Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides inspiration for the renewal of research into how architecture influences and participates in trade on a global and local scale across time. It discusses that the features of contemporary global capitalism were in existence long before Adam Smith theorized its existence or Karl Marx offered his widely-read critique. The book reveals the coercive and violent origins of capitalism through the architectural and urban lens of the Dutch East India Company. It describes that trade can persist for millennia, transforming the landscape between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf over time, adapting along the way to invent and reinvent systems of trade as architecture and urbanism. The book explores the vibrant, yet often neglected role of the East African coast in this global trade.