"The imperative of the long-distance seaborne trade of Europeans, from the age of exploration, was to acquire the goods of the exotic East--the silks and porcelains and tea of China, the spices of the spice islands and the textiles of India. Goods from the East focuses on the trade in fine...

pt. 1. Introduction -- pt. 2. The market and the state -- pt. 3. Markets, merchants and middlemen -- pt. 4. Markets and urban manufacture -- pt. 5. Market production and women's work -- pt. 6. Market structures and social institutions : commerce and customary context.

Although funding infrastructure has always been a challenging issue in any country and at any time, the topic is still largely unexplored. A European history of infrastructure financing over the long term does not yet exist, and the purpose of this book is to partially fill that gap. It explores...