Offering a distinctive overview of the pressures responsible for the emergence of modern Japan, Louis Cullen rejects the traditional boundaries of Japanese historiography and combines economic, social, and political approaches to create a powerful analysis. Cullen reviews the Japanese experience of expansion, social transition, industrial growth, economic crisis and war, to present an island nation that is a growing industrial power with little perception of its worldwide context.

This study of the brandy trade explores the origins, production and marketing of brandy from the Cognac region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Professor Cullen shows that the brandy trade was based on a sophisticated regional economy, which, by 1720, had become a key component of French involvement in the modern international trading system. Notwithstanding competition from a surplus in other cereals and from foreign markets, regional specialization in the Charente was an indispensable element in ensuring the quality of stable output, and was recognized in the region's success in attracting foreign houses, such as Martell and Hennessy.

This study of the brandy trade explores the origins, production and marketing of brandy from the Cognac region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Professor Cullen shows that the brandy trade was based on a sophisticated regional economy, which, by 1720, had become a key component of French involvement in the modern international trading system. Notwithstanding competition from a surplus in other cereals and from foreign markets, regional specialization in the Charente was an indispensable element in ensuring the quality of stable output, and was recognized in the region's success in attracting foreign houses, such as Martell and Hennessy.

Offering a distinctive overview of the pressures responsible for the emergence of modern Japan, Louis Cullen rejects the traditional boundaries of Japanese historiography and combines economic, social, and political approaches to create a powerful analysis. Cullen reviews the Japanese experience of expansion, social transition, industrial growth, economic crisis and war, to present an island nation that is a growing industrial power with little perception of its worldwide context.