{"product_id":"the-loss-of-the-trades-increase-9780812252774","title":"The Loss of the \"Trades Increase\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eWas it the \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e of its age?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChristened by an optimistic King James I in December 1609, the \u003ci\u003eTrades Increase\u003c\/i\u003e was the greatest English merchant vessel of the Jacobean era—a magnificent ship embodying the hopes of the nascent East India Company to claim a commanding share of the Eastern trade. But the ship's launch failed when it proved too large to exit from its dock, an ill-fated start to an expedition that would end some three years later, when a dangerously leaking \u003ci\u003eTrades Increase\u003c\/i\u003e at last reached the shores of Java. While its smaller companion vessel would sail home with handsome profits for investors, the rotting hull of the great ship itself was beyond repair. The \u003ci\u003eTrades Increase\u003c\/i\u003e and nearly all who sailed it perished wretchedly on the far side of the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe terrible pattern proven by this voyage, with profits to an elite few in London stained by catastrophic losses in equipment and personnel abroad, ignited rancorous controversy in England over the human, moral, and economic costs of such commerce. In \u003ci\u003eThe Loss of the \"Trades Increase\"\u003c\/i\u003e Richmond Barbour has written an engrossing account of the tragic expedition and of global capitalism at its hour of emergence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts sources fragmented among journals, minutes, and letters in the archives of the East India Company, the full story of the \u003ci\u003eTrades Increase\u003c\/i\u003e is told here for the first time. Earlier writers minimized the loss as a temporary setback and necessary sacrifice on the road to empire. In a work informed by corporate history and postcolonial theory, Barbour sees the saga of the voyage, and all that produced and justified it, differently: as an expression of the structural conflicts, operational risks, and material incapacities that haunted and ultimately unraveled the British Empire—and that destabilize multinational corporations, global markets, and our common biosphere to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Richmond Barbour","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48174348697851,"sku":"9780812252774","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_b31a505f-71af-4c5c-90ce-cc5f993e2a41.jpg?v=1770647600","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/the-loss-of-the-trades-increase-9780812252774","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}