The 14 chapters of this book fruitfully explore different aspects and features of early modern merchant cultures around the globe, with particular emphasis on cross-cultural encounters and exchanges. The authors come from several universities and research institutions (eleven European, two Indian, and one American). Right at the start, the editors define merchant culture as “ways of doing, thinking and interacting related to buying and selling, sourcing and bargaining, storing and distributing, registering income and expenditure, calculating interest and profit, assessing risk and losses, and managing access to capital, investments, loans and debt” (p. 1). Although this all-encompassing definition (which several authors invoke throughout the book) risks detracting from the analytical and theoretical coherence of the volume as a whole—for it leaves room for everything and anything to do with merchants—the truth is that the chapters shed exciting, rigorous light on merchants' daily experiences and struggles, which economic historians often overlook....
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