Introduction and Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

The reader is introduced to the six 'merchant kings' who ran the monopolistic trading companies that brought European power to the Americas and Asia. These men are: Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company, who did not tolerate competition; Pieter Stuyvesant, of the Dutch West India Company, who felt greater loyalty to his colony than to his government; Robert Clive of the English East India Company, who defeated the French East India Company and built the foundation for the English East India Company's wealth; Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov of the Russian American Company, who expanded Russian colonial power into south Alaska; George Simpson, of the Hudson Bay Company, who ran much of what is now Canada, and Cecil Rhodes of the British South Africa Company who made a fortune exploiting African gems and minerals.

Brown says...