SUMMARY:

Four participants in the conference “Trade and Empire: Productivity, Economic Exchange, and Differences in Eurasia” jointly organized by Ab Imperio and Tyumen State University in Russia in June 2020 discuss various aspects of the interplay between new imperial history and history of economic exchanges. Chia Yin Hsu argues that looking at economic activities from the perspective of imperial history can help us relativize the boundaries of political communities and the very concepts of “nation” and “empire.”