Japonica F. Edmonds Smith is a seasoned writer of poetry, prose, and inspirational short stories. In God's now latter blessings rain I shall continue to seek the Father in order to give His people divine revelation in their thoughts as well as in their walk within their lives. It is the Father Jehovah that inspires us spiritually to draw the reader inward, in order to have an intimate walk within our heart to walk with Him. It is without question that it is God who awakens one's heart to seek His son, Jesus. It is He that wants His plan and purpose to be fulfilled in our lives and to show us that in the midst of life trials, there is still a word from the Father. God has always been concerned about you, the saints of God in Christ Jesus. He loves you with an everlasting love. He showed humanity His agape love, when He thought it not robbery to give His Son, Jesus, to take our place, by being on the cross. That was designed for the sins of humanity ... each and every one of us individually Thank God for His Son We have been redeemed by His blood IT IS FINISHED His immeasurable love raised Jesus from the dead. Hallelujah For He sent forth His Son that we might have life and life that more abundantly, so that we will have true intimacy, fellowship, communion, and relationship with Jesus. After all is said and done, after we have repented, we shall have true forgiveness from our sins, thereby receiving healing, growth, and restoration for ourselves as we restore love to one another with forgiveness With the sword of the spirit in my mouth, I decree as well as command, that I am a victorious woman of God, without any constraints to do the will of the Father Jehovah in Jesus' name. Amen It is God's will for all the saints of God to seek and to save those who are lost-to teach the found to go after the lost, so that all shall be saved and none perish.

A new history of English trade and empire-revealing how a tightly woven community of merchants was the true origin of globalized Britain In the century following Elizabeth I's rise to the throne, English trade blossomed as thousands of merchants launched ventures across the globe. Through the efforts of these "mere merchants," England developed from a peripheral power on the fringes of Europe to a country at the center of a global commercial web, with interests stretching from Virginia to Ahmadabad and Arkhangelsk to Benin. Edmond Smith traces the lives of English merchants from their earliest steps into business to the heights of their successes. Smith unpicks their behavior, relationships, and experiences, from exporting wool to Russia, importing exotic luxuries from India, and building plantations in America. He reveals that the origins of "global" Britain are found in the stories of these men whose livelihoods depended on their skills, entrepreneurship, and ability to work together to compete in cutthroat international markets. As a community, their efforts would come to revolutionize Britain's relationship with the world.

Dynastic marriages mattered in early modern Europe: the creation of alliances and the outbreak of wars were tied to continental dynastic politics. Dynastic marriages mattered in early modern Europe. The creation of alliances and the outbreak of wars were tied to continental dynastic politics. This book combines cultural definitions of politics with a wider exploration of institutional, military, diplomatic and economic concerns with a view to providing a more comprehensive understanding of dynastic marriage negotiations. It covers a period from the signing of the Treaty of London in 1604 until afterthe Anglo-French and Anglo-Spanish peace treaties (1629-30). Stuart Marriage Diplomacy explores how the search for a bride for Princes Henry and Charles started a long process of protracted consultations between the key players of Europe: Spain, Italy, France, Rome, Brussels and the United Provinces. It shows the interconnections between these courts, thus advancing a 'continental turn' in the analysis of Stuart politics in the early seventeenth century, and considers how reason of state was often considered as more crucial than religion or economic concerns in the outcome of the Stuart-Habsburg and Stuart-Bourbon marriage negotiations. It also reveals the extent to which the interactions between Europe and non-European actors in both the Atlantic and the East contributed to a redefinition of European identity. It will engage not only scholars and students of early modern Europe but, more generally,those interested in the history of European courts and royalty. VALENTINA CALDARI is Departmental Lecturer in Early Modern History at Balliol College, University of Oxford. SARA J. WOLFSON is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University. CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Arblaster, Valentina Caldari, David Coast, Thomas Cogswell, Robert Cross, Andrea De Meo, Kelsey Flynn, Ruben Gonzalez Cuerva, Melinda J. Gough, Helmer Helmers, Jose Eloy Hortal Munoz, Adam Marks, Steve Murdoch, Michael Questier, Manuel Rivero, Porfirio Sanz Camanes, Edmond Smith, R. Malcolm Smuts, Peter H. Wilson, Sara J. Wolfson

This volume publishes for the first time, the journal kept by John Looker (?1670-1715) recording his service as ship's surgeon on the Blackham Galley, a London-built merchantman on its second trading voyage to the Levant, between December 1696 and March 1698. Preserved in the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum, Looker's 'Journall' describes his experiences on the voyage from the point at which he joined the ship at Gravesend, to March 1698, when the journal breaks off abruptly in mid-sentence when the ship was off the Kentish 'Narrows'. John Looker was a Londoner, brought up in one of the parishes to the east of the City which furnished large numbers of mariners to the English sea-borne trades. He served an apprenticeship to a London barber-surgeon, and became a Freeman of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. His fifteen months of service on board the Blackham Galley appears to have been his only employment at sea, but his ready knowledge of maritime ways and language, which are apparent from the first pages of his 'Journall', make it more than likely that he came from a seafaring family. Subsequent to his voyage, he married, raised a family, practiced in London as a surgeon, and acquired land in East Anglia. He died at Bath in 1715. Looker's 'Journall' divides naturally into three parts. The Blackham Galley's outward and homeward voyages were largely without incident. The time spent by the Blackham Galley in Turkish waters, covers its voyage from Smyrna to Constantinople, where the ship stayed for a month, and then returned to Smyrna. Captain Newnam's ill-advised and disastrous attempt at privateering in Ottoman waters on the return journey to Smyrna, led to the detention of his vessel at Smyrna under a double interdict from the English ambassador at the Porte and from the Ottoman authorities. Looker's account of the Blackham Galley's enforced stay in Smyrna furnishes a vigorous and detailed account of social life in the international merchant community, as well as portside life seen 'from below', with its taverns and prostitutes, and the activities and frequent 'debauches' of an increasingly bored and fractious crew. Looker's record also provides interesting detail of his professional approach to treatment of the illnesses, accidents and occasional deaths of members of the company of his own and other ships anchored off Smyrna.

Japonica F. Edmonds Smith is a seasoned writer of poetry, prose, and inspirational short stories. In God's now latter blessings rain I shall continue to seek the Father in order to give His people divine revelation in their thoughts as well as in their walk within their lives. It is the Father Jehovah that inspires us spiritually to draw the reader inward, in order to have an intimate walk within our heart to walk with Him. It is without question that it is God who awakens one's heart to seek His son, Jesus. It is He that wants His plan and purpose to be fulfilled in our lives and to show us that in the midst of life trials, there is still a word from the Father. God has always been concerned about you, the saints of God in Christ Jesus. He loves you with an everlasting love. He showed humanity His agape love, when He thought it not robbery to give His Son, Jesus, to take our place, by being on the cross. That was designed for the sins of humanity ... each and every one of us individually Thank God for His Son We have been redeemed by His blood IT IS FINISHED His immeasurable love raised Jesus from the dead. Hallelujah For He sent forth His Son that we might have life and life that more abundantly, so that we will have true intimacy, fellowship, communion, and relationship with Jesus. After all is said and done, after we have repented, we shall have true forgiveness from our sins, thereby receiving healing, growth, and restoration for ourselves as we restore love to one another with forgiveness With the sword of the spirit in my mouth, I decree as well as command, that I am a victorious woman of God, without any constraints to do the will of the Father Jehovah in Jesus' name. Amen It is God's will for all the saints of God to seek and to save those who are lost-to teach the found to go after the lost, so that all shall be saved and none perish.