The case studies will be conducted through a comprehensive review of the existing specialist literature on each hub, combined with extended archival fieldwork tracing individual transactions to reveal who was involved, their backgrounds, networks and expertise, as well as how they obtained and exchanged resources. The sources include contracts and agreements, legal arrangements and regulations, export licences and passports, financial records, personal papers and correspondence. The studies will also examine the impact of these activities on the hub itself, including the hub’s relationship to higher authorities and to other states, which will involve consulting the relevant records of central, regional and civic governments and institutions.
