Although the majority of the population were Calvinist Protestants, Catholics and Jews were allowed to practice their religions, although by and large they lived in separate communities. Science and art flourished along with trade.Īmsterdam was also known throughout Europe for its religious tolerance. Led by the East India Company, the world’s largest commercial organization, trade had propelled the nation to a Golden Age that spanned the entire 17th century. The Dutch had won their independence from Spain only a decade before, after the Eighty Years’ War, when the Peace of Münster provided formal recognition of the Dutch Republic. In 1659, Amsterdam was the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, and one of the most prosperous. Miguel’s coffee scheme is set against a fascinating backdrop. Coffee is a drink that brings out great passions in men, and you may be unlocking great forces if you trifle with it.”

Will Miguel realize his dream of restored wealth, or will his enemies ruin him?Īs Jewish moneylender Alonzo Alferonda warns Miguel, “ou must remember to be careful. Suspense builds as the day of reckoning for the scheme approaches. Friends may be enemies, enemies may become friends, trading partners and fellow businessmen may be bent on betrayal. To implement the scheme, he must take numerous risks, both at the Exchange and in the community. No one can be trusted. Once Miguel commits to the plan, his life changes. The plan requires capital, connections, timing, and most of all, secrecy. He forms a partnership with Geertruid and conceives a bold plan to corner the coffee market throughout Europe. “‘The man who drinks coffee fruit cares only for his business. Miguel thinks it looks like “the devil’s piss,” but Geertruid tells him it will make both their fortunes. She insists that he take a drink of an uninviting, tarry liquid made from the fruit. His seductive Dutch friend Geertruid Damhuis persuades him that the exotic coffee fruit will provide his answer. He is desperately searching for a way to restore his wealth and his standing on the Exchange. He is deeply in debt and reduced to living in his younger brother Daniel’s damp cellar. In the past Miguel has been prosperous, but as The Coffee Trader opens, Miguel’s fortunes have turned.

The business of the Exchange did not require a man to know an item’s nature, only its demand-and sometimes, in the heat of the trade, not even that.” “Miguel had come across coffee once or twice, but only as a commodity traded by East India merchants. Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese Jew who fled to Amsterdam to escape the Inquisition, is among them, although he is a well-connected trader on the Exchange. Merchants of the Dutch East India Company have done a little trading in coffee, but most residents of Amsterdam have never seen it, let alone tasted it. In Amsterdam in 1659, as in most of Europe, coffee is virtually unknown.

The Coffee Trader by David Liss