"Wonderfully wide-ranging and deeply-researched"—William Dalrymple, Financial Times 

‘At last an account of early modern merchant communities that balances the cold, hard reality of profit and investment with the intangible capital of trust, sociability and human connection that drove English trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sharply observed, innovatively analysed, and always accessible, this is a book that demands the attention of anyone who is interested in the traffic between English trade and imperialism in this early, foundational period.’ —Professor Nandini Das, University of Oxford
 

' A terrific achievement. Written with pace and panache, Merchants shows how in the space of 100 years England’s merchants went from a group of largely irrelevant traders on the fringes of Europe to international empire builders. Managing to combine intricate detail of mercantile innovations within a broad sweep of English commercial relations from the Americas to Japan, Smith is brilliant at recording the credits and debits of this most decisive period in English commercial history. A superb book.'—Professor Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps
 

‘‘Mere merchants’ as individuals, but as a class they shaped modern English history. This is a rich and deeply fascinating account which addresses fundamental questions about England's rise to commercial power.’—James Evans, author of Merchant Adventurers
 

‘Merchants is an important new study of the men who, for better or worse, laid the foundations of England’s first commercial empire. Drawing on impeccable research, Smith shows how it was corporate institutions and collaborative practices that turned England from European backwater into global power.’—Professor Phil Withington, author of Society in Early Modern England