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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

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

youtu.be

Trade in a fragmented world

YouTube video by Standard Chartered

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

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

isrf.org

What’s the future for our universities?

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lewisryder.bsky.social @lewisryder.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

🚨 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

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

"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...

spectator.co.uk

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...

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

‘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

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Alka Raman @alkaraman.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

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’

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

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

Edmond Smith speaking in front of a lot of books

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

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...

A stack of copies of the book "Ruthless" and a magnificent cat.

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Yale University Press London 📖 @yalebooks.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

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...

waterstones.com

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...

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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!

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

"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 👍

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 17/09/2025

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

bit.ly

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

Royal Historical Society public lecture at the University of Aberdeen

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

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...

Book cover of Ruthless by Edmond Smith, published by Yale University Press

Five endorsements for Ruthless praising its research, originality, and vivid writing, from Sathnam Sanghera, Emma Griffin, William Pettigrew, Anton Howes, and Nicholas Radburn (1/2)

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

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...

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History:Oxford Road

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

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.

Photo of vibrant blue cotton fibres seen under a microscope.

Photo of bleached cotton fibres seen under a microscope.

Photo of cotton sample for sale by Samuel Oldknow c. 1790.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

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

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

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...

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History:Oxford Road

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

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.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

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

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

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...

intrecci-project.org

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

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Dr Victoria Bateman @vnbateman.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

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

waterstones.com

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.

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Camilla de Koning @camilladekoning.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

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

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

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...

theguardian.com

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’

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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 17/07/2025

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.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

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.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to run a workshop with some brilliant colleagues at CHAM in Lisbon on "Cross Cultural Exchanges in the EM IOW". Mariana has written up a very nice review of the event: intrecci-project.org/cross-cultur...

intrecci-project.org

Cross Cultural Exchanges in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World | INTRECCI

A workshop hosted in collaboration with CHAM as part of the INTRECCI project.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Be the beaver! Save the world! 🦫🌎 I've been doing a little volunteering with Slow the Flow over the past couple of months (my wife is a trustee) and they've produced this excellent little video about the 5 top reasons for supporting nature-based solutions to flooding. youtu.be/TRYb2HqlnTc?...

youtu.be

What are the five key messages? Slow The Flow 2025

YouTube video by Slow The Flow

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Last year I had a great experience contributing my research (and voiceover skills, such as they are) to a film by artist and director Jenn Nkiru called "The Great North". The final release is still a little while away, but I'm excited to share the trailer. More soon! vimeo.com/1028107702

vimeo.com

THE GREAT NORTH by Jenn Nkiru, teaser

A vibrant reflection on Black history and architecture in Manchester by the British-Nigerian director Jenn Nkiru. Black history and modern-day architecture intertwine…

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Sadiah Qureshi 🦈 @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Love’s Labour Launches with a roar! Thanks to many roarsome people I’ve gone from peasant to PhD, to Professor, and Penguin author with Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction out today. 🐅 Pls share, read, and help create a worthwhile world. #WorldEnvironmentDay #BookSky #HPS #Skystorians 🗃️

Book cover for Vanished. Features a nineteenth-century print with a fossilised mastodon skeleton, Asian elephant being ridden by a turbaned man, Native and colonial figures looking on. In the background is a mountainous landscape and there is also a single passenger pigeon in the sky. The whole scene is framed by an ornate frame and foliage.

Below the book is the following text: A love letter to the astonishing ways of being that have survived past extinctions, and an exhortation to create a worthwhile world.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

A great pleasure last week to hold the first workshop of my INTRECCI project - took the opportunity to bring some ludicrously brilliant ECRs to Manchester! I co-hosted with a visiting PhD student @ideesdupasse.bsky.social who has written up a little review: intrecci-project.org/institutions...

intrecci-project.org

Institutions in Motion | INTRECCI

Intermediaries, Agency, and Adaption in Global Commerce and Empire, 1450-1850

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Bruce Buchan @brucealexb.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Our book began years ago in Edinburgh, but took shape over subsequent years between Brisbane, Växjö, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Uppsala, Paris, and London, but mostly Edinburgh. Now it has a cover, and pre-orders are available. @lindaaburnett.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

The cover of the book, Race and the Scottish Enlightenment: a Colonial History 1750-1820, by Linda Andersson Burnett and Bruce Buchan, Yale University Press, 2025. The cover features a silhouette of the Scottish anatomist, Robert Knox, holding a human skull.

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Outside work I look after an old cottage and little wood in Yorkshire, with these magnificent bastards for company!

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

I've also been kicking off a new project INTRECCI (kindly funded by the ERC) that aims to change how we understand globalisation by tracing institutional transformation from 1400 onwards in West Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and South East Asia. intrecci-project.org

intrecci-project.org

INTRECCI: A Global History of Globalisation | INTRECCI

INTRECCI is a research project focused on understanding globalisation's history. Discover our aims, team, events, and research findings that illuminate the origins of the modern world through innovati...

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

The *big thing* I've been finishing is my next book Ruthless, which is coming out in October. It connects the exploitation of land and people across Britain and its empire with scientific and technological innovation to offer a new history of capitalist development. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

yalebooks.co.uk

Ruthless - Yale University Press London

A revelatory new history of Britain’s industrial revolution and the exploitation that enabled it Was Britain’s industrial revolution the result o...

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Edmond Smith @edmond-smith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

A tad behind the times - I've been busy writing my next book Ruthless and kicking off a new project INTRECCI. Kinda forgot social media existed! Gather that this place is meant to offer more than a constant stream of crap, so let's see...

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