Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia -- Introduction / Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia -- The Evolution of Norms in Trade and Financial Networks in the First Global Age: The Case of the Simon Ruiz’s Network / Ana Sofia Ribeiro -- Trans-Imperial and Cross-Cultural Networks for the Slave Trade, 1580s–1800s / Filipa Ribeiro da Silva -- Dutch and English Approaches to Cross-Cultural Trade in Mughal India and the Problem of Trust, 1600–1630 / Guido van Meersbergen -- ‘The Japanese Connection’: Self-Organized Smuggling Networks in Nagasaki circa 1666–1742 / Jurre Knoest -- The Pirate Round: Globalized Sea Robbery and Self-Organizing Trans-Maritime Networks around 1700 / Michael Kempe -- Merchant Cooperation in Society and State: A Case Study in the Hispanic Monarchy / Ana Crespo Solana -- In the Shadow of the Companies: Empires of Trade in the Orient and Informal Entrepreneurship / Chris Nierstrasz -- Smuggling for Survival: Self-Organized, Cross-Imperial Colony Building in Essequibo and Demerara, 1746–1796 / Bram Hoonhout -- Trading with Asia without a Colonial Empire in Asia: Swedish Merchant Networks and Chartered Company Trade, 1760–1790 / Leos Müller -- Was Warfare Necessary for the Functioning of Eighteenth-Century Colonial Systems? Some Reflections on the Necessity of Cross-Imperial and Foreign Trade in the French Case / Silvia Marzagalli -- Epilogue / Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia -- Bibliography / Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia -- Index / Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia.

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Beyond Empires explores the complexity of empire building from the point of view of self-organized networks, rather than from the point of view of the central state. This focus takes readers into a world of cooperative strategies worldwide that emphasises the role played by individuals, rather than institutions, in the overseas expansion and consequent development of European empires. While unveiling the practices and mechanisms of cooperation between individuals, this volume show cases the role played by individuals for the creation, development and maintenance of self-organized networks in the Early Modern period. Applying new conceptual and theoretical inputs, this book values the contributions of different ‘worlds’, bringing to the fore the interactions of Europeans and non-Europeans, Christians and non-Christians, people living within-, on- or just outside the border of empire.

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