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Merchant Kings
by
Stephen R. Bown (Goodreads Author)
Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by "Canada's Simon Winchester" (Globe and Mail)Through the Age of Heroic Commerce, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life merchant kings ruled vast tracts of the globe and expanded their far-flung monopolies to generate...more
Hardcover, 300 pages
Published
December 2010
by Thomas Dunne Books
(first published December 1st 2009)
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Ok book. John Cecil Rhodes was a racist jerk, a product of him time with all the supercilious airs of British superiority. The main point of the book was that Merchant kings mixed politics with business. The states would grant monopolies to the companies to profit in the new world/spiceries. Away from the law and order of their sponsoring Nation, these men created their own law and destiny to deal with the challenges ahead. The author does a great job of referencing Adam Smith in the end, who st...more
Through the personalities of the big men that ran them, a Canadian historian examines five government-sponsored monopolies that governed as dictatorial machines over vast swatches on the fringes of an expanding world between 1600 and 1900. These companies raised their own armies, ruled the lives of employees and native peoples, and ruthlessly squeezed profits to send to absentee investors back in their homelands. These trading enterprises included the British East India, Russian American, Hudson...more
In this somewhat brief overview of mercantilism during the 17th,18th and 19th centuries Brown focuses in on the six leading figures of the six most dominant merchant companies of this period. He tells the story of Jan Coen of the Dutch East India Company, Pieter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company, Sir Robert Clive of the English East India Company, Aleksandr Baranov of the Russian American Company, Sir George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Cecil Rhodes of the British South Afr...more
Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by "Canada's Simon Winchester" (Globe and Mail)Through the Age of Heroic Commerce, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life merchant kings ruled vast tracts of the globe and expanded their far-flung monopolies to generate revenue for their shareholders, feather their own nests and satisfy their vanity and curiosity. Their exploits changed the w...more
Very general. I suppose that a through examination of all six merchant companies would have taken a much larger book, but all the same from what I know of the Dutch East India Company, this was a short, almost cursory history and I suspect the images I now have of the organizations I did not know of beforehand are limited if not inaccurate.
Jul 29, 2011
Catherine Woodman
added it
Interesting book about the role of merchants in worl politics--and instead of going over the entire history, it follows the lives and influence of 6 specific merchants, 17th-19th century figures, and looked at the local and global impact they had.
Background information for those who would like to read late Victorian Holocaust and Chruchill's Secret War. Enjoying it so far.
6/14/2011- Eye opening. Learned the history of the famed Rohdes Scholarship. Not a pretty picture. End should never justify the means.
6/14/2011- Eye opening. Learned the history of the famed Rohdes Scholarship. Not a pretty picture. End should never justify the means.
Feb 04, 2012
Smuda
is currently reading it
A little blunt but then again so was the VOC
Quoting himself was the last straw.
Dec 04, 2012
Ajay
added it
I am getting into history and thought that the book provide mediocre, wrote, insight on situations at the respective conquistador's time. It was written to a more fluid textbook with information being loaded onto pages versus providing a more analytical approach to what was happening and why. Again, just getting into history and perhaps books are written as such. Breeze right through it in a day.
Excellent history of the various companies which were instrumental to colonizing much of the world, but far too depressing. I only read the first two chapters. I may go back and read more eventually, but it's emotionally difficulty for me to read of the brutalities of the colonizers who much of the modern world has come to deify as if might makes rights ever.
A fantastic, thorough history of the great mercantile monopolies. Very fluid writing, and excellent storytelling.
May 19, 2013
Mark Kagan
marked it as to-read
Apr 22, 2013
Michael Handy
marked it as to-read
Mar 29, 2013
Тэгар Юниарта
is currently reading it
Mar 11, 2013
Michael Drum
is currently reading it
Mar 09, 2013
Proto Plasm
marked it as to-read
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I am an award-winning author of historical non-fiction with seven books to my credit (and the manuscript for my eighth book is almost complete). My book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail was an international critical success and was selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004. A Most Damn...more
More about Stephen R. Bown...
I am an award-winning author of historical non-fiction with seven books to my credit (and the manuscript for my eighth book is almost complete). My book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail was an international critical success and was selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004. A Most Damn...more
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