As its title clearly indicates, in this information-packed work on commercial history, Ryuto Shimada examines the copper-trading activity of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in maritime South and Southeast Asia, mainly during the 1650s to 1790s. As the publisher's blurb says, it is a ‘definitive study’ of the subject.

After framing his topic in the first three chapters by discussing interpretive themes, earlier scholarship, historical context, and sources, Shimada lays out the details of his study in terms of the relevant copper production in Japan and Europe (Chapters Four and Five), copper consumption in Southeast Asia and east-coastal India (Chapters Six and Seven), and the economics and Japanese operations of the VOC (Chapters Eight and Nine). In Chapter Ten he draws his conclusions together. In toto, he gives readers a meticulous analysis of the business economics of VOC copper trading between Japan and maritime South and Southeast Asia.

The volume is richly laden with a delightful array of charts and tables, and it has several useful local maps. It would have helped the non-specialist if the introduction had contained a general map of Asia that located regions and sites mentioned in the text.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this study is the richness of Shimada's source materials. He has ploughed through an immense quantity of VOC records and supplemented them with numerous other primary sources and a rich collection of secondary works in Japanese, Dutch, and English. In addition, the fact that the volume is written in English gives it particular value. For the usual reasons of language and ethnocentrism, the Dutch role in Asian history, while well documented in Dutch, has not been adequately treated in English, having been overshadowed by that of British traders. This work, added to the handful of fine older studies, which Shimada cites, helps us gain a more balanced overall picture.

The author holds a master's degree in economics from Waseda University in Japan and a doctorate in history from Leiden University in the Netherlands. His training in economics is richly evident throughout the text, where he discusses key economic theorists and principles as they relate to his topic. He uses theory to frame his story in terms of long-term growth, the function of copper currency as a key factor in such growth, and the role of supply and demand in shaping the overall commercial history. His central thesis is that the VOC's copper trade constituted a key factor in the overall economic growth of Asia during the eighteenth century.

Besides speaking to economic generalists or students of global or inter-societal commercial history, the book has much to offer diverse specialists. Most obviously, Anglophone students of the VOC will find much of value; students of Japan's ‘early modern’ history will find welcome material on the Dutch trade and the copper industry; specialists on the history of India or Southeast Asia will find material of value.

At the level of general interpretation, students of economic history will surely find fodder for debate. Students of the VOC may object that, to comprehend its commercial operations, one must look at the whole thing, including Europe–Asia transactions. And area specialists will wish for treatment of aspects of the story that Shimada necessarily omits as too peripheral to his task. For example, specialists in Chinese history (or in the copper trade) may note that, as Shimada reports, Chinese ships carried more copper than Dutch ones and merited more attention. Specialists in South Asian history may question whether copper really was essential to development of a common-use currency or whether an increase in currency use actually constituted evidence of economic growth. Specialists in Japanese history may suggest that Shimada's evidence (as well as much other information) contradicts his claim that the eighteenth century was ‘an era of growth’. Finally, those readers looking for a concise, graceful text will be frustrated because of the complexity of the subject and its presentation.

Nevertheless, Shimada has done a valuable job of using VOC sources to examine the variables, particularly the economic ones, that shaped the company's history of copper trading during the 1700s. He has added to the foundation upon which other scholars may now lay out a more full-blown picture of VOC history or the history of maritime commerce along the Asian littoral and, beyond that, globally.