Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600 - 1900

by Stephen R. Bown

"Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by Steven Bown , 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 world during an age of unfettered globalization, mirroring a world we know today. Merchant Kings looks at each ruling monopoly through its greatest merchant king and considers their stories together for the first time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Business, Economics, Biography, Politics, World History

314 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

www.stephenrbown.net
www.facebook.com/srbown

Winner of the 2024 Governor General's History Award for Popular Media: the Pierre Berton Award

I am a popular historian and author of 12 works of literary non-fiction on Canadian and international topics. I have also written more than 20 feature magazine articles highlighting lesser-known characters and events in Canadian history. I strive to make the past accessible, meaningful, and entertaining by applying a narrative and immersive style to my writing, which blends story-telling with factual depth.

My recent best-selling books The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire and Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada offer fresh perspectives on Canada's foundational stories by casting a broader lens on events of the day and highlighting characters who were not previously part of the dominant narrative. My work has been recognized for enriching public discourse and creating a lasting impact on how Canadians view and understand our shared history.

The Company won the 2021 National Business Book Award and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize. I also won the BC Book Prize for Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver, the Alberta Book Award for Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering's Great Voyage to Alaska and the William Mills Prize for Polar Books for White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic.

"Learning from the past isn't about judging the past by modern standards, or agreeing or disagreeing with the actions or decisions of historical characters. It is about understanding the challenges and struggles of past people within the context of their times, technology, education and infrastructure and state capacity to solve problems. In other words, it involves learning about and considering the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past in its full context, the way a visitor might explore a foreign country, open-minded to the differences from their own culture and experience.

Knowing how we came to be where we are as a nation - the choices made by people in the past - should be about understanding our origins, not glorifying or denigrating them. To deny knowledge and remain ignorant is an abrogation of responsibility that paves the way for future failure. Gaining knowledge of our shared history builds a sense of community and inoculates us against agenda-driven distortions of facts and events."

I live in a small town in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When I'm not writing I'm usually reading, mountain biking, hiking and camping in the summer, and downhill and cross country skiing in the winter.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version, although I couldn’t find that edition listed on GR.

The book looks at the history of six of the most famous, or rather notorious, of the “company-states” that were a feature of the world until recent times. The author describes the book as being one for the “interested generalist”, and that he tells the story through the people and personalities who had most effect on the companies.

The collection opens with Jan Pieterszoon Coen, of the Dutch East India Company, known by its acronym VOC. He’s probably the least attractive character of the six, which is no mean achievement when you consider the others. The author describes him as “a bandit and a thug”, which to be honest is about the most charitable description possible. The well-known name of Peter Stuyvesant, of the Dutch West India Company, is next. The author gives him a certain amount of credit, but he was caught between his employers and the wishes of Dutch settlers in America, who had very different ideas about how the colony should be run and who should run it. When the English moved to annex New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant wanted to fight it out, but the settlers effectively mutinied and forced him to surrender.

The next chapter features Robert Clive and the East India Company. I’ve mentioned my impression of Clive in my comments on William Dalrymple’s book The Anarchy. A complex figure. He’s followed by Alexander Baranov, of the Russian American company. He probably gets the most sympathetic write-up of the six (though perhaps descendants of the Aleut and the Tlingit he encountered would beg to differ). An extraordinary character who sustained Russian Alaska with hardly any support from Russia itself.

George Simpson, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was the effective viceroy of 4m km² of North America. He had been born out of wedlock in the small Scottish town of Dingwall, and the book quotes a Canadian historian who described Simpson as “a bastard by birth – and by persuasion”. The author calls him “a sexist, racist, domineering braggart.” Lastly we get Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company. Rhodes’ extreme racism divided opinion even in his own time, and is so out of step with modern thinking that it is uncomfortable just to read about it.

The tide of history has turned against these figures. Colonialists are no longer admired, and their brutal methods jar with modern perspectives. They were though, all self-made men. None were born to excessive power and privilege, and Baranov and Simpson could be described as having overcome disadvantage. They became wealthy and powerful not just by being ruthless but also because each was intelligent, hardworking, prodigiously brave, and a shrewd judge of others. The author makes a good job of capturing their complexities.

The companies adopted contrasting methods. The VOC, the EIC, and the BSAC all used military force to conquer territory, tax or enslave local people, and enforce their monopolies. I was astonished to read that the BSAC continued to rule Rhodesia – present day Zimbabwe – until as late as 1923. Each of them though, found that the cost of maintaining their military forces absorbed all of the profits – and more – that they made from their monopolies. Both the VOC and the EIC eventually went bust with massive debts.

By contrast the other 3 companies sought to act primarily as traders. They controlled territory and forced indigenous people to trade only with them, but tried to keep costs down. Both the Dutch West India Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company actively kept settlers out of their domains and in doing so probably worked against the national interests of their parent countries.

This book scores high on entertainment and readability, which is perhaps not surprising given the author was working on the stories of such larger-than-life characters. There were a few points where my interpretation varied from the author’s, and it isn’t the most detailed history you’ll encounter. However it was not intended as such, and as long as you read it with that in mind, it’s an enjoyable introduction to the subject.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized recently that I hadn't even realized that the Dutch and British East India Companies were two separate entities, so I decided I needed a book to explain the whole thing to me and I settled on this one. This proved an excellent choice. "Merchant Kings" is a very readable survey of six great national monopolies, companies chartered not only to expand their nations' reach but even to rule territory and wage war in their name. The focus is specifically on the six notable and highly controversial merchant princes of each of these corporations rather than on the minutiae of trade statistics and profit margins. In many ways the stories of these merchant kings is also the stories of the global enterprises they represented; their successes and failures their companies' successes and failures.

Jan Pieterszoon Coen starts off the book, the great leader of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company, the world's first company to offer publicly traded stock. Coen was a brutal and vengeful man, practicing genocide on the Indonesian islanders that stood between him and the precious spices his country and company coveted. Coen was equally vicious towards his European competitors, practicing acts of such barbarity towards British merchants that they would eventually lead to war with that country. In many ways he embodied the worst of European colonialism and he's a harsh note to start the book on!

Chapter two concerns Pieter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company, which colonized New Amsterdam. This story is maybe an exception to the theme of the book because Stuyvesant and his company are arguably not very successful, running the colony so badly that it ultimately surrenders to the British without firing a shot! The author's point is that the companies and their nations' interests did not always perfectly coincide, a major theme of this book.

Sir Robert Clive's story is rather more heroic, as he leads the British East India Company to stunning victories over the French East India Company in India.

Chapter four tells the largely forgotten story of Aleksandr Baranov, who managed the Russian American Company, merchant kings of Alaska. Baranov may be the most sympathetic of the Merchant Kings, and probably also the least personally successful.

Sir George Simpson ran the Hudson's Bay Company for Britain and expanded it to control most of modern Canada and a great deal of the Pacific Northwest as well. Alas for the British, he thought little of the western parts of his domain and American settlers soon overran it. Also on a personal note the man was a tremendous blowhard.

Chapter six wraps up with nearly as a great a villain as Coen in the person of Cecil Rhodes, who managed to lay the foundations for apartheid in South Africa before thankfully dying of a heart attack in his forties.

All six of these merchant kings, interestingly enough, rose from relatively humble beginnings to control vast empires. None were apparently motivated merely by money, as none of them had much chance to enjoy their great wealth. All had to balance the interests of company and country. And virtually all put company first, to the ultimate detriment of their homelands.

The conclusion also points out that all six companies eventually required bailouts. Hmm...

A very interesting overview of a part of history that seldom gets more than a cursory glance and yet is critical to our modern world.

[Raghu Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Europeans called the period 1600-1900 the ‘Age of Heroic Commerce’. During this period, they conquered and ruled over India, Indonesia, Africa, North America, South America, and Alaska. Conquest of territories let them open up these lands for captive labor, resource exploitation, and expansion of commerce in the new markets. However, the native population in these lands saw this period as their ‘Era of darkness’. They didn’t see heroic commerce, but subjugation and tyranny. In this book, author Stephen Bown provides enough data and analysis for us to understand why both viewpoints have validity. I found this book a fascinating study into the social values prevailing in those times. It provides insight into the psychology of the six men who played a seminal role in making the ‘Age of Heroic commerce’ successful.

Stephen Bown does not dwell on the history of the European merchant companies of that era or how it led to colonialism. Instead, he focuses on the character of the six men who conquered the far-off lands and opened them up for commercial exploitation. They were Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company, Pieter Stuyvesant of the Dutch West India Company, Robert Clive of the English East India Company, Alexandr Baranov of the Russian American Company, George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Cecil John Rhodes of the British South Africa Company. Though the six men came from different backgrounds, they had similar disturbing traits. Loyalty to their company rather than country drove them, apart from business interests and personal greed. They worked hard to enrich the shareholders of their company. In this pursuit, the dark side of their personalities was in full view as they gave vent to their xenophobia, heartlessness towards the native peoples, self-obsession, and tyranny. They viewed the flora and fauna of these exotic lands as commodities. However, I shall focus less on these personalities and more on other issues of the heroic age of commerce - like the spice trade, the outlook of the Europeans towards wildlife in these exotic lands and myths of those times.

Among the six pioneers the book talks about, the stories of Robert Clive and Cecil Rhodes are better known to most readers. Jan Pieterszoon Coen, as the merchant warrior of the Dutch East India Company, conquered Indonesia, making it a Dutch colony. He hated the English colonizers and strove to monopolize the spice trade for the Dutch. Pieter Stuyvesant was the Director-General of the Dutch West India Company. He built New Amsterdam, which grew into the modern New York City. Stuyvesant used the military dictatorship model, tempered with the type of corporate efficiency that worked wonders in the African slave trade while dealing with the natives of New Amsterdam. George Simpson and Alexandr Baranov were the two men who engineered the colonization of North America and Alaska. I shall elaborate a little on their portraits from the book as a sample of what is on offer.

George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company and his beaver empire were at the roots of founding the Canadian nation. He is not a hero of Canada because he was too complex and unsavory for modern Canada. Simpson believed in the inherent superiority of the white race. He likely gained these prejudices after visiting the plantations in the West Indies and watching the slave trade. He referred to the First Nation people of Canada as a savage race and believed he must subjugate them and rule over them with an iron hand. Still, it didn’t stop him from having many children from indigenous women. The Europeans had made the beaver almost extinct on their continent. But the Hudson’s Bay in North America was home to a stupendous ten million beaver. The Europeans coveted its fur for their warmth. Their use in the manufacture of felt drove the demand for beaver fur. The result was the cruel decimation of the poor animal in their millions. Simpson played a major role in this endeavour.

Alexandr Baranov was the Lord of Alaska. He was the chief manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, which specialized in sea otter fur trading. Sea otters were abundant on the Alaskan shores and their fur was an expensive commodity in the Russian-Chinese trade in the eighteenth century. Baranov employed the Aleut and the Alutiiq peoples of Alaska to hunt sea otters for his company. Over time, by the end of the eighteenth century, Baranov became general manager of the company and controlled the sea otter trade. Among the six portraits the author paints, Baranov appears the exception. Baranov paid to educate his employees’ children by sending them to Russia and gave cattle as gifts to the Aleuts. He sent money periodically to his first wife and children in Russia and set aside a trust fund for his Aleut wife in Alaska. He gave away his own shares in the company to dedicated managers who he wanted to keep in the company. Though his company slaughtered sea otters by the millions, Baranov cared for his colony and the people he worked with.

The spice trade’s importance to the Europeans has always been a puzzle to me. The European cuisine used exotic spices far less than the Eastern cuisine. Still, why did they want them so much? Author Bown gives a short educational tour of the spices in the early chapters of this book, answering these questions.
Cloves, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, mace, turmeric and ginger were the choice spices of the East Indies that Europeans coveted. They used these spices as primary ingredients in medicines and perfumes. They used it to flavor food to aid digestion and preserve meat. Salted meat often got rotten and reeked of unpleasant smell in European cities of those times. The spices helped to mask the foul odour. Apothecaries and physicians prescribed a melange of spices to ward off minor and serious ailments. They advised nutmeg to stifle coughs, pepper for common cold or reducing liver pain, and cloves for earache. Myths surrounded the power and capabilities of the spices. People believed nutmeg improved memory, pepper boosted one’s eyesight, ginger and tamarind warded off plague. Popular belief rumoured that nutmeg, mace and ginger were aphrodisiacs. Some even suspected mythical beasts safeguarded the trade routes from the spiceries to the West. All these qualities made the spices valuable enough to use them even as currency. Often, people exchanged a small pouch of spices for a herd of cattle or sheep or offered it as a fabulous wedding dowry. The author remarks with wry humor that, for centuries, gold and silver flowed East while dried, powdered plant matter flowed West.

One karmic irony of the spice trade was the Treaty of Breda, which ended the Anglo-Dutch war in 1674. The Dutch exchanged the New Netherland with the English in favor of gaining Surinam (Dutch Guiana). In today’s geography, New Netherland was the area from Albany, NY, to Delaware, and encompassed parts of the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware.The Dutch had bargained away the world’s most famous city of the future for a tiny, barren nutmeg island in Indonesia and some South American slave-dependent sugar plantations! The Russians did a similar barter by selling Alaska to the US for $7.2 million two centuries later.

Stephen Bown says that these merchant companies were not just business entities. They existed in the grey zone between government and enterprise, acting more like the commercial extension of European national wars seeking cultural and economic supremacy. Bown accepts they were monopoly corporations but believes them to be less a product of free-market capitalism than imagined. However, this is not quite convincing to me. The Marxian explanation of classical capitalism is more satisfying here. Mercantile Capitalism has its inherent impetus to expand production and its markets. This forces it to seek new lands for resources, target the native population as slave labor and conquer nations to control the markets for the products. It is a self-fulfilling machine that creates its own demand with methods of dubious moral import and consequences. The shareholders of these companies are also part of the ruling class and hence there is no grey zone between government and enterprise in those times.

There are uncanny similarities with modern times in the discussion of these corporations. These monopolies were large, complex, and employed thousands of people across the globe. They dominated the economies of host and colonized nations and became tools of foreign policy. For example, it was unthinkable in the 19th century that the British East India Company could fail and collapse. Such a thing would have shattered the British economy and destroyed the morale of the nation. Though only the shareholders enjoyed the profits of the East India Company, they socialized the costs of its failure and its consequences, making the average Briton bear the costs. Author Bown says taxpayers’ money rescued all the six companies discussed in this book, socializing the cost of their collapse. The 2008 financial crisis comes to mind when the major banks in the Western world socialized the costs of their collapse, even as the major shareholders pocketed the gains in better times.

The reader may conclude that the book covers the merchant companies, their business practices and the era of heroic commerce without giving a deep analysis of all the related issues. It is important to emphasize that the author sets out to write primarily on the personality of the six swaggering adventurers. The biographical angle overrides the corporate and colonial history. Hence, some of his pronouncements about that period sound obvious and repetitive, especially because the six men were so similar in their outlook and conduct. We can even see some parallels with six ‘pioneering adventurers’ of the twenty-first century, i.e., Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Sergei Brin. These six men also obsess about their bottom line, shareholder value and conquest of more and more markets around the world. However, the social values have changed since the 1900s. So, these pioneers are ones with a human face.

I liked the book for its different perspective on the ‘Age of Heroic Commerce.’ If you want to know about the ‘prime movers’ of the maritime colonial era, you will like the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a mini biography of six individuals who spearheaded the greatest merchant companies from 1600-1900.
These individuals/company are namely:
Jan Pieterzoon Coen - Dutch East India Company
Pieter Suyvesant - Dutch West India Company
Sir Robert Clive - British East India Company
Aleksandr Baranov - Russian American Company
Sir George Simpson - Hudson Bay Company
Cecil John Rhodes - British South Africa Company

What was interesting that most of these men were not gentleman, but just very ambitious, clever and ruthless people who saw a business opportunity and ran away with it. These men where not nice individuals as they steamrolled over pre-existing landowners, whether they be First Nations, black Africans, Malay, and Indians all in the name of profit. The companies were essentially like mini states with power to raise armies, wage war, pass laws, subjugate the native people with impunity. If there was any moral issues back in the governing country (ie The Netherlands), they often turned a blind eye as the goods and money flowing back was just too prolific. I was aware about the amoral beginnings of the Hudson Bay Company as that institution is very much a part of the Canadian identity today, but it was still uncomfortable to read. Heck, they have been responsible for designing our Canadian Olympic athletes clothing. A good general history novel on merchant companies but also a bleak lesson of how money and unrestrained power corrupt individuals and societies.

[Alex Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light, entertaining, well researched yet unexceptional pop-history covering an arbitrary segment of human colonial-capital expansion and period of time that falls now and then into the usual, unnecessary politically correct commentary.

[Arturo Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it says in the final bibliographical notes, by a generalist, for generalists. Suits me fine. It's a light and fun read, mostly, with some very insightful moments. The epilogue, as well as the last part of Rhodes' chapter, is poignant.

This quote by Rhodes alone makes it a worthwhile read: "To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far."

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чрез историите на шестима от големите мъже, които са ги управлявали, авторът ни представя шестте най-големи търговски компании, които светът е виждал в цялата си история.

Спонсорирани от правителствата монополи, тези компании са управлявали нации, водили са войни, поддържали са частни армии флоти и като цяло са били в авангарда на (а често и причината за) колониалната експанзия на европейските държави между 1600 и 1900 г., докато са изплащали чудовищни дивиденти на акционерите си, направили са от директорите си милионери и накрая са се сгромолясали под тежестта на собственото си разрастване.

Книгата е съществена не само от историческа гледна точка, а и от политилогическа - показва зараждането на понятието "монопол" и как то е неразривно свързано с правителството. Не е възможно да имаш монопол без държавата да го гарантира, независимо колко голяма е частната ти армия и колко превъзхождаш конкурентите ти - именно затова всички описани компании, които не започват като държавно гарантирани монополи се стремят всячески да станат такива чрез подкупи и натиск.

[Karl Rove]

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’s Bay, Dutch East and West Indies and De Beers Consolidated Companies.

The book is a little dry at points (Brown has the annoying habit of making critical points about people or institutions by quoting other writers) but he’s particularly good at liming portraits of the company’s principals (especially that of George Simpson of Hudson’s Bay Company) and explaining the economic, political and cultural disruptions these massive business enterprises caused.

[Bill Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

My desire to read about the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the motivation to read this book. To my surprise the book took me from the West Indies, spice wars, to the English East Indies Company that went to India, The Dutch West India Company that went to America, the Hudson Bay Company that went west following the beaver to the Pacific Coast, the Russian American Company that went to Alaska in quest of gold and sea otters, to the British South African Company and finally a short biography of Cecil Rhodes; quite a journey that made reading Merchant Kings a worthwhile endeavor. All the adventures were interesting and provided new and interesting insights into how our World has evolved over four centuries.
The common attribute in all these chapters was how wealthy men risked their fortunes but not their lives by sending ships and men to the frontiers in search of fortunes whether it be spices, cotton, fur, gold and any other commodity that would make them richer.
Another common characteristic was each of these companies were able to identify key people to oversee these expensive ventures. These men were driven in their devotion to the Company; they were Gods who ruled with an iron hand while subjugating the indigenous populations, they governed as dictators and were judge and jury over all of the lives in their sphere of influence with no appeals to higher judgement.
This tale, well told by Bowen makes you wonder, is exploitation of the Earth and indigenous people the only way that mankind can progress? This reviewer can not think of any Country that has advanced without this kind of exploitation; and it continues today in the twenty-first century, a look today at the Amazon Region will confirm the destruction of the environment, and the exploitation of native peoples of that region for forest products and gold. An interesting subplot noted by Bowen was that the exploiting Merchant Kings were citizens of liberal societies, yet, they only practiced this philosophy at home. The term liberalism as defined by Webster’s is a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise and has a willingness to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own with an openness to new ideas; all of these values are ignored in the quest for wealth. At critical moments in history, such as this period 1600-1900, liberalism shared a relationship with capitalism, imperialism, democracy and war. It seems that international capitalism as defined by the merchant Kings neither recognizes moral scruples nor political restraints in expanding their power over the world. The liberalism of the Merchant Kings is simply a self-legitimatizing ideology of a rich, powerful, and networked orgy ruling class exploiting land and people for profit.
In the last chapter of this tale, Bowen provides us with a biographical look at Cecil Rhodes. This biography is well placed in this narrative because Mr. Rhodes encompasses all the negative attributes discussed previously. There are people in this world who have the “Midas touch”, they see riches every where and they have the skills to acquire those riches; this was Cecil Rhodes. He used all the liberalisms noted above from exploitation of black Africans, to the seizure of territory with the cooperation of the networked ruling classes in Africa and Britain, to being the major cause of the Boer War. Rhodes was a gifted person, a great visionary, a prophet of imperial expansion and destiny for the white race. He worked tirelessly to expand the racist ideology of British Empire, and yet, out of his war and racism, has been the creation of the Republic of South Africa of today. This reviewer reiterates the question, could all the good that came from the creation of Canada, The United States and South Africa happened without the Merchant Kings? Stephan Bowen brought these questions to light with his tale about when Companies ruled the World.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re into 17/18th century European trade history, this book’s for you (you fuckin freak).

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars; good to get a grip on the inner trappings of the colonial enterprise; the nuts-and-bolts of the economic and financial exploitation made possible by the subjugation by Western nations of natives the world over; will do some additional reading on some case studies; the VOC, the Hudson Bay Company, Cecile Rhodes and the likes.

[David Billow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise (other than the occasional moralizing) and interesting, a rare combo in a history book

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been searching for a very long time to find a book which filled in this historic gap that is the “East” and “West” “India Compan(ies)” of the world. This is a fantastic read giving so much more depth and story around the leaders of the merchant trading companies which colonized regardless of (and sometimes on behalf of) the European powers whose flags they flew. The earliest form of capitalism with all its fault, stories of glory, and, unfortunately, many acts of genocide and disregard for human rights. It is a part of history I have found lacking in college and elsewhere but has shaped our modern world more than I realized. It’s also engaging and well-paced. Worth the read for any fan of history.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prismatic global history told through the lives of 6 men who ran the chartered business monopolies that controlled much of the world for almost 300 years (1600-1900).

I knew about the English East India Company and the Hudsons Bay Company, and I had heard about the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Indonesia, but I was still surprised to learn how much of western colonialism was outsourced to a small number of small-minded men running for-profit companies.

The story of colonialism was not about establishing empires, or spreading Christianity or western civilization to the rest of the world (the lie of the “white man’s burden’): it was about extracting, and exploiting, to the point of exhaustion, anything of value in foreign countries, at the lowest possible cost. Spices first, then furs (driven by the pointless whims of fashion), saltpetre, textiles, diamonds, gold, and of course, slaves.

The men who ran these companies, working thousands of miles away from imperial centers of power, exercised arbitrary and unrestrained authority over all of the people within their domains, and beyond - sometimes to cruel effect. They were accountable to their shareholders, and their own consciences, not to any government. They made up their own laws, directed private armies, created their own states within states. This is a story of greed, corruption, profiteering, the drive for maximum corporate and personal power at the expense of indigenous peoples and the environment.

The stories of the companies and these men are interleaved with the history of larger international conflicts, the jockeying for power between western nations. Each of these chartered companies were absorbed over time by imperial governments, fading into the history of colonial expansion.

The story starts with the Dutch, with Jan Pieterszoon Coen who became governor of the Dutch East India Company, and his sociopathic focus on eliminating competition for the trade of nutmeg, mace and cloves (then more valuable than gold) in remote islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Coen ignored his own company’s instructions, violated laws, killed and tortured competitors and customers, all in quest of establishing a complete spice trade monopoly. The profits from this fueled the Dutch Golden Age, but the costs of maintaining the monopoly eventually bankrupted the VOC and impoverished Indonesia.

Part of those costs was the loss of Manhattan by the Dutch to the English. Pieter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company founded New Netherland in what became Manhattan New York, in an attempt to drive a wedge in North America between French trade in Canada, and English trade in Virginia and Boston. The Dutch were forced to cede their colony to the English in 1667, in return for the island of Run in Indonesia, so that the VOC could continue to control the already declining spice trade.

The story switches to Robert Clive (Lord Clive of India) and the English East India Company (EIC) takeover of Bengal about 100 years later. Bown draws a nuanced portrait of Clive, who was mentally and physically ill, but also a tactical military genius, a skilled political player, and a recklessly ambitious risk taker. He was also the right man in the right place at the right time. Clive, like Cortez and Pizarro in the New World, took advantage of internal conflicts during the collapse of the Mughal Empire in India, playing parties against each other, using money from Indian bankers to pay Indian soldiers to defeat the EIC’s competitors, and then to assume control over Bengal (and eventually over the rest of the Indian subcontinent), making the EIC profitable for a time, and making himself one of the richest men in Europe.

Clive’s story gets bogged down in political intrigues and infighting in India and back in England. Bown does not explore the EIC’s and Clive’s culpability in the first Bengal Famine in 1670, and he does not make clear how and why Britain made India the centerpiece of its colonial empire, how it fueled Britain’s rise to become the most powerful nation on earth - for that, read William Dalrymple’s excellent The Anarchy. I was interested to learn that Indian saltpetre, and not the just the textile looms of Bengal, was an important target of the EIC.

The story of the Russian American company in Alaska during the late 18th and early 19th century was a revelation to me. Alexander Baranov is the only “merchant king” who is a sympathetic character - a man who tried to do what was right for the company as well as the people involved, including the natives of Alaska, and because of that, made many enemies. The Russian American company was built on fur trading, especially sea otter, as well as fox and fur seals, until the animals were hunted effectively to extinction, and the land holdings of the company eventually sold off to the United States.

The Hudson Bay Company (HBC) under George Simpson, a story explored in more detail in Bown’s excellent book The Company, focuses on Simpson and his drive to expand the company to its historic limits, before it lost its monopoly, and its land holdings (Rupert’s Land) became the greater part of the new nation of Canada. Simpson, a thoroughly unlikeable man, misogynist and racist, shaped the history of western and northern Canada, and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The story ends with Cecil Rhodes, who towers above the others in the extent of his greed and ambition, married with racist ideas of social Darwinism. Rhodes was not only a trade monopolist, founding De Beers and the British South Africa country which colonised Rhodesia as a corporate state: he wanted to dominate Africa, and the rest of the world, on behalf of the Anglo Saxon race. The Dutch VOC pops up again early in the history of South Africa, establishing the early Dutch-speaking colonies to service Dutch shipping, before the British pushed these people (the Boers) further inland. Rhodes legacy is enormous: he founded Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe and Zambia), created the framework for uniting the British and Dutch republics of South Africa; put in place the racial segregation policies and institutions for what became apartheid in South Africa; and of course established the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.

Bown’s epilogue, which tries to tie together all of these stories, is preachy and obvious, but overall this is a compelling work of history.

[Luke Eure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, makes me want to learn so much more about this time period and about all these trading companies.

The scope of ambition that some of these men had, and their ruthlessness in pursuing it is astounding. The fact that many of them thought they were morally in the right (when I look back and see them committing so many obvious atrocities) makes me feel much more humble about my ability to know that what I am doing is right and will stand up to the test of history.

I had not really understood the extent of Dutch influence in North America (New Netherland/New Amsterdam). Or really their influence on the world overall. The Dutch East Indies company made up 50% of European foreign trade in 1650!

[Catherine Gentry · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Catherine Woodman]

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.

[Jim Gallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The extent of corporate power is a common topic but author Stephen Bohn recalls the day when Merchants truly were Kings. The six subjects of this book built commercial kingdoms on foreign continents, achieved fame and fortune and expanded the empires of their home nations. Beyond usual organizing commercial enterprises and transportation fleets, these men raised armies, assembled fleets, conquered peoples, encouraged migrations and sought confirmation of their monopolies from their home governments. This book entwines economic, political and demographic themes.

Bown first shines his light on Jan Pieterszoon Coen and the Dutch East Indian Company. During the Dutch Golden Age Coen headed the efforts of his company to corner the nutmeg supply emanating from the Spice Islands of the Moluccas, now Indonesia. Arriving in the Spice Island in 1609 with thirteen ships, 1,000 soldiers plus Japanese mercenaries, Coen endeavored to shifrt trade from British to Dutch interests a task that continued until his death on September 20, 1629 but the Dutch East Indian company would not go bankrupt in 1799 and Dutch rule over its East Indies would persist until 1949.

From the twilight of the Dutch Golden Age, Peter Stuyvesant of the Dutch West India Company is next . Best know as the purchaser of Manhattan Island, Stuyvesant was much more. Presented as a lifetime employee of the West India Company whose silver banded wooden right peg evidenced his sacrifice for the company, he led a fleet of twelve battleships against Spanish in the Caribbean in 1644 before assuming the director generalship of New Netherland in 1647. Before surrendering to Britain’s Duke of York in 1665 he established municipal services for New Amsterdam (modern New York) and a monetary system. Though its best days were behind it, the Dutch West India Company survived for another century.

The life of Sir Robert Clive of the English East India Company may have more enduring significance than those of the preceding characters. Attracted to the Indian subcontinent by the abundance of saltpetre, a crucial ingredient of eighteenth-century explosives, Clive directed armies and navies, made treaties with local rulers and waged war against colonial powers and corporations. Clive was a leading architect of British domination in India from his arrival at Madras in 1744 until his suicide in London in 1774,. English East India’s authority would wane as that of the British government waxed, and the company was dissolved in 1874.

At the extreme northwest of the American continent, the saga of Aleksandr Baranov and the Russian American Company is the next subject. Arriving in Alaska in 1790, Baranov’s challenges were different from those of other Merchant Kings. This “Lord of Alaska” built his kingdom on islands inhabited by First Nations, settled by Russian emigres and financed by the export of furs. Officially founded in 1799, the Russian American Company’s reign would extend until Baranov’s death in 1819, followed by naval administration until Alaska’s sale to the United States in 1867.

Of perhaps most interest to Americans is “Empire of the Beaver: Sir George Simpson and The Hudson’s Bay Company”. Merger of the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 created the vehicle with which the Scottish Simpson competed, until his death in 1860, with American interests for the fur trade and sovereignty of a continent from Hudson Bay to the Pacific. Not only would Hudson Bay’s territory become part of the of Canada in 1870, its border with the United States reflects Hudson Bay’s shadow. The Company’s influence endures. Its Fort Garry became Winnipeg, Manitoba, Fort Edmonton became Edmonton, Alberta and Fort Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia.

The lastl Merchant King is Cecil John Rhodes of the British South Africa Company. From his arrival in southern Africa in 1879, Rhodes blended industrial and political power to consolidate diamond and gold mines, encourage settlements and serve as prime minister of Cape Province. His mineral enterprises drivel, and racial policies plague, a subcontinent to this day. His Rhodes Scholarships remain a prestigious award and supporter of academic excellence.

Bohn’s text captures and holds the reader’s attention. Most chapters be with a quote from their principal personalities. The Index facilitates reference and thgine bibliography encourages further study. Pictures add faces and scenes to the text and the maps and “Timeline For The Age Of Heroic Commerce” are valuable supplements.

I find Merchant Kings to be a very interesting work of history, both mercantile and societal. It teaches us how, from 1600-1900, policy and development was often led, not by politicians and generals, but by businessmen who assumed many governmental powers. The “Kings” featured were flawed men of accomplishment. Industries and nations are built on foundations they laid. Some of their means are no longer acceptable, but, as Bown asserts, were controversial in their own days and, not necessarily inevitable. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in history of commercial and colonial development or pondering how much of our world came to be.

[Bill Forsyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read the stories of the men that led these companies and what they accomplished, the way they overcame obstacles to their goals, their steely determination…as well as what they committed. As a business leader it certainly gave me much to think about.

However I would have enjoyed it more had the author dug deeper and woven a more complex story.

Also the judgement and moral preaching about these accomplished men that the author chose to sprinkle generously about was a bit of a bore as such things are subjective and in the end up to the judgement of each reader.

Such things detracted from the stories because whenever I encountered them my attention was drawn away from the story and into present day sensibilities. I couldn’t help but think in those moments about the author, not the subjects of his book, and the author’s apparent sense of obligation to moralize, possibly from fear that if he were to simply lay out the facts, his peers might criticize him for having not sufficiently excoriated these long dead men, the subjects of his story.

Also, as others have pointed out, the way the story jumps around the chronology, sometimes by decades, and often without explanation, detracted from my enjoyment.

If any reading this can recommend any books that might address these deficiencies while covering the same subjects please post.

[Randall Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be somewhat interesting, but it left me wanting a more nuanced and complex version of the story. I did think that the concept of the book - describing the large mercantile companies (like the East India Company) through the stories of 6 of the leaders of the companies (like Sir Robert Clive) - was a good one, but I thought that overall the writing wasn't great, and the storytelling was lacking in depth. I also take issue with the title of the book - I think that in today's world, while companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft don't yield the absolute, life-and-death kind of power that the mercantile companies did, in some ways they do yield more (although more subtle) power, while also being virtually monopolies. So, I'd recommend this book as a good overview of the subject, but I have to think that there are better, more complete treatments of the subject which is what I would have preferred to read.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, providing a history of six individuals who combined entrepreneurial commerce with political opportunity. The author, business historian Stephen Brown, focuses on Europeans during the colonial era: Jan Coen, Pieter Stuyvesant, Robert Clive, Alexander Baranov, George Simpson, and Cecil Rhodes. Each individual gets their own chapter of chronological narrative, with the author outlining similarities and trends as the book progresses . Brown emphasizes the blurred separation between civic governance and commercial activity that allowed for the individual’s success, the tenacious entrepreneurship each possessed, and the excessive exploitation which resulted in high profits for the subject individuals and their financial backers. The book shows how these individuals shaped the modern world, but at the cost of ruined historical reputations. A great book for understanding the long-term dangers of meshing government responsibility and commercial authorities in single individuals.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is structured as a set of six small biographies of significant figures in the history of charter monopoly companies in the era of colonization. It has all of the problems that people typically discuss with great man histories with few of the benefits and ways that the structure can be used creatively and productively, and is rather uninterested in most of what empire actually did to people who are not the main characters. There is a pretty thin slice audience for whom it would be moderately informative (people with some specialist interest in history but not much knowledge of this general topic area) and a somewhat larger audience for whom it can be a fairly entertaining read (it's very well written in a way that makes me even more disappointed in the content) but on the whole would not recommend even though I came in quite excited for a book on this subject

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Merchant Kings” is of the most concise and informative books on the Early Modern and Late Modern periods of history you’ll find.
Bown has written about the rise of mercantilism in a global scale which was crucial to the formation of the world we live in today. It details the often violent ways that the European navigators and merchants connected the world’s continents via colonies and ports facilitated the rise to power of merchants and their ‘company kingdoms’.
Yet it also talks about figures who weren’t so autocratic and violent (such as Adriaen van der Donck) who wanted to better the lives of the serf-like peoples forced to work and pay ridiculous taxes under those colonies, thus creating systems of government that overcame the feudal societal structure of the previous era and could be called something more ‘modern’.
Highly recommended, be it the physical book or audiobook.

[Charles Inglin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenomenon of European colonialism from the 17th century to the 19th century was the trading companies that were granted monopolies by their governments. The Dutch East India Company, Dutch West India Company, English East India Company, Russian-America Company, British South Africa Company and Hudsons Bay Company exercised powers normally reserved to states, including raising troops and fighting wars. The slow communications during most of this era meant that the boards of directors in the home countries had tenuous control over their mangers in the distant lands they operated, and actually seem not terribly concerned about what they were doing as long as the profits rolled in. The result was not an example of enlightened government. There's lessons here for the influence today's multinational corporations operate.

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging narrative of six of the famous monopoly companies and their leaders of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. I would say the author is mostly even-handed in his treatment of these 'merchant kings', showing us the positive traits that led to them becoming leaders, but also their negative traits, mainly in their treatment of other people (both Europeans and natives). In the end, none of these guys is going to come off looking too good, because they lived in an age whose values are quite different from our own.

Bown's potential thesis, only introduced in the epilogue, of the negative results when business and government become intertwined, is unfortunately not explored very much in the body of his work. I think the book would have benefitted from such a focus.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Bown explains the "Age of Heroic Commerce" through the lives of six "merchants kings", the managers of the six biggest trading companies of that period - Jan Pieterszoon Coen (Dutch East India Company), Peter Stuyvesant (Dutch West India Company), Robert Clive (British East India Company), Aleksandr Baranov (Russian-American Company), George Simpson (Hudson Bay Company) and Cecil Rhodes (British South Africa Company). While enriching their shareholders in Amsterdam, London and Saint Petersburg, these early multinational enterprises of 17th-19th century exploited natural resources, waged colonial wars and exercised authority over peoples and vast areas of land in Indonesia, Alaska, Bengal, New Netherland, British North America and South Africa without being accountable to the governed.

[Richard Subber · Rating 5 out of 5]

The merchant kings, the likes of Pieter Stuyvesant and Cecil John Rhodes, were autocrats who were powerful and lucky and rich and unrestrained by law or decency.

They ran such outfits as the Dutch West India Company and the English East India Company and the British South Africa Company. They boosted the trade and commerce that supported the modern nation states, and they were responsible for the deaths of uncounted millions.

Their companies more or less ruled the world, and they ruled their companies.

Merchant Kings is not a pretty story.

Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com

[A.M. Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading about this period of epic commerce and the people who pushed it forward. So many of these companies shaped our modern-day corporations while committing genocides in the name of profit. With the ability to access their wealth worldwide via banking, preventing competition from other companies, and using their company to rule over the lands they pillaged and usurped, these stories feel incredibly modern. While I enjoyed the biographies of the Merchant Kings (particularly Clive), I would have liked more details covering how the corporations ran in their day-to-day operations, given the long delays between communications.

Ah, oh well. More reading for me, I guess.

[Jukka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirja tarjoaa katsauksen kuuteen Aasiasta, Pohjois-Amerikasta ja Afrikasta rikkauksia haalineeseen kauppakomppaniaan. Näkökulma on "suurmiesten", kuten Cecil Rhodesin, Robert Cliven tai Jan Pieterszoon Coenin. Hyvää on tiedonmuruset ja ajankuva kansainvälisen kaupan yhdestä vaiheesta: esim. Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, 1602-1800) synnytti pörssin ja vastasi huomattavasta osasta maailmankauppaa tuoden muskottipähkinää ja mausteneilikkaa Maustesaarilta. Jälkimmäistä käytettiin pahanhajuisen hengityksen karkottamiseen. Välillä kirja kuulostaa enemmän nuorille pojille tarkoitetulta seikkailutarinalta kuin historiankirjoitukselta. Lukija jää kaipaamaan hieman purevampaa otetta.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to learn more about the Dutch East India Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, and this book did the trick. It tells the stories of these and other statist companies, which are sort of interesting. It could have been a better book if the author had reflected more on what it means for a company to act like a state—with police forces, standing armies, the capacity to write and sign treaties. It’s a major historical anomaly! I was hoping for a deeper explication of that organizational form, rather than simply an account of each company.