I recently had a chance to sit down with an economist from Standard Chartered and take part in a really interesting discussion about how the history of trade can be vital for understanding our present, and future. 🎙️ Watch the full episode on YouTube now: youtu.be/nOC7kmGcqy8

Trade in a fragmented world

YouTube video by Standard Chartered

youtu.be

Knowledge & understanding grow in university settings when experts disagree with each other, testing each others' claims, adducing different evidence & positing alternative scenarios. That's how change happens. In this thread, I suggest that we take a different approach to that featured here. 1/x

What’s the future for our universities?

isrf.org

🚨 New book give away!!! 🚨 As my book Connoisseurs and Conmen is out a week today I'm running a competition, for students, inspired by the book's subject, the trickster John Hilditch. The winner gets a free copy of the book. @h-materialculture.bsky.social @manchesterup.bsky.social

"His prose is cool, precise and quietly damning.” Very happy to see such a considered review of #Ruthless in the Spectator last week. Sam Olsen takes real care presenting my ideas and makes some leaps to apply them to modern China, which is very interesting. www.spectator.co.uk/article/chin...

China today is following Victorian Britain’s industrial pattern

On a damp Derbyshire day in 1771, Richard Arkwright watched the world’s first water-powered mill begin to turn, setting in motion a force that would remake the world. The tailor’s son from Preston had...

spectator.co.uk

Thrilled to see Ruthless reviewed in the FT by Linda Colley, and to be placed among the FT's books of the week too! 😊 www.ft.com/content/67c1...

Ruthless by Edmond Smith — the brutal rise of Britain’s industrial power

The historian’s splendid account sets out the ideas, inventions and relentless exploitation that drove the nation’s growth from 1660-1800

ft.com

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

Last evening was truly special, meeting with dear friends and colleagues to celebrate the launch of @edmond-smith.bsky.social new book, ‘Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power’

Excited to be launching @edmond-smith.bsky.social’s wonderful RUTHLESS (@yalebooks.bsky.social) in @dauntbooks.bsky.social! 🥂 Get your copy here: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... #SkyStorians

I’m excited and humbled that my new book Ruthless is finally out in the world 🎉 It explores how exploitation, innovation, and empire shaped the birth of the Britain's industrial revolution. 📖 It’s out now (and £12.50 this month in Yale's November sale): yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

I had a great time speaking with Miranda Melcher @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about by new book #Ruthless. The podcast is available here: newbooksnetwork.com/ruthless

Join @edmond-smith.bsky.social and Jake Richards discussing their books Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power, 1660-1800 and The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade 6.30pm, 11th Nov, Waterstones Gower Street www.waterstones.com/events/ruthl...

Ruthless & Bonds of Freedom: An evening with Edmond Smith and Jake Subryan Richards | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones

Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Ruthless & Bonds of Freedom: An evening with Edmond Smith and Jake Subryan Richards to...

waterstones.com

Looking forward to spending an evening with the brilliant Jake Subryan Richards on 11 November at Waterstones on Gower Street to talk about our new books! www.waterstones.com/events/ruthl...

Ruthless & Bonds of Freedom: An evening with Edmond Smith and Jake Subryan Richards | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones

Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Ruthless & Bonds of Freedom: An evening with Edmond Smith and Jake Subryan Richards to...

waterstones.com

I'm hosting a celebration to launch my new book #Ruthless on 6 November at Daunt Books on Cheapside. There are still some spaces left and if anyone would like an invite please drop me a message and I will add you to the guest list! Wine, books and history - what better way to spend an evening!

"This is a must read for anyone interested in the birth of the modern economy." Who am I to disagree with that! Thank you @unseenhistories.com for the recommendation 👍

Unseen Histories@unseenhistories.com · 10mo ago

From the Caspian Sea to Burma, the Regency to U Boats; our history book picks for the month ahead. With new books from @theprofrog.bsky.social @lmbd1418.bsky.social @highamnews.bsky.social @andrewrsorkin.bsky.social @fourredshoes.bsky.social @edmond-smith.bsky.social @rory-stewart.bsky.social👇

Day 1 of the visit (Weds 17th) concludes with a guest lecture, at 5.30pm, at the Linklater Rooms, University of Aberdeen, by Prof. Matthew J. Smith (UCL), Director of the Centre for the Legacies of British Slavery. Places to attend in person are available and all welcome bit.ly/3IjbMVj 2/2

Slavery, Big Data, and the Cultures of Caribbean Ancestral Histories

Royal Historical Society public lecture at the University of Aberdeen

bit.ly

Thrilled to share early endorsements for #Ruthless! Huge thanks to @sathnam.bsky.social, Emma Griffin, @antonhowes.bsky.social, William Pettigrew, and Nicholas Radburn for their generous words. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Just a few days to go before the deadline - 25 August. There's huge scope within the project to develop work related to trade, cross-cultural encounter and empire in the early modern world, in geographies stretching across Africa and Asia. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History:Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Working in the John Rylands this week with a restored check-cotton sample book. These are two microscopic images of dyed and bleached cotton with origins in American plantations used in designs which were likely destined for African markets.

With proofing and indexing now done (a fun week...), #Ruthless is starting to feel very real!

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History, University of Manchester: memorients.com/news/researc...

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History, University of Manchester | MEMOs

Uni of Manchester, Early Modern Global History

memorients.com

One of my RAs landed a permanent job in Madrid (which is awesome!) so I'm now advertising for a new one! It's to work on my INTRECCI project on global histories of capitalism. Please share with anyone interested and happy to answer questions. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History:Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

It's always a great feeling to unpack author copies, but bittersweet for this book I "co-authored" with Richard Smith at the request of his widow after he sadly passed. Hopefully it will serve as a worthy finale and inspire students today as much as his work inspired me during my UG studies.

Done my butterfly count for the year! Dunno if it's just weather or three years of building a pollinator paradise, but twice as many and four times as many varieties this year over 2024 🦋🐝 bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org

Very happy to see Desiree Baptiste's important work picked up by Reuters today. www.reuters.com/world/uk/new...

New research adds to pressure on British monarchy over historical ties to slavery

New research shows that Britain's King George IV, who ruled for a decade until 1830, personally profited from enslaved labour on Grenadian plantations, a finding that experts say heightens pressure on the monarchy to confront its historical links to slavery.

reuters.com

We've had great opportunities to visit some incredible collections during the first year of the INTRECCI project. Safya Morshed has written up some thoughts about linking economic systems through material objects made and consumed across early modern Eurasia. intrecci-project.org/understandin...

Understanding Global Exchange: A Route through Artefacts | INTRECCI

Linking economic systems through museum exhibitions at the V&A, Burrell Collection, Gulbenkian Collection and British Museum

intrecci-project.org

Want to read an “erudite, ambitious & richly global” book that “sets a new standard in economic history”? Then my forthcoming book #Economica is for you. If you’re in the UK, for tonight only you can get 25% off if you preorder @waterstones.bsky.social: www.waterstones.com/book/economi... #SUMMER25

Economica by Victoria Bateman | Waterstones

Buy Economica by Victoria Bateman from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

waterstones.com

CfP is out! Sign up, share, come visit, very excited about this. Let's get some great female case-studies!

Women’s Committee of the Economic History Society@ehswomcom.bsky.social · last yr.

CfP now out for the Annual Workshop of the EHS Women’s Committee. Theme: Women & Entrepreneurship - Agency, Experience, and Enterprise Date: 12 Dec 2025 Venue: UCL History Deadline for proposals: 5 Sept 2025 For more details, see👇 ehs.org.uk/event/womens...

Great to see coverage of work by some of Manchester's most engaged students in the Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju... For the full essays by Destinie Reynolds, Beth Carson, Moleka Newman, Aimee Eggington and Aashe Singh: www.royalexchange.co.uk/visit-eat-dr...

Manchester’s Royal Exchange rooted in slavery and colonialism, research reveals

Links to enslavement, exploitation and opium make it ‘one of most important locations in history of global capitalism’

theguardian.com

That the incredible cognitive power of the human brain and body takes only 2000 calories a day to fuel, and occupies quite considerably less than the space of Manhattan, suggests there is something catastrophically wrong with the design of AI.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last yr.

'Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing artificial intelligence products in the near future and, to that end, construct a data center planned to be nearly the size of Manhattan.' 1/3

It's been a while since I've been in the EIC's earliest letters. A good start with Nicholas Downton's miserable account and 'swarms of perplexed thoughts' about the shocking failure of his first voyage to the Red Sea and India. Mainly the 'Turks', Portuguese and Mughal officials to blame, obv.