Book excerpt: Heiko Schrader is an economist and sociologist. He wrote his Ph. D. thesis and a book on traditional and contemporary trading patterns in the Nepal Himalayas and beyond. Furthermore, he edited a book, together with Hans-Dieter Evers, on "The Moral Economy of Trade - Ethnicity and Developing Markets". This book is the outcome of a five-year research project on the history of finance in India and Indonesia that he completed with his Habilitation at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld.