While most historical non-fiction works focus on large arcs of history through the lens of politics or religion or war, Bernstein looks at commerce from almost an evolutionary standpoint, as a beneficial process that has given people what they desire and what they need from the dawn of recorded history. We tend to think of globalization as a modern concept and frame it as a product of our own internet age, but traders have been floating their goods down rivers and making treks across deserts, intermingling cultures and exchanging ideas long before Thomas Friedman wrote that the world was flat. To Bernstein, trade is the thread that runs behind the forward movement and the progress of nations and cultures for thousands of years.
Obviously, A Splendid Exchange is not your average work of history. Bernstein writes in an engaging, friendly, non-academic tone that entertains as well as informs. Similar in style to Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, the author takes dry subject matter and transforms it into a something new.
Commerce and trade are partly responsible for technology and cultural developments for quite a while – progress in domesticating pack animals, advances in transportation and technology to sail long distances and navigate dangerous waters, geopolitical strategy to control crucial chokepoints of trade, and refrigeration to keep things cold, among many, many others. Of course, Bernstein doesn’t see all trade through rose-colored glasses, as control over important trade routes often led to wars, and trade routes were the pathway that the Black Death took from the steppes of Asia to the capitals of Europe, and trade likewise brought diseases to the New World.
For the amateur historian looking for something new or for a business book that’s a bit different from the usual fare, A Splendid Exchange is an excellent read, and even casual readers will find something interesting and new in its pages.