At the height of the Roman Empire, hundreds of merchant ships left Egypt every year to voyage through the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean, exchanging the produce of the Mediterranean for exotic eastern commodities. Raoul McLaughlin traces their pioneering journeys.
Rosie Llewellyn-Jones recalls the Victorian economist who helped resolve the financial crisis in India after the Mutiny of 1857.
Deirdre N. McCloskey reviews a book by Joel Mokyr.
The budget proposed by the Liberal government was 'a social and political revolution of the first magnitude'. After passing the Commons, it was voted down by the House of Lords on 30 November 1909.
In the wake of the credit crunch, Dan Jones looks at past episodes of runaway greed and the moral lessons learnt.
In the 13th century a remarkable trading block was formed in northern Europe. Stephen Halliday explains how the Hanseatic League prospered for 300 years before the rise of the nation state led to its dissolution.
An infamous mafia massacre occurred on 14 February 1929.
Already rocked by defeats in the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV’s France faced economic meltdown as the chaotic nature of its finances became apparent. Guy Rowlands discovers striking parallels with the current credit crunch as he charts the crisis that was to lead, ultimately, to the French Revolution.
A power struggle in postwar Germany erupted on January 5th, 1919.
Rowena Hammal explains why the United Provinces enjoyed a ‘Golden Age’ in the first half of the Seventeenth Century.
