Commercial competition between Britain and Russia became entangled during the eighteenth century in Iran, the Middle East, and China, and disputes emerged over control of the North Pacific. Focusing on the British Russia Company, Matthew P. Romaniello charts the ways in which the company navigated these commercial and diplomatic frontiers. He reveals how geopolitical developments affected trade far more than commercial regulations, while also challenging depictions of this period as a straightforward era of Russian economic decline. By looking at merchants' and diplomats' correspondence and the actions and experiences of men working in Eurasia for Russia and Britain, he demonstrates the importance of restoring human experiences in global processes and provides individual perspective on this game of empire. This approach reveals that economic fears, more than commodities exchanged, motivated actions across the geopolitical landscape of Europe during the Seven Years' War and the American and French Revolutions.

Winner, 2019 Early Slavic Studies Association Book Award

‘Matthew P. Romaniello has uncovered a fascinating cast of characters through whom he reinterprets the history of Anglo-Russian relations in the eighteenth century, revealing both Britain and Russia in unexpected ways. This book is essential reading for British, imperial, and Atlantic historians interested in a fresh perspective on the entangled empires of the eighteenth-century world.'

Alison Games - Georgetown University, Washington DC

‘Enterprising Empires is an outstanding addition to the literature on Russia as a Eurasian empire. By reconstructing the interactions of the Russian and British governments, and British trading companies with the dynamics of Russia's far-flung peripheries, Romaniello shows how empire worked in actual practice in the early modern era.'

Alexander M. Martin - University of Notre Dame, Indiana

‘Matthew P. Romaniello's impressive and original study throws novel and persuasive light on the Anglo-Russian trading relationship during the long eighteenth century. Firmly rejecting the trope of Russia's ‘economic backwardness', he instead reveals the vitality of this commerce and its key Eurasian dimension, with important implications for current debates in global history. Warmly recommended.'

Hamish Scott - Jesus College, Oxford

'Romaniello’s Enterprising Empires examines early modern trade between the British and Russian empires through the lens of two historiographical propositions. The first proposition is that economic history must go beyond the analysis of economic structures to focus on the personal stories of the merchants and government officials engaged in international trade. … The second, narrower proposition challenges the presumption that Russia's resistance to economic and political modernization caused its economic decline. Romaniello claims that, in fact, in terms of trade policy Russia and Britain shared a common mercantilist orientation throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and for much of the period Russia enjoyed a positive balance of trade with the British empire. The author argues that Western European dynamism, not Russian backwardness, created the two countries' economic divergence during the 19th century. … Highly recommended.'

S. P. Harshner Source: Choice

‘Whatever the stakes of great-power competition, the material implications of Russo-British diplomacy have rarely been drawn out beyond the high politics playing out on the Russian capital’s embankments. Matthew Romaniello’s landmark new study uses extensive archival research in Britain, Russia, and the United States to show how limiting such a perspective can be.’

Gregory Afinogenov Source: Slavic Review

‘Romaniello has managed to fit the businesses of the British in Russia into a global context … this book is certainly one of the most important contributions to the study of the role of eighteenth-century Russia in the context of Eurasian transits …’

Mikhail Bela Source: H-Net Reviews

‘In Enterprising Empires: Russia and Britain in Eighteenth-Century Eurasia, Matthew Romaniello explores the interlocking commercial histories of Britain and Russia against the backdrop of globalization in the early modern era … Enterprising Empires helps to overturn long held assumptions of Russian 'backwardness' and Western European exceptionalism in the early modern world.’

Colum Leckey Source: Region

‘Enterprising Empires is a convincing, readable, and significant work that should be applauded for both its ambition and its provision of a trans-national history of Russian and British commerce at time of transition from pre-industrial to capitalist order.’

Eugene Miakinkov Source: Eighteenth-Century Studies