This examination of French trade with Asia analyzes France s attempt to establish a mercantile empire in the East by breaking into the lucrative market of the Indian Ocean. Between 1664 and 1674, France advanced a vigorous strategy of commerce and colonization. It founded the powerful East India Company and constructed a large royal fleet as the principal instrument for entrenching French power in Asia. Drawing on archival sources, Ames offers a new interpretation of France s mercantilism in the context of the rise of the world market economy of the early modern period. This study sheds new...