The Coffee Trader – David Liss

Set in Amsterdam, we meet a cast of characters, centred on wide boy wheeler dealer Lienzo, whose lives revolve around and reveal the mechanics and machinations of 17th century international trade.

However trade is not just in physical goods but also in what I’d always assumed to be a very 20th/21st century phenomenon, futures

A less earnestly educational work than A Conspiracy of Paper, The Coffee Trader is a rollicking read with similar themes (crime, economy and social history), lots of detail on Jewish and financial communities (this time in Amsterdam and Portugal rather than London), and the underworld and underbelly of a successful business centre.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Coffee Trader – David Liss