Switzerland is today one of the biggest centers in the global commodity trade, despite being a small country with few natural resources, no direct access to the sea, and insignificant military power. Lea Haller argues that this success is the result of a complex constellation of political, economic, institutional, technological, ideational, and cultural factors. According to the author, the Swiss case also challenges some traditional assumptions about imperialism, because it is a powerful example of the incongruence of political and economic power. Switzerland's ostensible insignificance on the international scene has often turned out to be a worthy asset to Swiss traders, as it has allowed them to adapt to the political environment in a flexible and pragmatic way.

Haller focuses on rarely studied agents of global capitalism, Swiss merchanting traders. Broadly speaking, these intermediaries operate as follows: They facilitate trade from one foreign country to another, without transiting goods through Switzerland. They pay the producer to launch the transaction and receive payment from the buyer later. Hence, the trading business is physically separated from the Swiss headquarters that processes the corollary financial transactions. This separation of flows of goods and capital is why merchanting trade does not appear in Swiss trade statistics but rather qualifies as “export of services,” although it has been an essential pillar of the world trade from the nineteenth century to the present. Haller sheds light on this significant trading activity that only becomes “visible” “when one follows not only the flow of goods, but also the flow of capital, and when one considers the role of the intermediary” (p. 29). Because the book focuses on the Swiss scenario, international readers might regret the lack of international comparisons. Reflecting as it does the paucity of literature on the topic, this pioneering work suggests opportunities for future research on global trade in other important centers, such as London and Singapore.

Haller analyzes merchanting traders through the lens of transnational history, because “crossing borders [is] a basic operation of their business” (p. 32). In the nineteenth century, traders not only connected producers and consumers but also opened new export markets for Swiss industries and expanded the role of Helvetic diplomats as honorary consuls. Arguing that economic and political spheres overlap and influence each other, the author demonstrates how merchanting trade has depended on the support of trade diplomats, lobbyists, interest groups, financial service providers, and business lawyers. Her transnational approach is, however, limited by the lack of foreign archives. She uses archives of Swiss trading companies, like Volkart and the Basler Handelsgesellschaft, their lobbying association Verband Schweizerischer Transit- und Welthandelsfirmen, and the Swiss Federal Archives.

A historian rather than an economist, the author nonetheless systematically contextualizes economic activity and economic theory. She emphasizes that “both—ideas and actions—are to be understood in their historical context and not as precursors of a development that we can imagine as a continuum in retrospect, but which was completely unforeseeable for the contemporary protagonists and could always have taken a different course” (p. 38). Haller acknowledges this plurality of causes by creating a chronological narrative of continuous adaptation of a heterogeneous sector facing ever-changing circumstances and new market opportunities.

The origins of the Swiss merchanting trade can be found in the transatlantic trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (chapter 2). It grew significantly in the nineteenth century when it benefited from, for example, the abolition of the Navigation Acts in 1849 and the U.S. Civil War (chapter 3). In the same century, several technological and institutional innovations revolutionized global trading operations, such as the telegraph, the futures markets, and risk management through hedging (chapter 4). In chapters 5 and 6, Haller demonstrates how the war economies destroyed historical commercial ties after 1914 and how political attributes like neutrality and nationality gained in importance. It becomes particularly visible that the attractiveness of Switzerland as a base for these firms’ headquarters has never been self-evident but has depended on a variety of factors, like political neutrality, stability of the capital market, commercial treaties, and fiscal benefits.

In chapters 7 and 8, Haller convincingly demonstrates the delicate interconnection between business and politics throughout the twentieth century. In the 1930s, for example, it became impossible to trade globally and be independent of international politics when the collapse of the gold-exchange standard disrupted international payments and states had to negotiate bilateral clearing agreements. The rigid compensation schemes embedded therein were based on a dichotomic definition of trade as being composed solely of exports and imports; merchanting trade was neglected. While their success in the nineteenth century had been based on confidentiality, discretion, and political neutrality, merchanting traders suddenly depended also on lobbying skills. They needed to persuade Swiss officials that their business was indispensable for the Swiss balance of payments. The author analyzes how this need for political visibility led to the sector's initial attempts at coordination and transparency and to its first statistical estimation. Why we still know so little about this sector is discussed in chapter 9. Chapter 10 concludes.

Since Haller proceeds “exemplarily” and “not systematically,” this book is easy to read, despite the complexity of the financial and commercial globalization processes it analyzes. However, the strong narrative sometimes comes at the expense of justifications of the “omitted, implied and not considered perspectives” (p. 37). It will nevertheless be thought-provoking for a wide readership interested in the interaction of political and economic spheres, the history of capitalism, the mechanisms of commodity trade finance, imperialism, and Swiss foreign relations. Finally, the way it succeeds in unveiling a “statistically invisible” sector might inspire others to rethink statistical and national categories that most research on economic history relies on.