The Coffee Trader

Liss’s novel of 1659 Amsterdam, in which a Portuguese-Jewish commodities trader tries to corner a market in a drink nobody in Europe has heard of — set in the same exchange Joseph de la Vega would write about thirty years later.

Why it’s on the list: Named in the replies to @typesfast asking for the best history book you’ve read — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved. It is a novel rather than a history, which is worth knowing before picking it up.

Where I saw it: In the replies to @typesfast asking “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025). Kyle recovered the reply list by hand and saved it to his “Books To Read” Apple Note; the full transcribed list lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

Connections

• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Capital Allocation — the portfolio idea this sits closest to.
• Confusión de Confusiones — de la Vega’s 1688 account of the same exchange, also on this list.