Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part One Migrations and Encounters
- Part Two Trade, Exchange, and Production
- 5 The Columbian Exchange
- 6 The slave trade and the African diaspora
- 7 The organization of trade in Europe and Asia, 1400–1800
- 8 Entrepreneurs, families, and companies
- 9 Silver in a global context, 1400–1800
- 10 Dutch and English trade to the East: the Indian Ocean and the Levant, to about 1700
- 11 Plantation societies
- 12 Industrious revolutions in early modern world history
- Part Three Religion and Religious Change
- Part Four Questions of Method
- Index
- References
8 - Entrepreneurs, families, and companies
from Part Two - Trade, Exchange, and Production
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part One Migrations and Encounters
- Part Two Trade, Exchange, and Production
- 5 The Columbian Exchange
- 6 The slave trade and the African diaspora
- 7 The organization of trade in Europe and Asia, 1400–1800
- 8 Entrepreneurs, families, and companies
- 9 Silver in a global context, 1400–1800
- 10 Dutch and English trade to the East: the Indian Ocean and the Levant, to about 1700
- 11 Plantation societies
- 12 Industrious revolutions in early modern world history
- Part Three Religion and Religious Change
- Part Four Questions of Method
- Index
- References
Summary
The early modern period was truly 'an age of commerce' in which long-standing Afro-Eurasian trading zones incorporated American commodities into the first genuinely global mercantile networks. Merchants who moved staples and luxury items across long distances in the early modern period utilized routes within distinct commercial zones that had endured for many centuries. Family partnerships drew on the benefits of blood ties that fostered trust, provided access to capital and credit, and increased the reach of commercial ventures. Relations served as agents, investors, brokers, and employees that enabled entrepreneurs to initiate or expand projects beyond their initial capacities. Trade in Asia, Africa, and North America largely remained in the hands of indigenous merchants until the second half of the eighteenth century when most maritime commercial outposts began to come under colonial rule. Nevertheless, joint-stock companies occasionally used armed trading to secure leverage over indigenous merchants and political leaders or to control the production of local goods.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 190 - 212Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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