International trade is usually approached through statistics, and studies are typically focused on bilateral or triangular transactions between countries. Yet international trade should also be looked upon as a series of transactions between individuals. In the eighteenth century, Spanish trade was conducted by real people, but little has been written about them. Studies on trade and trust are few and far between. This book, by focusing on the importance of trust in building up trade networks (and, more broadly speaking, facilitating economic and social exchange) sheds very welcome light on how Spaniards and foreign merchants in Spain traded with other markets.

The book consists of an introduction and three parts. The introduction sets out the aims of the book in a stylish fashion, emphasising how trust is closely linked to credit and reputation. The section ‘Trading networks and the concept of trust’ (pp. 9–14) is truly remarkable. It convincingly shows that, contrary to prevailing views, theoretical assumptions that rely solely on intra-group relations (that is, relations between those of the same nationality, ethnicity or religion) in order to explain commercial cooperation among individuals fail to give a full picture of the merchants’ ability to trust other merchants, since they do not explain commercial cooperation between members of different ‘communities’.

After the introduction, part 1 deals with Basque merchants’ trade with the north Atlantic and north-west Europe, very much an intra-European concern. In part 1, chapter 1 focuses on the merchants of Bilbao and emphasises how Bilbao's own commercial laws, commercial education and other distinctive institutions distinguished this port from the rest of Spain by enhancing trust between Basque and foreign merchants. Chapter 2, the other chapter in part 1, is on Basque ship captains and seamen, subjects usually neglected by economic historians. The main findings of this chapter have already been published as a journal article by the International Journal of Maritime History (20: 2, 2008). Suffice it to say that the chapter's main contribution is to highlight the pivotal role played by Basque ship captains as contributors to interpersonal trust in Spain's foreign trade, at a time when few Spanish merchants had overseas agents. Very often Basque ship captains acted as competent overseas agents, thus overcoming important barriers to the development of Spain's foreign trade by reducing key risks involved in international trade.

Part 2 moves beyond Europe, dealing with Cadiz's colonial trade with Peru. Here the concept of trust becomes even more important, and has previously been equally neglected. This part of the book relies heavily on the most original primary source of information used by Lamikiz, namely, 2,000 envelopes of personal correspondence sent from Callao to Cadiz. These were conveyed in a Spanish vessel intercepted by the British Navy during one of the many eighteenth-century wars involving European powers. They had remained unread for centuries until Lamikiz discovered them. Their importance lies in the fact that they disclose rich information on what merchants actually did and thought, how strategic decisions were reached, and the importance of trust – all topics about which we knew very little because few letterbooks of modern merchants have survived. But in addition to finding these letters, an achievement in itself, Lamikiz also demonstrates a considerable ability to ‘deal’ with a primary source and other related primary material, which is key to providing a full picture of the subject under research.

In the second part, chapter 3 (‘Trading with Peru’) nicely summarises the main features of Spanish colonial trade with Peru and the importance of trust to these networks. But perhaps the most original contribution of this chapter is the author's demonstration of how the demise of the fleet system and the implementation of registered ships, which allowed direct and more regular trade between Spain and Peru, gave rise to the consignment system. Lamikiz shows in a masterly manner how the new system of registered ships changed the nature of the risks involved in this particular trade. Likewise, the chapter also reveals how this new trading system changed colonial consumer behaviour, and why merchants’ awareness of fashion and willingness to adapt to colonial taste were crucial to success in this trade. Chapter 4 extends these findings to highlight the importance of mail to convey key and detailed information about prices and products, in particular after the introduction of registered ships and of an improved mail system between Spain and her American colonies. The flow of commercial information changed radically after the mid-eighteenth century, as Lamikiz emphasises. Several generations of historians have written extensively on colonial trade, but none has drawn enough attention to these key topics.

Finally, part 3 (‘Trust and Distrust’) is a recapitulation of the previous two parts, emphasising the importance of trust while explaining Spanish merchants’ success in long-distance trade: ‘trade and trust were inextricably linked’ (p. 141). Chapter 7 (‘Confidentiality’) pays attention to the key role played by confidentiality, reputation (‘the backbone of trade’, p. 142), family and friends. Likewise, chapter 8 (‘Risk and Competition’) concentrates on the crucial relationships between legal frameworks, the associated risks and the levels of trust needed. Lamikiz demonstrates how ‘the good reputation of a reliable judicial framework could indeed promote business’ (p. 163) to a great extent, as in Bilbao's case. This chapter also analyses the impact of increasing competition on risks and therefore on trust, and devotes a section to an important but hitherto neglected topic, the extent to which credit was used in Spain's overseas trade.

All in all, this is what in Spanish one would call ‘un libro redondito’. It is both a very enjoyable and a very intelligent book, which should be read by anyone interested in any of these broad topics: early modern international trade, Atlantic studies, trade networks, trust and distrust, and Spanish American trade.