Enterprising Empires
Russia and Britain in Eighteenth-Century Eurasia

Focuses on the British Russia Company, revealing how commercial competition between the British and Russian empires became entangled.

Matthew P. Romaniello (Author)

9781108497572, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 February 2019

304 pages, 7 b/w illus. 3 maps 7 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

'Enterprising Empires is a convincing, readable, and significant work that should be applauded for both its ambition and its provision of a trans-national history of Russian and British commerce at time of transition from pre-industrial to capitalist order.' Eugene Miakinkov, Eighteenth-Century Studies

Commercial competition between Britain and Russia became entangled during the eighteenth century in Iran, the Middle East, and China, and disputes emerged over control of the North Pacific. Focusing on the British Russia Company, Matthew P. Romaniello charts the ways in which the company navigated these commercial and diplomatic frontiers. He reveals how geopolitical developments affected trade far more than commercial regulations, while also challenging depictions of this period as a straightforward era of Russian economic decline. By looking at merchants' and diplomats' correspondence and the actions and experiences of men working in Eurasia for Russia and Britain, he demonstrates the importance of restoring human experiences in global processes and provides individual perspective on this game of empire. This approach reveals that economic fears, more than commodities exchanged, motivated actions across the geopolitical landscape of Europe during the Seven Years' War and the American and French Revolutions.

Introduction
1. Opening opportunities
2. Managing mercantilism
3. Asian aspirations
4. Navigating neutrality
5. Continental challenges
Afterword.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], International trade [KCLT], Diplomacy [JPSD], British & Irish history [HBJD1], European history [HBJD]