328 Victor N. Zakharov, Gelina Harlaftis, and Olga Katsiardi-Hering

328 Book ReviewS Victor N. Zakharov, Gelina Harlaftis, and Olga Katsiardi-Hering, eds. Merchant Colonies in the Early Modern Period, London: Pickering & Chatto, 2012, 245 pp. ISBN 978-1-848-93353-8. $99.00. Much has been written about trade in early modern Europe, but most has delved into the inter-continental variety with the establishment of overseas merchant empires and the prevalence of the English and Dutch East India Companies in the seventeenth century. Merchant Colonies in the Early Modern Period shifts attention to intra-continental trade carried by foreign merchants in key locations across Europe. The editors bring diverse settings that encom- pass both different groups of merchants in a single country (chapters 2, 3, and 6 on England, France, and Russia), and that of merchants of a given nationality in several host countries (chapters 1, 4, and 5 dealing with English, Armenian, and Russian merchants, and 7, 8, and 9, with Greek merchants). The term merchant colonies merits brief discussion in chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 as its usage is far from straightforward. On the one hand, “colony” is hardly a correct term to designate communities of foreign merchants in a given country (e.g. foreign merchants in Russia). On the other, the term “community” is not necessarily accurate since merchants coming from the same country could belong to very different backgrounds; therefore trust among them was not guaranteed (e.g. Greeks in Nezhin, Ukraine). However difficult it may be to coin the exact term, these groups of merchants did locate in foreign nations and played a role in long-distance trade before the transportation revolution of industrial times. Zakharov et al’s objective is to understand the regular and varying patterns of these merchant groups from origin to decay, as well as their influence in mar- ket integration and the development of the local economy. In chapter 1, Veluwenkamp and Veenstra provide an account of English merchants abroad who organized in merchant companies according to geography: the Merchant Adventurers Company, initially located in Antwerp; the Muscovy Company for trade with Russia; the Eastland Company for trade with Nordic countries; and the Levant Company for trade in the eastern Mediterranean. These companies disintegrated gradually through deregulation and interloper action, but the fate of English merchant communities abroad varied. They disappeared in places with lower trade barriers (e.g. Sweden), but persisted where connections with local merchants were necessary for trade to take place (e.g. Netherlands). Dougherty discusses Italian and German merchant colonies in England in chapter 2. While Germans sold flax, cordage, timber, and wax, the Italians brought luxury goods and offered loans. The Germans dealt mostly in cash and © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��4 | doi �0.��63/�5700658-��34�4�� Book ReviewS 329 received special trade privileges from the English monarch, such as having their own court. Italians enjoyed no such privileges, but their trade requirements eased at the time of loan repayments. Both communities ceased to exist dur- ing the sixteenth century, as England became a major trade center in Europe. In chapter 3, Pourchasse focuses on merchant communities in France in the eighteenth century, which differed greatly from their medieval predeces- sors. As trade with northern Europe became more prominent, Dutch, German, and Swiss communities moved to French ports. Their family alliances spread through an international network, which relied on connections with the Huguenot diaspora in the countries of origin. These communities dissolved in the host society after the second generation, mostly via marriage, though they were still viewed as foreign citizens by locals. In chapter 4, McCabe looks at Armenian traders in the Mediterranean ports of Livorno, Venice, and Marseille. All cities issued legislation to attract foreign merchants with commercial and religious privileges, mostly directed at Jews but serving other merchants as well. Armenians felt close to Europeans who were also Christian, but Europeans saw Armenians as Persian, Ottoman, or Levantine. Over time these tensions mounted and, by the eighteenth century, restrictions such as the demand for naturalization certificates were not uncommon. Chapter 5 shifts the focus of the book to Eastern Europe with the analysis of Russian merchant colonies in seventeenth-century Sweden. Kotilaine distin- guishes border communities with a history of trade decline mostly due to war, from communities of Russian merchants in the Baltic cities of Narva, Tallinn (Reval), Riga, and Stockholm. Distance, accommodation and storage facilities, and access to mineral wealth from central Sweden, made the Stockholm community quite successful in comparison to other cities. In chapter 6, Zakharov concentrates on foreign merchant communities operating in Russia, where the divide was between the English and all other merchants. English merchants belonged to the Muscovy Company chartered by the English monarch with exclusive rights of trade in Russia, which were recognized by Moscow. German, Dutch, and all other merchants however, depended on personal charters issued by the tsar and relied on informal family connections for business. The decline of the Muscovy Company shifted Russian trade to the Dutch despite the general decline of Dutch trade in the eighteenth century. Chapters 7, 8, and 9, deal with Greek merchants. Katsiardi-Hering exam- ines Greek communities in south-eastern Europe, which varied according to settling destination: tolerant Trieste saw its Greek merchants flourish, but naturalization became increasingly common elsewhere. Carras sheds light on Journal of early modern history �8 (�0�4) 3�8-330.

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