The Age of Commerce

Pierre Gervais is Professor of American Civilization at Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris and a past President of the French Economic History Association. He has published extensively on early modern merchant practices and is a past winner of the Organization of American Historians Willi Paul Adams Prize.

• Introduction; Part I. The Early Modern Merchant Economy, A Practical Introduction: Chapter 1. 'By nature variable and fluctuating': market uncertainty; Chapter 2. 'The happiness and success of Traders': market control; Chapter 3. 'A long service to other merchants': merchant solidarity; Part II. Early Modern Merchants Societies: An Exploration: Chapter 4. 'From whence the most flourishing States derive their strength': merchant polities; Chapter 5. 'With Crowns of Fruits, and hands full of Riches'? Merchant societies; Part III. From the Age of Commerce to Capitalism: Chapter 6. 'By means not always obvious': the end of the Age of Commerce; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'A comprehensive and thoughtful explanation of the emergence and evolution of Western capitalism that offers a powerful, essential corrective to the historical narrative. Deploying a novel, intriguing approach that uses book-keeping systems to illuminate contemporary practice and understanding and highlighting the primacy of market uncertainty, mercantile and governmental control of the market, and merchant solidarity between the late 15th century and the early 19th century, Gervais posits an 'Age of Commerce' dominated by merchants remarkably wholly distinct from that which followed.' David Hancock, author of Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste