Historians from England, France, the Netherlands, and the US explore how the colonialization around the Atlantic was meted out to commercial enterprises. One of their goals is to help illuminate to what degree and why the emergence of a commercial, individualistic society occurred in Europe during the period, and was then exported to new lands. Their topics include financiers, factors, and French proprietary companies in West Africa 1673-1713; the proprietorship of Lord Willoughby of Parham in the English Caribbean; and the long lived proprietary in New Jersey. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)