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by Francesca Trivellato (Editor), Leor Halevi (Editor), Catia Antunes (Editor)
Although trade connects distant people and regions, bringing cultures closer together through the exchange of material goods and ideas, it has not always led to unity and harmony. From the era of the Crusades to the dawn of colonialism, exploitation and violence characterized many trading ventures, which required vessels and convoys to overcome tremendous technological obstacles and merchants to grapple with strange customs and manners in a foreign environment. Yet despite all odds, experienced traders and licensed brokers, as well as ordinary people, travelers, pilgrims, missionaries, and interlopers across the globe, concocted ways of bartering, securing credit, and establishing relationships with people who did not speak their language, wore different garb, and worshipped other gods.
Author Biography
Francesca Trivellato is the Frederick W. Hilles Professor of History at Yale University. She is the author of The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period and Fondamenta dei vetrai: Lavoro, tecnologia e mercato a Venezia tra Sei e Settecento.
Leor Halevi is Associate Professor of History and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, a book that won the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and the Middle East Studies Association's Albert Hourani Award, as well as book prizes given by the Medieval Academy of America and the American Academy of Religion. Cátia Antunes is Associate Professor of Early Modern Economic and Social History at Leiden University. She is the author of two monographs on early modern globalization: Globalisation in the Early Modern Period: The Economic Relationship between Amsterdam and Lisbon, 1640-1705 and Lisboa e Amesterdão: Um caso de globalização na história moderna.
