IB DP History Class: Merchants by Edmond Smith — the profit motive that propelled an empire

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification Topic 5 — Early Modern States

Connections with the DP World history topic 5: Early Modern states (1450—1789) — Colonial and/or imperial expansion; political, economic and religious rationale for expansion and acquisition of territory

Key terms and ideas Empire, Expansion, Mercantilism

Click to read the article below and then answer the questions:

Merchants by Edmond Smith — the profit motive that propelled an empire

This is a history book review of Edmond Smith’s “Merchants” by the historian William Dalrymple. The review explores the “dizzying diversification and steeply upward trajectory of English commerce during the early modern period. This led to a quadrupling of Britain’s economic output between 1550 and 1650.

For DP History teachers, this article provides an excellent resource for supporting the teaching of World History Topic 5 — Early Modern States. Part of this topic requires the “rationale” for territorial expansion and acquisition. According to the article, it was the merchant class more than any other group which was the “driving force behind England’s emerging global trade and empire”.

The stories of the “trial-and-error” careers of these merchants — from successful individuals like Thomas Gresham to the “drunken, debaucht, irregular” knaves complained about in one letter by a senior East India Company official — are sure to grab students’ attention.

• What evidence does the article provide of an upward trajectory of global economic activity in this period?

• How did the profit motive provide a rationale for colonial expansion?

• To what extent were merchants the driving force behind acquisition of new territories?

Ned Riley, historyrising.net