Originally published: New York, NY: BasicBooks, c1992.

Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financ

An innovative legal history of economic life in the Western Indian Ocean, charting the emergence of a trans-oceanic contractual culture.

In the early history of Halifax (1749-1766), debt litigation was extremely common. In Law, Debt, and Merchant Power, James Muir offers an extensive analysis of

The story of personal debt in modern America Before the twentieth century, personal debt resided on the fringes of the American economy, the province of small-t