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Contraband : Louis Mandrin and the Making of a Global Underground by Michael Kwass is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Contraband : Louis Mandrin and the Making of a Global Underground about?

Louis Mandrin led a gang of bandits who brazenly smuggled contraband into eighteenth-century France. Michael Kwass brings new life to the legend of this Gallic Robin Hood and the thriving underworld he helped to create. Decades before the storming of the Bastille, surging world trade excited a revolution in consumption that transformed the French kingdom. Contraband exposes the dark side of this early phase of globalization, revealing hidden connections between illicit commerce, criminality, and popular revolt.France's economic system was tailor-made for an enterprising outlaw like Mandrin. As French subjects began to crave colonial products, Louis XIV lined the royal coffers by imposing a state monopoly on tobacco from America and an embargo on brilliantly colored calico cloth from India. Vigorous black markets arose through which traffickers fed these exotic goods to eager French consumers. Flouting the law with unparalleled panache, Mandrin captured widespread public attention to become a symbol of a defiant underground.This furtive economy generated violent clashes between gangs of smugglers and customs agents in the borderlands. Eventually, Mandrin was captured by French troop

Author

Michael Kwass

Publisher

Harvard University, Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies

Published

2014

Language

EN

ISBN

9780674726833

Subjects

History, Biography, Political Science

Updated

2026-03-24