Early Modern historians have long been fascinated by the mercantile world of the late medieval and early modern periods. The reason for their fascination can be ascribed to the wealth, cosmopolitism, social capital and political clout that many of these merchants (mostly men) projected onto...

"Hans Holbein's Triumphs (1532-1534), commissioned for the headquarters of the Hanseatic League in London and Kano Naizen's The Portuguese namban ('foreigners') painted in Japan in 1543 are representations of worlds of trade, where wealth, speculation, exploitation, poverty, curiosity,...