Gezicht op de Beurs en de goederenopslag te Sint-Petersburg 1755

This is Robert Sayer's print of the Stock Exchange and warehouses in St. Petersburg, an image made to feed the West’s fascination with the East. Maritime trade sits at the heart of global power, and we see this dynamic play out in the Dutch flag flying from one of the ships. While empires expanded their reach, a complex web of cultural and economic exchanges developed, often driven by the pursuit of profit and resources. Sayer’s print offers a somewhat romanticized view, softening the edges of the human labor that fueled this economic engine. But it also stands as a visual record of a pivotal moment in global history, one where the seeds of modern capitalism were being sown, and the world was becoming ever more interconnected, for better or worse.