Today continues our historical hemp journey. We move from its prehistory to the Great Nordic Wars, from the deep Middle Ages up to Napoleon. Exploring the trading, scheming, piracy, licence forging, blockading and war declaring when capitalism became international.

Focusing on this Age of Sails when an entire world depended on a single fibrous plant. So crucial   to the very concept of the commodity that the largest army Europa had  ever seen broke the alliance between East and West on behalf of The Isles and marched from Paris to Moscow.

Through logbooks, old letters and decrees we follow the east coast merchant houses of Philadelphia, Boston and New York, prostituting the American flag for George III,  forming the dangerous, yet essential Baltic circuit of hemp trade from Russia to England and  the New World.

An exciting story of modern vikings who with Napoleon's grace, after the British bombardment of Copenhagen, hunted in gunboats Yankee barks, brigs,  and full-riggers overflowing with cannabis worth millions, upping the stakes of the most profitable crossings in history.

We read what Marx and his female comrades wrote about the Russian communes that collectively grew the cannabis over which so much blood was spilled. A marriage between a plant and a mode of production which in their own words could be a direct path to the next stage of History.

So please sign up on patreon or subscribe here on spotify to access the next instalment and the rest of this bonus series on the para-politico-economical history of cannabis sativa!