In the wake of J.G.A. Pocock's seminal work, The Machiavellian Moment (1975), scholarly interest in premodern republics tended to concentrate on Italian communes and Anglophone political thought. Mary Lindemann's study reinforces recent attempts at more inclusive coverage and at comparative investigations of imperial free cities, Swiss cantons, and Dutch provinces (e.g., André Holenstein et al., eds., The Republican Alternative [2008]). The author zooms in on the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, all located in the economically most dynamic region of early modern Europe bordering on the North Sea. Aiming to highlight the synergies and occasional tensions between trading interests and civic government, Lindemann refers to the case studies as “merchant republics.” According to her definition, they subscribed to “a republicanism congruent with commerce and a mentality that celebrated trade and valued its embodiment,” with merchants serving “as the pillars of the polity and the vessels of republican virtues” (310) in all three contexts.

The book opens with a survey of the respective locations, sizes, and constitutions of these three cities. This section emphasizes their extensive control over internal affairs and the relatively broad level of participation in public offices, especially in the parishes, wards, and militia organizations—in contrast to the gradual oligarchization of urban ruling bodies, particularly in Amsterdam. Chapter 2 investigates key aspects of political culture, such as the inclination to stress the benefits rather than the moral dangers of wealth accumulation; the enduring resolve to defend corporate liberties; and the predominance of personal and situational priorities over long-term visions or ideologies. Lindemann then addresses the near-constant preoccupation with “corruption,” i.e., the deliberate abuse of power and patronage by the cities' governing elites. This was a major bone of contention between, for example, Hamburg's Bürgerschaft council and the much smaller Senate. An examination then follows of the republics' distinctly antimonarchical and non-noble self-identification, contrasting the latter's vanities and dissimulations (personified by fraudulent “impostors”) with civic virtues such as transparency and the selfless pursuit of the common good. Chapter 5 discusses growing anxieties about economic developments, especially the rise of new forms of credit (linked to ever more intricate speculation), which prompted not only unprecedented gains but also spectacular crashes. The latter's economic impact, the author argues, may have been much smaller than contemporary voices suggested. Bankruptcies take center stage in the final part of the book, which highlights the blurred borders between legitimate economic risks and reckless financial behavior. In line with time-honored merchant values, “innocent” defaulters could be given a second chance and quickly regain their position in the social hierarchy—whereas reckless financial behavior was severely censured.

Throughout her study, Lindemann demonstrates an impressive command of extremely heterogeneous source materials, ranging from parish records, account books, and business correspondence to theological treatises. She also provides visual evidence, but it is not always fully integrated into the analysis. Transcending the confines of a single case study helps illuminate the similarities in the cities' socio-political outlooks, as well as their diverging long-term trajectories. Antwerp peaked in the sixteenth century, Amsterdam in the seventeenth, and Hamburg—where “voluntary” political service by active merchants remained most conspicuous—in the eighteenth century. Lindemann's highly, at times extremely differentiated accounts of ambivalent phenomena like speculation, bankruptcy, and imposture are particularly original and engaging. Economic historians will welcome the manifold insights into the history of leading figures, business practices, global networks, and the changing fortunes of prominent firms such as Amsterdam's Hope & Co., “one of the most powerful and well-regarded European banks of the period” (188).

This study offers the reader a great deal, but the underlying concept is a little loose at the edges. These case studies certainly represented leading commercial centers, but can one really see them as “purer” (310) merchant republics than, for instance, Lübeck, Genoa, or Seville? Does early modern Antwerp, given the dominance of noble magistrates and its subjection to Austrian/Spanish central control, really deserve the label “self-governing” polity? Can the term merchant meaningfully be stretched to include urban elites deriving more and more of their resources from monetary speculation and/or professional administration. Moreover, should one not give greater attention to other sections of the population: the artisans, those in the victualing trades, even the poor? Indeed, how “urban” were some of the features highlighted here: could the northern German parish federation of Dithmarschen, with its export-oriented peasantry and extensive trading links to Hanseatic cities, not also be called a “merchant republic”? Readers will likely come away from this book with many questions, but this testifies to the stimulating nature of its theses.