Merchant Kings
When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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Stephen R. Bown
About this listen
It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people.
The merchant kings of the Age of Heroic Commerce were a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life men who, for a couple hundred years, expanded their far-flung commercial enterprises over a sizable portion of the world. They include Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the violent and autocratic pioneer of the Dutch East India Company; Peter Stuyvesant, the one-legged governor of the Dutch West India Company; Robert Clive, who rose from company clerk to become head of the British East India Company and one of the wealthiest men in Britain; Alexandr Baranov of the Russian American Company; Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers and Rhodesia; and George Simpson, the "Little Emperor" of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Merchant Kings looks at the rise and fall of company rule in the centuries before colonialism. A blend of biography, corporate history, and colonial history, this book offers a new perspective on the enormous cultural, political, and social legacies, good and bad, of this first period of unfettered globalization.
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By: Maya Jasanoff
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Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History
- By: Sandra Benjamin
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to the island through the centuries. These have included several who became Sicily's rulers, along with Jews, Ligurians, and Albanians. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy and the modern era have all held sway, and left lasting influences on the island's culture and architecture.
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Surprisingly compelling!
- By P. Strayer on 08-25-12
By: Sandra Benjamin
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire
- By: H. W. Crocker III
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
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Nothing offends liberals more than Western imperialism—it is racism, sexism, and chauvinism all in one. And of course the epitome of Western imperialism is the British Empire, covering at its height a quarter of the globe’s surface and ruling a quarter of the world’s population. Here, best-selling author H. W. Crocker III exposes how the British Empire was actually one of the greatest establishers and defenders of freedom in history.
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More Propaganda than History
- By Mike on 10-21-19
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The Great Sea
- A Human History of the Mediterranean
- By: David Abulafia
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins
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Ranging from prehistory to the 21st century, The Great Sea is above all the history of human interaction across a region that has brought together many of the great civilizations of antiquity as well as the rival empires of medieval and modern times.
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American Narration at it's Most Disapointing
- By Anonymous User on 03-26-18
By: David Abulafia
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El Norte
- The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America
- By: Carrie Gibson
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
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Because of our shared English language, as well as the celebrated origin tales of the Mayflower and the rebellion of the British colonies, the United States has prized its Anglo heritage above all others. However, as Carrie Gibson explains with great depth and clarity in El Norte, the nation has much older Spanish roots - ones that have long been unacknowledged or marginalized. The Hispanic past of the United States predates the arrival of the Pilgrims by a century, and has been every bit as important in shaping the nation as it exists today.
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Chicken Noodle History
- By Jose on 10-30-19
By: Carrie Gibson
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America's Hidden History
- Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation
- By: Kenneth C. C. Davis
- Narrated by: Sam Freed, Kenneth C. Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
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Kenneth C. Davis presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation's destiny and character. Davis' dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation's fate hung in the balance.
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Yeshe on 10-14-10
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The Pirate Queen
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
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Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon.
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Too lilttle about Elizabeth!
- By Eunice on 12-20-07
By: Susan Ronald
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1619
- Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy
- By: James Horn
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
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Along the banks of the James River, Virginia, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle of summer 1619, two events occurred within a few weeks of each other that would profoundly shape the course of history. In the newly built church at Jamestown, the General Assembly - the first gathering of a representative governing body in America - came together. A few weeks later, a battered privateer entered the Chesapeake Bay carrying the first African slaves to land on mainland English America.
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Brilliant!
- By HonestOpin on 05-06-19
By: James Horn
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The Age of Revolution
- A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Volume III
- By: Sir Winston Churchill
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
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This is the third volume in Churchill's famous account. During the long period of 1688 to 1815, three revolutions took place, and all led to war between the British and the French.
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Historical Overview of Britain
- By Lois on 01-30-12
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Venice
- A New History
- By: Professor Thomas F. Madden
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
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An extraordinary chronicle of Venice, its people, and its grandeur Thomas Madden’s majestic, sprawling history of Venice is the first full portrait of the city in English in almost thirty years. Using long-buried archival material and a wealth of newly translated documents, Madden weaves a spellbinding story of a place and its people, tracing an arc from the city’s humble origins as a lagoon refuge to its apex as a vast maritime empire and Renaissance epicenter to its rebirth as a modern tourist hub.
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Omits slave trade
- By Rocky Stonebreaker on 08-21-16
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When Jill Morgenthaler arrived at boot camp in 1975 as part of the inaugural class of women in the army, she was one of 83 female cadets...on a base of 50,000 men. So she knows a thing or two about conquering obstacles. In The Courage to Take Command, Colonel Morgenthaler provides invaluable leadership lessons drawn from her three decades of military service - from her first days in ROTC to combat in some of the world's most dangerous war zones.
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What listeners say about Merchant Kings
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J.
- 09-03-24
An non-academic overview
Excellent examples but each study seems to draw largely upon just one or two secondary sources.
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- BOA
- 09-22-24
The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.
This fine overview demonstrates how our present geopolitics can be mentally mapped back to the days when companies (under the veneer of countries) ruled the globe. The bedrock of the industrial-military complex is laid bare. I really enjoyed this book!
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- richard
- 02-20-24
Very interesting
It's a good and interesting read, well researched.
The author introduces also the historical background and environment in which those figures lived and acted
I enjoyed listening to it
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary
- 03-10-23
Learned a great deal
While these “kings” should in no way be lauded, it is important that their stories be told (if for no other reason that power hungry people still exist today, so that understanding what makes them tick and also how to curtail their unscrupulous manipulations of economies and governments is necessary). This work tells such stories, as both history and cautionary tale. I was looking for a book that covered the maritime enterprises of the world powers from 1600s through 1800s, which few books touch on. I now feel I have a better grasp of the dynamics, corporate entities, and personalities at play. Really helps make sense of world history, especially for those, like me, interested in ancestry research, understanding the motivations for immigration and/or world travel.
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- lp
- 11-23-24
Succinct, informative and engaging
Well constructed explanation of the history and economics of the period when companies explored and conquered the resource rich parts of the world.
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- Zero
- 08-28-23
Fun, if traditional
This was a fun text. However, the author does write history in a rather traditional manner. An example of this is during the section on the East India Company under Clive, the author uses the term "hordes" without qualification to describe Mughal armies. Is the year 1965?
I was also amused when in the introduction, the author broadly described the types of men written about in this book -- men like Robert Clive of the EIC and Alexander Baranov of the Russian-American trading company -- as "monopolists and not capitalists." He then goes on to describe how these men put their companies "on the surest business footing they knew - monopoly."
In any case, the stories told are entertaining and the book is interesting, keeping the shortcomings of the approach in-mind.
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- mona berrier
- 03-02-22
Disappointed
I found it highly superficial and deliberately deceitful in playing up the financial success of the men discussed while providing only a cosmetic treatment of the evil the men perpetrated in pursuit of $$. If you like you history whitewashed, this book is stellar.
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