Extract

Henning Hillmann’s book on the Corsairs of Saint-Malo breaks new ground as an organizational and network analysis with broad implications for the evolution and cohesion of economic activity during mercantile capitalism. Tracing entrepreneurs, ship voyages, and relationships originating in the focal French port of Saint-Malo from the late 17th to the late 18th century, Hillmann uncovers the understudied history of privateers, private enterprises that had legal sanction to capture or disrupt the merchant vessels of enemy nations during times of war. Hillmann offers a compelling sociological analysis, based both on careful quantitative analysis of archival records on taxation and partnerships, as well as the incorporation of qualitative historical observations. The result is an insightful account of how privateers organized complex transcontinental journeys and how they provided social cohesion to a French merchant elite that was differentiated along many dimensions, including class and wealth, generation, type of trade, and economic interest.

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