Early Modern Overseas Careers

In the early modern period, two European networks, the Society of Jesus and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) spanned the globe and contributed to its multifaceted globalization. This book focuses on the members of the former, Jesuit missionaries, and the employees of the VOC originating from Central and Eastern Europe. The well-chosen case studies examine the group characteristics, career influences, and narratives of these Central Eastern Europeans. They explore the question of why subjects of Polish kings, Transylvanian princes, or Habsburg emperors dreamed of venturing overseas with the colonial merchants or aspired to work as missionaries in China and Japan.

The book examines the complexities of this early modern globalization: its scope, limits, importance, social, ethnic, and political ramifications. It researches how these networks reached out to the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The authors argue that the region was hardly considered peripheral from the perspective of Rome (and the Jesuits) or the Netherlands (and the colonial traders). They do, however, explore whether there were "glass ceilings," or limits of reach within the two networks for individuals from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the former Kingdom of Hungary.