Books with author Toby Musgrave

Tea, tobacco, sugar, opium, cotton, quinine and rubber. Seven plants that have changed the world. They have caused wars and the collapse of Governments, instigated the slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, enabled the birth to the United States and powered colonial expansion, and much more. Yet, today, most of us simply take these ‘plants of power’ for granted as part of our everyday lives.When you get up in the morning you have a cup of tea with a spoonful of sugar before putting on your cotton shirt and driving to work - if you're late you may have to "burn some rubber". During the day you feel like a break and have a sneaky cigarette. If you have a headache maybe you take a painkiller containing codeine After a hard day's work you look forward to a relaxing gin and tonic.An Empire of Plants presents an enlightening and thought-provoking narrative exploring and explaining the many and significant ways in these seven seminal plants have shaped world history.

For centuries, from foodstuffs and fabrics to medicine and industrial materials, plants have dominated trade between countries. Possession of rare spices, sweets, and narcotics could mean enviable wealth and power. In quest of these desired products and the income they brought, explorers ventured forth, risking death as they traveled unknown seas. Here is the story of seven plants--tobacco, sugar, cotton, tea, poppies, quinine, and rubber--and how Europe's hunger for them led to the Age of Empire...and turned world history upside down. Not only did these crops ensure the commercial success of America and Europe, but they became the catalyst for piracy, smuggling, addiction, and the slave trade--the darker side of the golden profits. With fascinating contemporary illustrations.

For centuries, from foodstuffs to industrial materials, plants have dominated trade between countries. Possession of rare spices, sweets, and narcotics could meand enviable wealth and power, so explorers ventured forth, risking death on unknown seas. Here are stories of seven plants--tobacco, sugar, cotton, tea, poppies, quinine, and rubber--and how Europe's hunger for them led to the Age of Empire and turned world history upside down. Not only did these crops ensure the commercial success of America and Europe, but they became the catalyst foasr piracy, smuggling, addiction, and the slave trade: the darker side of the golden profits. A beautiful presentation of a fascinating subject.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.