Cargo Before Glory: Merchants and the Making of Exploration

Fame attached itself to explorers, but commercial calculation set many expeditions in motion. This book examines the investors, brokers, shipbuilders, interpreters, port officials, and trading communities whose work made overseas ventures possible. It follows the search for profitable routes without reducing exploration to a heroic tale. Readers see how trade produced new knowledge and new connections while also intensifying coercion, rivalry, and exploitation.