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Philip Parker

Historian and author of History of World Trade in Maps & The Northmen's Fury

History of World Trade in Maps

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Available in hardback and Kindle formats from:


Trade is the lifeblood of nations. It has provided vital goods and wealth to countries and merchants, from the ancient Egyptians who went in search of gold and ivory to their 21st-century equivalents trading high-tech electronic equipment from the Far East. Whether the volcanic obsidian that Neolithic Greeks traded across the Aegean 13,000 years ago or the tantalum vital for mobile phone production that fuels contemporary conflicts in Central Africa, trade has driven exploration, empire-building, economic development and dizzying spirals of consumer fashion and commercial bust.
History of World Trade in Maps tells the extraordinary stories of the Roman merchants who plied the monsoon winds to import tens of thousands of tons of pepper from India, their Portuguese successors over a thousand years later who constructed a maritime empire in the Indian Ocean, of Mansa Musa of Mali who spent so lavishly in Cairo he caused the price of gold to crash, of the Aztec merchants who plied the length of Central America long before the arrival of the Spanish, and the tea clippers who raced all the way from China to London, sometimes arriving within hours of each other.

More than 70 maps give a visual representation of the history of World Commerce, accompanied by text which tells the extraordinary story of the merchants, adventurers, middle-men and monarchs who bought, sold, explored and fought in search of profit and power.

The maps are all works of art, witnesses to history, and have a fascinating story to tell.

The maps include:

  • Çatalhöyük Plan, c. 6200 BC
  • Babylonian Map of the World, c. 600 BC
  • Stone Map of China, 1136
  • Hereford Mappa Mundi, c. 1300
  • Buondelmonti Map of Constantinople, c. 1420
  • The Waldseemüller Map, 1507
  • James Rennell Map of Hindoostan, 1782
  • Air Age Map, 1945
  • Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Dashboard, 2020

    From the Silk Road to cyberspace, all trade is here.

More…

More books by Philip Parker

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The Northmen’s Fury
An epic history of the Viking World.

“It is quite a feat to write history this good.” – The Sunday Times
“Parker has a proven track record when it comes to providing an unexpected perspective on the past.” – Tom Holland, The Times
“Parker has a traveller’s eye for landscape and a storyteller’s sense of events and character; The Northmen’s Fury is probably the most lively and well-informed introduction to the subject available today.” – The New Statesman
More…
The Empire Stops Here
The Empire Stops Here: A Journey around the Frontiers of the Roman World
A Sunday Time’s best-selling journey around the edge of the Roman world.

“Magnificent… The book is studded with astonishing facts” – Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
“A blend of travelogue, classical history and archaeology. His quest through the imperial badlands of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa succeeds in throwing fresh light onto the story of Rome and its often lunatic fringes, while offering classically minded travellers a few fresh ideas for routes and discoveries of their own” – Sunday Times
History of Britain in Maps
History of Britain in Maps
From Britannia to Brexit, the history of the nation told through 90 beautiful historic maps.

Philip Parker croppedPhilip Parker has always been passionate about history. A former diplomat and publisher, his first book The Empire Stops Here took him on an epic journey around the frontier provinces of the Roman empire, visiting sites from Hadrian’s Wall to the desert outpost at Lambaesis in Algeria. His critically acclaimed book, The Northmen’s Fury, is a lively and penetrating reassessment of a people who terrorized Europe for three centuries, but brought with them a rich but misunderstood culture.

Read more about Philip Parker.. ➞

Philip Parker, historian and author
Website design by Andrew Tsai

Recent Blog Articles

  • Tea Leaves and Coffee Bushes: the history of your morning cuppa’ October 8, 2020
  • A Map is Worth A Thousand Words October 31, 2017
  • The Raven has Landed! March 6, 2014
  • The Vikings are Coming! March 2, 2014
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