Cross-cultural trade and exchange in early modern world
Hi everyone! I would like to share a book that I recently came across – The Familiarity of Strangers:The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period, by Francesca Trivellato. It offers a historical perspective to our discussions of gift and commodities in these weeks. The author investigates the networks of exchange in the context of ethnic and religious trading diasporas, and suggests that cross-cultural trade was predicated on “familiarity among strangers”, which could yet coexist easily with religious prejudice. It is interesting to see how, when we discuss persons and objects in exchange, the involved interpersonal relationships can be much more complex than what are encompassed by such terms as “primitive society” or “capitalism”.
Here is a link for further information about the book:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300187496/familiarity-strangers
Contributed by YuanZhang on 17/01/2022
