Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600--1900 Chicago His job is to destroy

His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities

"a great comic vision

this book offers a panoramic

has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time

Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600--1900 Chicago His job is to destroyCommerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant adventurers who built the modern world It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. They managed their territories as business interests, treating their subjects as employees, customers, or competitors. The leaders of