of Africa. The Cosmography was the first book about Africa, and the first book written by a modern African, to reach print. It would remain central to the European understanding of Africa for over 300 years, with its descriptions of lands, cities and peoples giving a singular vision of the vast continent: its urban bustle and rural desolation, its culture, commerce and warfare, its magical herbs and strange animals. Yet it is not a mere catalogue of the exotic: Leo also invited his readers to acknowledge the similarity and relevance of these lands to the time and place they knew. For this reason, The Cosmography and Geography of Africa remains significant to our understanding not only of Africa, but of the world and how we perceive it.
![N.F., or the Merchant Service. By the author of “The King's Own” [F. Marryat].](https://books.google.com/books/content/images/frontcover/TnICQUKeGoEC)
![The Export merchant shippers of London [afterw.] The Export merchant shippers and manufacturers of Great Britain & Ireland](https://books.google.com/books/content/images/frontcover/w-MNAAAAQAAJ)
