Edmond Smith’s "Merchants". This exceptional, scholarly book is written with verve and style and will immerse readers in a vibrant world glimpsed only occasionally in plays and histories. It will widen their scope of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not just geographically but culturally and socially – and its handling of sources will provide an exemplar for students and scholars alike. A colourful, witty treat, from the pages of which waft exotic spices and sea salt.