The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c. 1550-1750

Abstract

William A. Pettigrew and David Veevers put forward a new interpretation of the role Europe’s overseas corporations played in early modern global history, recasting them from vehicles of national expansion to significant forces of global integration. Across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific, corporations provided a truly global framework for facilitating the circulation, movement and exchange between and amongst European and non-European communities, bringing them directly into dialogue often for the first time. Usually understood as imperial or colonial commercial enterprises, The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History reveals the unique global sociology of overseas corporations to provide a new global history in which non-Europeans emerged as key stakeholders in European overseas enterprises in the early modern world. Contributors include: Michael D. Bennett, Aske Laursen Brock, Liam D. Haydon, Lisa Hellman, Leonard Hodges, Emily Mann, Simon Mills, Chris Nierstrasz, Edgar Pereira, Edmond Smith, Haig Smith, and Anna Winterbottom. Contents Acknowledgements vii Notes on Contributors viii Introduction 1 William A. Pettigrew and David Veevers Part 1 Aspects of the English Corporation 1 Political Economy 43 William A. Pettigrew 2 Migration 68 Michael D. Bennett 3 Networks 96 Aske Laursen Brock 4 Literature 116 Liam D. Haydon 5 Religion 137 Haig Smith 6 Governance 163 Edmond J. Smith 7 Gender 187 David Veevers 8 Building 211 Emily Mann 9 Science 232 Anna Winterbottom 10 Scholarship 255 Simon Mills Part 2 European Perspectives 11 Scandinavian 279 Lisa Hellman 12 French 290 Leonard Hodges 13 Iberia 301 Edgar Pereira 14 Dutch 317 Chris Nierstrasz Index 327