Modern History: The Historical Investigation 2025: Trade

An article on the main developments in trade across Europe from approximately 1450 to 2000. European History Online is an online resource from the Leibniz Institute of European History, a non-profit independent research institute located in Germany.

A brief overview on trade in Asia from Encyclopedia Britannica.

An interactive timeline by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on important trade-related events featured in Australia's history.

A brief overview of the history of the East India Company from Margaret Makepeace, Lead Curator of the East India Company Records collection at the British Library.

A brief history of the Suez Canal by the Suez Canal Authority body.

An article on the United Dutch East India Company from The Western Australian Museum.

A brief encyclopaedia entry from Britannica on the trading pattern between the Chinese merchants from the city of Canton and foreign merchants.

An encyclopaedia entry from Britannica on the trade of opium between Britain and China in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Host Melvyn Bragg speaks with historians about The East India Company and its role in forging the British Empire. Founded in 1600, the company lasted for 258 years before the British state gained full control of its activities. In that time it had redrawn the map of India, built an empire and reinvented the fashions and the foodstuffs of Britain. But how did the East India Company become so powerful? How did it change both India and Britain and how was the idea of a company running a country ever accepted by the British Crown?

ABC Conversations host Sarah Kanowski speaks with academic Andrew Phillips about the rise and fall of the East India Company.

This episode of the "British in India" series from William Dalrymple and Anita Anand's Empire podcast focuses on the rise of The East India Company.

Host Melvyn Bragg speaks with historians on the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, known in English as the Dutch East India Company. The VOC dominated the spice trade between Asia and Europe for two hundred years. At its peak, the VOC had a virtual monopoly on nutmeg, mace, cloves and cinnamon, displacing the Portuguese and excluding the British, and were the only European traders allowed access to Japan.

John D. Wong examines the Canton trade networks that helped to shape the modern world through the lens of the prominent Chinese merchant Houqua, whose trading network and financial connections stretched from China to India, America and Britain.