Felicia and Rémi at the ESSHC 2023, Gothenburg, Sweden

From the 12th to the 15th of April, Rémi and Felicia took part in the European Social Science History Conference 2023, in Gothenburg, Sweden. They presented their research and had many lively exchanges with colleagues.

On the 13th of April. Felicia presented a paper entitled ‘“Prussians” Trading to the East Indies in the 1750s’, in the panel The Old German Empire in 18th Century Global Trade. Her paper explored the various networks of Dutch, British, Flemish, Frisian, Prussian and other Germanophone merchants involved in the short-lived Prussian Asiatic Companies trading to China and Bengal in the 1750s that operated out of the Prussian port of Emden located on what is now the German-Dutch border.

Rémi Dewière. Presented a paper on the 14th, in the panel Exploiting the Empire of Others: Exploiting the Empire of Others, 1415-1918 Global Insights into Entrepreneurial Cultures and Empire Building. His paper, entitled “New Currency, get Richer? Failed Entrepreneur and Imaginary Currencies in 19th Century Central Sahel”, was the opportunity o present his new research that involved the migration of French experts in North and sub-Saharan Africa between 1770 and 1850. This paper focused on the attempts of a Sahelian ruler in the 1830s to create his own currency, with the help of a French entrepreneur who claimed he could build and use a coining machine.

Felicia and Rémi particularly enjoyed the many panels organised by Cátia Antunes, including those related to the forthcoming Cambridge History of Global Migrations, to which Rémi contributed a chapter on refugees in Early modern Africa. There were exciting and stimulating discussions, and was also the occasion to meet with many of the other contributors to the volume (see photo).