LONDON THE SELDEN MAP AND THE MAKING OF A GLOBAL CITY 1549-1689

Londons success, Robert K. Batchelor argues, lies not just with the well-documented rise of Atlantic settlements, markets, and economies. Using his discovery of a network of Chinese merchant shipping routes on John Seldens map of China as his jumping-off point, Batchelor reveals how London also flourished because of its many encounters, engagements, and exchanges with East Asian trading cities. Translation plays a key role in Batchelors study'translation not just of books, manuscripts, and maps, but also of meaning and knowledge across cultures'and Batchelor demonstrates how translation helped London understand and adapt to global economic conditions. Looking outward at Londons global negotiations, Batchelor traces the development of its knowledge networks back to a number of foreign sources and credits particular interactions with Englands eventual political and economic autonomy from church and King. London offers a much-needed non-Eurocentric history of London, first by bringing to light and then by synthesizing the many external factors and pieces of evidence that contributed to its rise as a global city. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in the cultural politics of translation, the relationship between merchants and sovereigns, and the cultural and historical geography of Britain and Asia.