The British and the Spanish had long been in conflict, often clashing over politics, trade, and religion. But in the early decades of the eighteenth century, these empires signed an asiento agreement granting the British South Sea Company a monopoly on the slave trade in the Spanish Atlantic,...

The Temptations of Trade reveals the opportunities and tensions of doing business in regions far from strict imperial control, where the actions of individuals could both connect empires and drive them to war.

Beyond empires' explores the complexity of empire building from the point of view of self-organized networks, rather than from the point of view of the central state. This focus takes readers into a world of cooperative strategies worldwide that emphasises the role played by individuals, rather...

Intro -- Beyond Empires: Global, Self-Organizing, Cross-Imperial Networks, 1500-1800 -- Copyright -- Contents -- General Editor's Foreword -- List of Figures and Tables -- List of Contributors -- Introduction -- 1: The Evolution of Norms in Trade and Financial Networks in the First Global Age:...