Maria Salomon Arel's monograph presents a fascinating study of English trading activities in Russia, charting the course of the Muscovy Company's ventures amidst the turbulent times of the seventeenth century. It challenges the traditional narrative of the Muscovy Company's commercial decline in the face of ascendant Dutch competition, and draws on the rich source material of British and Russian archives, including the neglected (literally) London Port Books, to show that the English were not merely surviving but thriving in the early years of the Romanov rule. We find the English dominating the export of cordage and tar, both vital commodities for the growing shipbuilding industry back in England, and outbidding their rivals for the Russian state-controlled monopolies of potash and caviar. The latter was re-exported to Livorno in substantial quantities, connecting Anglo-Russian trade to that of the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, colonial commodities, including beaver pelts and tobacco, steadily made their way to Moscow on company ships. The picture that Arel uncovers is one of a global enterprise, one in which the company's merchants straddled trades from the Levant to the Mediterranean, from Russia to the Americas, a far cry from the supposed decaying trade as portrayed by previous historians.

The “global” nature of the Muscovy Company's activities is further revealed in Arel's examination of its membership, which by the 1620s not only included the super merchants of the “old world” trade but increasingly incorporated colonial entrepreneurs. In an appendix, Arel offers a snapshot of Muscovy Company membership, identifying 390 individuals and noting their allegiances, kinships, and business connections to each other. The importance of these networks is highlighted in chapter 3, which pays attention to several major groups operating in the company's trade. Arel emphasizes the involvement of company merchants in multiple ventures, and she extensively uses Russian records to delineate the groups on which trade pivoted, often with individual groups dominating the import/export of a specific commodity. Chapter 6 likewise draws attention to the importance of personal connections. It shows that the relationship between the Muscovy Company and Dutch merchants was far more complex than the cutthroat rivalry underscored in the traditional narrative. Opportunities to maximize commercial profits, shared confession, and personal relationships encouraged instances of cooperation and joint ventures.

Cordial relations and trust were vital for success in the world of early modern trade, though cultivating such relations was not limited to fellow Muscovy Company merchants or other foreigners. As shown in chapter 5, personal rapport and working relationships developed by the principal agent with leading Russian officials and court favorites played a significant role in the success of the company's ventures. Challenging the traditional narrative that painted company merchants as hapless victims of the corrupt Russian justice, Arel shows that in practice the situation was not always as dire. The merchants could take advantage of the relative flexibility of Russian justice and expedite their cases to Moscow to cut through the inertia and corruption of local courts. They could also call upon the help of powerful friends and protectors in Moscow. The only limit, as exemplified by the Cartwright Affair, was that some individuals, by virtue of their close connection to the tsar, were beyond the arm of the law.

There was, however, one group of individuals infuriated by the increased participation of Muscovy Company merchants in Russian trade: the gosti, the Russian mercantile elite. Although the company transacted substantial business with native urban and rural traders, it rather purposely avoided business with the gosti, fostering resentment and confrontations between the two groups. Unlike the merchants of the Muscovy Company, Russian merchants had no civic rights, no access to credit, were reliant on foreign shipping, and, increasingly, jostled with foreign merchants in the procurement of commodities from rural suppliers. Handicapped by these limitations, the gosti found themselves sidelined by foreign competitors while their petitions against the dominance of foreign merchants were left unanswered by the tsar. As a result, the gosti resorted to extortion of customs and taxes (contrary to the Muscovy Company's privilege of duty-free trade), resulting in occasional violent altercations and physical assaults. By the 1640s, the situation became more menacing as the gosti began to gain key posts within the Russian government, and worked toward achieving their ultimate goal of limiting English participation in the Russia trade to the White Sea.

The final chapter focuses on the 1640s, during which the death of Michael Romanov and the fall of Charles Stuart destroyed the institutional moorings to which the enterprise and success of the Muscovy Company's activities had been tethered for almost a century. In 1646, the company lost its coveted duty-free trade, and three years later, it found itself expelled to the White Sea. While some hotheaded merchants sought to avenge themselves by petitioning Parliament to sanction privateering attacks on Russian ships (a request promptly denied), most Muscovy Company men continued to ply their trade at the annual Archangel fair. Although much has been written about the English Civil War, little has been written about how English merchant communities abroad weathered this crisis of authority. Arel offers a glimpse of the Muscovy Company's response to the situation, though, as she subtly hints in a footnote, her next project will grapple with the subject in more depth and explore Nightingale's missions in the broader context of the company's divisions during the Civil War.

Arel presents a compelling and captivating narrative of the success and importance of the Muscovy Company's trade in seventeenth-century Russia. Confronting the outdated (and often unsupported) assumptions of the traditional narrative, Arel skillfully shapes her argument armed with an impressive arsenal of archival material. The monograph, which took the long road to completion, is exemplary of a great work of history. Scholars and students of early modern trade and adventure, merchant diasporas, and Anglo-Russian relations will find it of immense interest.