The Mercantile Effect Format: Paperback

This lavishly illustrated volume of essays introduces a fascinating array of subjects, each exploring an aspect of the far-reaching “mercantile effect” and its impact across western Asia in the early modern era. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the increased movement of merchants and goods from China to Europe brought desirable commodities to new markets, but also spread ideas, tastes, and technologies across western Asia as never before. Through the newly-established Dutch, English, and French East India companies, as well as much older mercantile networks, commodities including silk, ivory, books, and glazed porcelains were transported both east and west. The Mercantile Effect shows a fascinating array of trade objects and the customs and traditions of traders that brought about a period of intense cultural interchange.

Melanie Gibson is a well-known authority on Middle Eastern ceramics, writing and lecturing on them worldwide. A council member of the Oriental Ceramic Society, she is also a trustee of the Al-Tajir Trust and a trustee of the Friends of Leighton House, where she first became fascinated by the history behind the creation of the Arab Hall.