About me

Esther Sahle

I am an economic and social historian of early modern Europe and the British Atlantic.

My research focuses on how religious institutions facilitated long-distance trade expansion with a special interest in Quaker merchants. At present I am working on my second book which studies religious diasporas as ‘para-states’, providing formal law for commercial contract enforcement and thereby early modern globalisation. Further research interests include the impact of female agency on economic development and human capital formation in early modern Europe.

Since finishing my PhD at the London School of Economics in 2015, I have taught at the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg. During the summer semester 2021 I was acting chair of Economic and Social History at the University of Münster, covering for Ulrich Pfister. As of October 2021 I am a research associate in Global History at the Freie Universität Berlin.