The "forgotten majority" of German merchants in London between the end of the Hanseatic League and the end of the Napoleonic Wars became the largest mercantile Christian immigrant group in the eighteenth century. Using previously neglected and little used evidence, this book assesses the causes of their migration, the establishment of their businesses in the capital, and the global reach of the enterprises. As the acquisition of British nationality was the admission ticket to Britain's commercial empire, it investigates the commercial function of British naturalization policy in the early modern period, while also considering the risks of failure and chance for a new beginning in a foreign environment. As more German merchants integrated into British commercial society, they contributed to London becoming the leading place of exchange between the European continent, Russia, and the New World.

Dealing with economic failure is one of the persistent and ubiquitous features of economic life. This volume brings together international scholars from several academic disciplines - economic and social history, legal history and law. They address a variety of different aspects on economic failure ranging from case studies on bankruptcy, insolvency, speculation, and strategies of coping with economic and financial squeezes. One focus throughout the book is on the in-betweens and the reciprocal impact of law and practice. The timeframe covers the period from the late middle ages to the present day. Irrespective of the temporal, spatial or cultural differences a slow and tedious evolution from a creditor-friendly to a more debtor-friendly perspective can be perceived. The chances for a fresh start have slightly improved.

Zwischen 1688 und 1815 verwandelte sich England von einem vergleichsweise unbedeutenden Inselreich zur fuhrenden Handels- und Industriemacht der Welt. Im selben Zeitraum waren drei Viertel der Londoner Handelselite kontinentaleuropaischer Herkunft. Diese kaufmannische Immigrantenelite leistete einen kaum zu unterschatzenden Beitrag zum Aufstieg des Empires. Ihre Einburgerung war im Wettstreit der merkantilistischen Staaten um Reichtum und Vorherrschaft ein wichtiges Instrument der Politik Englands. Margrit Schulte Beerbuhl verfolgt Herkunft und Geschichte der deutschen Kaufleute, die den grossten Anteil an den Zuwanderern und Eingeburgerten hatten. Struktur und Ausdehnung der von London ausgehenden Handelsnetze werden nachvollziehbar."

The central issues in recent economic and historical research and debates on the emergence of a global economy are: How and when did the development of an economic world system start? What were the essential economic, social or cultural factors which contributed to the emergence of a world-encompassing commercial network? The book examines the expansion of commercial activities since the seventeenth century by analysing the various facets of commercial networking and their linkages at three different operational levels and for various countries and regions. The first part focuses on the emergence, decline and reconstruction of whole networks. The second part provides an actor-centered approach highlighting the role of actors, agencies and institutions in the networking process, while the third one explores the role of commercial cities as merger of global and local functions. The essays provide an innovative approach as they elaborate the interplay between different levels of the emerging world economy. The contributions to this book were originally delivered at a conference organized in Dusseldorf, 07-09 March 2002. The selected essays in this volume offer an international and interdisciplinary approach to the complex and multi-layered process of the expansion of the economic world system.