London's triumph Merchants, adventurers, and money in Shakespeare's city

Sixteenth-century London was a bleak, dirty place, rife with poverty and disease, a backwater when compared to international centers of finance, trade, or culture like Antwerp, Venice, or Florence. High mortality rates and depressed birthrates meant that London's population increase from about 50,000 in 1500 to around 200,000 in 1600 resulted from the influx of Englishmen from elsewhere and "strangers" from abroad, many of whom were looking for opportunity or, for many transplanted Europeans, a place where they could practice their Protestantism openly and in relative peace. Ironically, this was the period of London's rise to prominence in the mercantile world. London's adventurers, investors, and the most enterprising among the culturally and economically diverse population built the Royal Exchange, "discovered" Russia and crafted a new trading relationship while looking for Cathay, created joint-stock companies, colonized Virginia, and thrust their way into the East Indies. In his meticulously researched and absorbing work, Alford (Univ. of Leeds) recounts the careers and contributions of Thomas Gresham, John Stow, Sebastian Cabot, Richard Chancellor, Richard Hakluyt the Younger, and many others whose endeavors turned London into a world-class city and fueled England's rise to global power. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Ellen J. Jenkins, Arkansas Tech University

*Starred Review* Standing in the heart of early seventeenth-century London, John Earle surveys a heap of stones and men and hears a strange humming or buzz, mixed of walking, tongues, and feet. In this fascinating history of Tudor London, Alford helps readers to recognize the most significant of this burgeoning municipality's stones and men and to tease out the globe-shaping meaning of its dynamic buzz. Readers will relish what Alford tells them about the wrought stones of St. Paul's Cathedral, Drapers' Hall, the Royal Exchange, and other major London edifices. But far more fascinating are the men who move through these buildings resourceful merchants such as John Isham, bold explorers such as Anthony Jenkinson, and shrewd financiers such as Thomas Gresham. And in the humming buzz such men collectively generate, readers will discern the sound of a metropolis awakening to its global destiny, challenging Antwerp, Madrid, Lisbon, and Augsburg in its international sweep. So widely does Tudor London pursue its interests that Alford's tale carries readers to China, Persia, Russia, and the Americas. Shakespeare counts as just one of the vibrant contemporary voices dramatists, diarists, and preachers Alford quotes to convey the excitement and controversy in this remarkable city's ascent. Renaissance urban life unfolds as stirring drama.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2017 Booklist

Alford (The Watchers), a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, reveals how increased trading activity and bold speculation resulted in London's significant economic and physical growth over the 16th century. Alford avoids delivering a dry financial account; instead, his swift chronology of fiscal maturation highlights the specific acts and lives of men such as Royal Exchange founder Thomas Gresham and the unfortunate Michael Lok, who financed Martin Frobisher's failed search for Cathay. Daring merchants of varying economic means appear as worried yet energetic investors, moneylenders, and explorers. Their stories offer a glimpse into the merchant class as a whole, as Alford explores the specific homes and businesses of notable figures. Sources include family histories, official records, and a 15-page Flemish panoramic sketch. Tradecentric Antwerp and its ties to London receive the initial focus, contextualizing Londoners' understanding of textiles and trade tactics. Alford then covers the fruitful forays of Englishmen Anthony Jenkinson to Russia and Richard Hakluyt to the New World. Fraught negotiations over Asian trade receive scant attention, with substantive trade gains getting more emphasis than unproductive diplomatic efforts. Alford eloquently shows how Renaissance merchants and global exploration allowed London to come of age, transforming from a city subordinate to other European hubs into an ambitious player with financial might. It's a vibrant depiction of London's rising merchant class during the Tudor era. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.