Why read The Forgotten Majority?

Book cover of The Forgotten Majority: German Merchants in London, Naturalization, and Global Trade 1660-1815

Book description

The "forgotten majority" of German merchants in London between the end of the Hanseatic League and the end of the Napoleonic Wars became the largest mercantile Christian immigrant group in the eighteenth century. Using previously neglected and little used evidence, this book assesses the causes of their migration, the establishment…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Forgotten Majority as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Laura Jarnagin (Laura Jarnagin Pang)

Author

Which group of merchants in Britain played an exceptionally important role in catapulting that nation to the forefront of the global economy during the 18th century and beyond? Until you have read this book, your first thought probably would not be “Germans,” but it was. How did they do that? Through networking, of course.

I like this book because the author has brushed away the gloss-over of time to reveal how a group that was a statistical minority in Britain (migrant German merchants) made a big impact on their host society—and the world at large.

From Laura's list on histories of merchant networks: messy, diverse, transnational, and transcultural.