Enterprising Empires

During the eighteenth century, the commercial rivalry between Britain and Russia spilled into Iran, the Middle East and China, and the two powers also clashed over the North Pacific. Matthew P. Romaniello uses the British Russia Company as his case study, tracing how it moved through these overlapping commercial and diplomatic frontiers. His findings suggest that geopolitical events shaped trade much more than commercial rules did, and he questions the familiar picture of this era as a simple story of Russian economic decline.

The book draws on the letters of merchants and diplomats and on the experiences of men who worked across Eurasia for Russia and Britain. Romaniello argues that global history needs human experience restored to its center, and his focus on individuals offers a close view of this contest for empire. He concludes that fears about the economy, rather than the goods being exchanged, drove decisions across Europe's political landscape during the Seven Years' War and the American and French Revolutions.