Breaking from Eurocentric frameworks of global economic history, this study offers a connected and polycentric narrative of early modern capitalism. In a wide-ranging analysis of economic life in seventeen early modern cities, leading economic and urban historians highlight those urban centres which distinguished themselves by their sophisticated mechanisms of banking and credit allocation, those whose infrastructure attracted local and global trade networks, and those that specialised in particular commodities – such as spices, slaves, textiles and coffee – and thus assumed a particularly pivotal station in global trade. Rather than a single geographic centre around which the world economy pivoted, they demonstrate that numerous 'nodes' of capitalist activity existed, facilitating trans-regional economic exchange. From the slave trade in Kingston, Jamaica to the coffee trade in Mocha and the ties between Canton and Macau, these nodes revolutionized global trade and economic life. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘Instead of the usual sequence of national, and mostly European histories, this book rewrites the history of early capitalism as urban histories and global networks. In doing so, it resolves many problems of the old narratives. The book's consistently comparative approach also makes it a model of how to write world history.'

Maarten Prak - Utrecht University

‘How did cities shape capitalism? This exciting and timely volume takes us from Hormuz to Siam to offer substantial discussions of how cities in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe functioned as nodes of commerce and finance during the first globalization. The book presents state-of-the art global history which will orient and enthuse researchers and students alike. A brilliant contribution to current thinking about the polycentric pathways that explain the making of the modern world.'

Ulinka Rublack - University of Cambridge