Nick Collins has spent his working life in maritime trade in senior positions in London, Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai. He combined this knowledge with his Cambridge History degree to write a three-volume history of global shipping. He identified the first sustained maritime network as India to Mesopotamia, probably also the longest lasting. The first volume, How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World: Ice Age to Mid-Eighth Century is published by Pen & Sword in the UK and by Garuda Prakashan in India. The second and third volumes carry the story through to 2025. He writes regularly at maritimetradehistory.com and nickcollins1953.substack.com.