From my list on histories of merchant networks: messy, diverse, transnational, and transcultural.
Why am I passionate about this?
I am a retired professor of History and International Political Economy. Unraveling knotted masses of string was a relaxing, enjoyable activity for me while growing up. As a historian, I continue to pick apart entangled matters, particularly about capitalism as a complex system. Networks give structure to complex systems, and I find networked merchants in the modern era (ca. 1500- 1945) especially fascinating to study. Who were they? How did they create opportunities and work across borders and cultures? How did they work around adversities? How did they both perpetuate and diversify their networks? How did they link to and collaborate with one another? How do networks evolve?
Laura's book list on histories of merchant networks: messy, diverse, transnational, and transcultural
Why did Laura love this book?
I especially admire this book because it shows how diversity is key to strong, successful networking. The central message here: even way back in the 17th century, “strangers” half a world away from each other could be more valuable and trustworthy partners in transnational business than close relatives.
Networked Hindus, Sephardic Jews, and Portuguese Catholics trading coral and diamonds populate these pages. Already regarded as a gem of a work.
1 author picked The Familiarity of Strangers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Taking a new approach to the study of cross-cultural trade, this book blends archival research with historical narrative and economic analysis to understand how the Sephardic Jews of Livorno, Tuscany, traded in regions near and far in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Francesca Trivellato tests assumptions about ethnic and religious trading diasporas and networks of exchange and trust. Her extensive research in international archives-including a vast cache of merchants' letters written between 1704 and 1746-reveals a more nuanced view of the business relations between Jews and non-Jews across the Mediterranean, Atlantic Europe, and the Indian Ocean than ever before.
The…