Dr. Lewis Wade

Kontakt

Raum: FI5/01.21
E-Mail: lewis.wade@uni-bamberg.de

Besucheradresse: Fischstraße 5-7, D-96045 Bamberg
Post-/ Paketanschrift: Kapuzinerstraße 16, D-96045 Bamberg

 

I am an historian of early modern France, focussing especially on French engagement in global exchanges under Louis XIV. I am a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bamberg, having recently completed a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at Leiden University. At Bamberg, I am working on a postdoctoral project entitled ‘Costs, Conflict and Contingency: Rethinking the Institutional Development of France’s Ottoman Consulates through the Lens of Risk Management’. As part of this, I am currently writing a book manuscript, provisionally entitled Calamity in the Consulates: Conflict, Risk Management and the Absolute Monarchy in the French Mediterranean.

I defended my doctoral thesis, entitled 'Privilege at a Premium: Insurance, Maritime Law and Political Economy in Early Modern France, 1664-c. 1710’ at Exeter in 2021. This was awarded the British Commission for Maritime History's Boydell & Brewer Prize for the best doctoral thesis in maritime history and the Association of Business Historians' Coleman Prize for the best doctoral thesis in business history. My monograph, entitled Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire under Louis XIV, was published in 2023. This book, awarded the Society for the Study of French History First Book Prize in 2025, is available online Open Access and in paperback.

An Open Access article drawing on my doctoral research, entitled 'Royal Companies, Risk Management and Sovereignty in Old Regime France', has been published in the English Historical Review; another, entitled 'Underwriting Empire: Marine Insurance and Female Agency in the French Atlantic World', has been published in Enterprise & Society.

I can be found on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/wadehistory.bsky.social.
 

Publikationen

Book

Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire under Louis XIV, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2023. doi:10.2307/jj.7855347

                  Awarded the Society for the Study of French History First Book Prize

Articles and book chapters

‘Manufacturing Markets: Managing the Industrial Risks of Franco-Asian Commerce, 1683–1702’, in Angela Orlandi (ed.), Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk Management, Insolvency, and Bankruptcy in the Pre-Modern World (13th-18th Centuries), Florence: Firenze University Press, forthcoming in 2026.

‘Underwriting Empire: Marine Insurance and Female Agency in the French Atlantic World’, Enterprise & Society 25 (2024), pp. 184–212. doi:10.1017/eso.2022.33

‘Measuring Maritime Trade: An Introduction to the AveTransRisk Database’, in Silvia Marzagalli, Werner Scheltjens, and Jeremy Land (eds), L’histoire maritime à l’épreuve des humanités numériques, special issue of Histoire & Mesure 38 (2023), pp. 107–33. doi:10.4000/histoiremesure.19953 [with Maria Fusaro and Marta García Garralón]

‘Royal Companies, Risk Management and Sovereignty in Old Regime France’, The English Historical Review 138 (2023), pp. 442–73. doi:10.1093/ehr/cead107

‘Introduction: Risk and Uncertainty in the Early Modern World’, in Lewis Wade, Gijs Dreijer, and Mallory Hope (eds), Risk and Uncertainty in the Early Modern World, special issue of the International Journal of Maritime History 35 (2023), pp. 309–16. doi:10.1177/08438714231161960 [with Gijs Dreijer and Mallory Hope]

‘Coda: Risk and Uncertainty in the Past and Present’, International Journal of Maritime History, in Lewis Wade, Gijs Dreijer, and Mallory Hope (eds), Risk and Uncertainty in the Early Modern World, special issue of the International Journal of Maritime History 35 (2023), pp. 389–92. doi:10.1177/08438714231164505 [with Mallory Hope and Gijs Dreijer]

‘“The Honour of Giving My Opinion”: General Average, Insurance and the Compilation of the Ordonnance de la marine of 1681’, in Maria Fusaro, Andrea Addobbati, and Luisa Piccinno (eds), General Average and Risk Management in Medieval and Early Modern Maritime Business, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 415–30. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-04118-1_15

Book reviews

‘Maritime Power and the Power of Money in Louis XIV’s France: Private Finance, the Contractor State, and the French Navy by Benjamin Darnell’, International Journal of Maritime History, forthcoming in 2026.

‘Le trafic dunkerquois au XVIIIe siècle (1729–1792) by Christian Pfister-Langanay’, International Journal of Maritime History 37 (2025), pp. 595–6. doi:10.1177/08438714251355568

‘Political Culture in Louis XIV’s Canada: Majesty, Ritual, and Rhetoric by Colin M. Coates’, French History 39 (2025), pp. 80–1. doi:10.1093/fh/crae059

‘Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England by Anne L. Murphy’, The English Historical Review 139 (2024), pp. 1593–4. doi:10.1093/ehr/ceae246

‘Atlantic Voyages: The East India Company and the British Route to the East in the Age of Sail by John McAleer’, The English Historical Review 139 (2024), pp. 1294–6. doi:10.1093/ehr/ceae165

‘London Marine Insurance 1438–1824: Risk, Trade, and the Early Modern State by Adrian Leonard’, International Journal of Maritime History 34 (2022), pp. 694–6. doi:10.1177/08438714221142539i

Public communication

‘The Price of Privilege: Understanding Absolutism and Atlantic Commerce under the Sun King of France’, Economic History Society: The Long Run Blog (2025). https://ehs.org.uk/the-price-of-privilege-understanding-absolutism-and-atlantic-commerce-under-the-sun-king-of-france/ 

‘ECR in 2025: Advice to ECRs, A Response’, French History Network (2025). https://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6748/ 

‘ECR in 2025: What Can Be Done? A Response’, French History Network (2025). https://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6746/ 

‘ECR in 2025: What Is It Like? A Response’, French History Network (2025). https://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6744/ 

‘Serendipity in Historical Research: Understanding French Cloth in Early Modern Asian Markets’, French History Network (2025). https://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6679/ 

‘Lewis Wade, Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire Under Louis XIV, Boydell Press 2023’, New Books Network (2024). https://newbooksnetwork.com/privilege-economy-and-state-in-old-regime-france

‘Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: An Interview with Lewis Wade’, Toynbee Prize Foundation (2023). https://toynbeeprize.org/posts/privilege-economy-and-state-in-old-regime-france-an-interview-with-lewis-wade/