Rivalry for Trade in Tea and Textiles: The English and Dutch East India Companies (1700–1800) by Chris Nierstrasz, and: Trade and Empire in Early Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia: Gillian Maclaine and His Business Network by G. Roger Knight, and: Money in Asia (1200–1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts ed. by Jane Kate Leonard, Ulrich Theobald (review)

The three works reviewed here, at a first glance, cover vastly different topics. The monograph by Chris Nierstrasz examines the two great East India companies, the Dutch (VOC) and the English (EIC), during the eighteenth century and their trade in coffee as well as cotton cloth. The second work, by Roger Knight, traces the growth of the personal business empire of the Scotsman Gillian Maclaine in the opening decades of the nineteenth century. The third, edited by Jane Leonard and Ulrich Theobald, discusses mediums of exchange and specific sociopolitical settings in which these are used. As the title of the book intimates, its primary focus is on Asia, but the overwhelming degree of attention is on China and Japan.

Before turning to address the merits of these three books, readers of this journal will be interested in two overarching questions: What common themes and touchpoints do these works have? And, how do these, in turn, relate to topics associated with world history?

First to the question about common themes and touchpoints: The books by Nierstrasz and Knight neatly build on one another. Both are concerned with supply chains, the mechanisms that sustain them, and how trading networks were shaped by government policies, such as protectionism and taxation, although during separate, albeit adjacent, time periods. Nierstrasz compares the different ways in which Indian textiles and Chinese tea were mutually dependent commodities of trade and featured in the global supply and sales chains of the VOC and EIC. Knight, by contrast, is interested in the adventures of Maclaine, who built up his fortunes and trading networks in Java as a country trader in the two decades between 1820 and 1840. By this stage the VOC had of course already disappeared, but there were resounding echoes of its earlier existence, not least in Java. To some British country traders, the Netherlands Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappij, or NHM) appeared to be a reincarnation of the defunct VOC, complete with its monopolistic tendencies.

Textiles and stimulants feature prominently in both books, but there are also significant differences in the way these are handled historically: The textiles Nierstrasz discusses were manufactured and procured by the two companies in India; Maclaine by contrast was trading in textiles manufactured in Europe, mainly Britain. Both books address the trade in stimulants: Nierstrasz examines the procurement of and trade in Chinese tea (in different qualities), while Knight emphasizes coffee from Java—Maclaine himself was a coffee planter. Both books address the reach and mechanisms of trade via the theme of return cargos: Nierstrasz demonstrates that in the eighteenth century, tea was paid for with cargos of textiles and pepper, while Knight shows how textile exports from Europe were paid with commodities from Java, primarily coffee, but later also sugar.

How then does the third book fit in? The touchpoints here are policies, value, value transfer, the power of the consumer, and mercantilist principles. Money in Asia is a conference volume that emerged from a project spearheaded by Professor Hans Ulrich Vogel at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Its purpose is to nudge readers away from Eurocentric thinking about money, capital, and markets to focus on Asia, and specifically northeast Asia. The preface by Mark Elvin—a theme-setting chapter by its own right—stakes out the big picture...