World Affairs & HistoryBook note
A Splendid Exchange
Description. A short description of a book from my bookshelf, not a review.
Bernstein traces the history of trade from the exchange of goods in ancient Mesopotamia through the spice routes of the Indian Ocean, the Silk Road, the Portuguese and Dutch trading empires, and on to the container ship and modern globalisation. Along the way he shows how the pursuit of profit drove exploration, war and the spread of ideas and disease.
The book is wide in scope and full of memorable stories, from Arab dhows to the East India Companies. It is particularly good on the Indian Ocean and on the long history of the debate between free trade and protection. It appears on the Ten Book List on this site.
From the bookshelf · read 2021