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How businesses have shaped global affairs, from the Renaissance to the present.

Corporations can outlive empires, accumulate more wealth than nations and project power with more persistence than armies. Kings and continents have bent to their will, and wars and coups have been launched at their command.

Yet despite this legacy, corporations have been largely overlooked as geopolitical players, and modern companies seem lost as they navigate a global order that closely resembles the imperial great power politics of the past. Colin Reed and Lewis Sage-Passant puncture this state-centric view, offering a holistic account that captures the many actors influencing the global system. From the diplomatic alliances of the Hanseatic League to the commercial intelligence networks of Venice; from the sprawling armies of the East India Companies to the Cold War coups of the United Fruit Company; and from the country-shaping monopolies of the Japanese Zaibatsu to the satellites of Starlink, corporations have routinely and profoundly shaped geopolitical history. As frontier technologies like artificial intelligence rapidly transform national industries and economies, the private companies spearheading innovation often wield more financial, political and even military clout on the world stage than states.

Merchants of Power asks vital questions about the role corporations play in today’s tumultuous world order.

• Punctures a state-centric view of power and reveals how corporations have been overlooked as geopolitical players despite some accruing enormous wealth and outliving empires
• Examines businesses such as the East India Companies, United Fruit Company, Japanese Zaibatsu and Starlink to reveal how corporations profoundly shaped global history
• Two intelligence experts ask essential questions about how these financially, politically and militarily powerful companies impact today's uncertain world order