Language For Trade

This article uses a case-study of a Dutch translation of a Russianbook of tariffs and trading laws from 1724 to examine how language shaped and was shaped by global trade. In the early modern period shifting trade routes brought new commodities with new names, imperial expansion reified imperial terms as the norm for imperial-control/ed products, and both joined old terms for the technica/ities and legalities of international trade. All those terms had to be arranged within texts, tables, and books, and rearranged in translations vital to international trade. Such mercantile texts aimed not fo... Mehr ...