Maxine Berg

Research Interests:

Global history, especially Asia and Europe in the early modern period; history of knowledge and technology; history of material culture, especially textiles, porcelain and luxury manufactured goods; also history writing and historiography 1920s - 1960s.

'Eurasian Trade and European Markets 1600-1830.’ This is a study of Asian export ware produced for and traded in the consumer markets of Europe and the Atlantic world. How did East India Companies, private traders and Indian and Chinese merchants design goods of wide appeal to Western markets, and organize their production and distribution systems in this long-distance trade in material goods and culture between Asia and Europe? How were these Asian-produced goods collected and displayed in European and American public and private interiors? What part did this Eurasian trade play in stimulating Europe’s consumer and industrial revolutions?

Wealth and Knowledge: the Transmission of Useful Knowledge 1600-1850’. A study of how craft, tacit and formal knowledge was transmitted among manufacturers, especially in luxury goods across Europe and between Europe and Asia.

International historical associations in the postwar era.
I am a member of GEHN (the Global Economic History Network). See Gehn (LSE)