Opium Traders and Their Worlds examines the opium trade with a detective's investigative approach. The author uses evidence to dismiss many of the false claims commonly held with regard to the so-called "legitimacy" of the Old China trade, presents proof of important figures who were deeply involved in all parts of the world and shows how world events were affected by famous men in opium hierarchies. Lateral contributors to the drug trade include shipbuilders who fashioned their craft to meet needs of the commerce, designing specially built Indiamen, clippers, and "fast crabs." Ms. Kienholz shows how vicious competition in the trade moved players like chess pieces, with winners and losers shifting positions. Her research into the production of the new "opioids" such as oxycodone is an area not previously probed.

Opium Traders-Volume Two continues the history of opium commerce at a point where the Sassoons of Persia, closely connected with the Rothchilds, won control of the trade. The Sassoons celebrated when the monopoly of the British East India Company was repealed; they used their business expertise and parliamentary connections in London to grab nearly 80% of the drug trade out of India. Connections with British royalty made possible their important involvement in securing Israel as the Jewish Homeland. The Sassoons' extensive holdings in India and China were encroached upon as a result of India's independence movement and China's takeover by communists. Indian independence strengthened the hold of the Parsee family of Tatas, who, in the 21st Century are advertising the development of a "People's car" estimated to cost about $2,500. China's takeover by communists, who now hold a monopoly of China's expansive opium trade, followed the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions and the revolution of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-chek. These militant movements are summarized. Japan's exploitation of opium in the Manchuria-Manchukuo era, through secret societies, is detailed. The opium trade of East Asia and the Middle East is further elaborated in descriptions of the cultivation of poppies of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Burma, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Indonesian territories. Contemporary poppy fields of Mallinckrodt, opium and labor smuggling during the years of railroad building and Mafia activity in the United States are addressed.

This volume investigates the emergence and spread of maritime commerce and interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World—the world’s first “global economy”—from a longue durée perspective. Spanning from antiquity to the nineteenth century, these essays move beyond the usual focus on geographical sub-regions or thematic aspects to foreground inter- and trans-regional connections. Analyzing multi-lingual records and recent archaeological findings, volume I examines mercantile networks, the role of merchants, routes, and commodities, as well as diasporas and port cities.

The World Economy brings together two reference works by Angus Maddison: The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (2001) and The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003). This new edition contains Statlinks, so that readers can access the underlying data in Excel format.