Genoa's maritime empire in the eastern Mediterranean came to an end with the Ottoman conquest, yet the Genoese soon became the most powerful bankers in Europe. How and why did this happen? Padriac Rohan shows how the Genoese bring us into an era we recognize readily as our own, demonstrating the relationship between, on the one hand, violence and colonial exploitation, and on the other, the more subtle and hidden sovereignty of financial power.