The Coffee Trader

Name: The Coffee Trader
Rating: 3.77 (10612 reviews)

by David Liss

First published 2003

Amazon

3.8(10,612)

Amsterdam, 1659. Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese Jewish merchant and refugee from the Inquisition, has been ruined by a sudden movement in the sugar market and is living in his younger brother’s basement. A Dutchwoman offers him a route back to prosperity through an attempt to corner the market in coffee, an unfamiliar commodity whose future value depends on persuasion, secrecy and control of supply.

Miguel’s scheme unfolds within Amsterdam’s commodities exchange and a Sephardic community whose governing institutions regulate business conduct as well as religious life. Partnership, family obligation and commercial rivalry become inseparable as competitors manipulate prices and information, making the novel both a financial thriller and a study of how refugees negotiated faith, reputation and opportunity in the Dutch Golden Age.