This masterful work expands our appreciation and understanding of how our global village really began in the seventeenth century. Brook demonstrates that the lust for luxury goods— porcelain, silver, and beaver pelts, drove expansion. Using several objects to illustrate the web of trade and the explosive changes that they wrought, Brook gives us a remarkable view of the expanding world in this thrilling history.

Timothy Brook is the award-winning author or editor of twelve books on China, including Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement and Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839–1952. He is the editor of a six-volume series on China published by Harvard University Press, and held the Shaw Chair in Chinese Studies at Oxford. He is Professor of History at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

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“In his highly readable book … Brook offers as fascinating an account of economic history as you’re likely to encounter.” - National Post

“A fascinating approach to cultural history, providing new ways of thinking about the origins of commonplace objects.” - Entertainment Weekly

“Elegant and quietly important … Brook does more than merely sketch the beginnings of globalization and highlight the forces that brought our modern world into being; rather, he offers a timely reminder of humanity’s interdependence.” - Seattle Times