" The Commonwealth of Empire is a deeply researched and thought-provoking exploration of a little-known industrial site on the frontiers of empire in upland Southeast Asia. The book will speak to specialists working in multiple fields, from British imperial and modern Burmese history to the histories of global capitalism in general and mining in particular." -- Mircea Raianu , associate professor of history, University of Maryland, author of Tata: The Global Corporation that Built Indian Capitalism " The Commonwealth of Empire uncovers the intertwined histories of labour and corporate from the ground, and underground, of the mines of Bawdwin and Namtu in northern Myanmar. Moving between the margins of colonial Burma and imperial China, and the imperial and capitalist centers of Britain and the US, this original work reveals the multifaceted costs of resource extraction and accumulation; and reminds us of the enduring struggles for security, livelihood, and prosperity in this highly contested borderland." --Yi Li, lecturer in East and South East Asian History at Aberystwyth University " The Commonwealth of Empire is a deeply researched, and intellectually necessary, history of capitalism and the environment that expertly navigates the local, imperial, and global forces of Burma's Bawdwin and Namtu mines. Baillargeon seamlessly expands beyond nation-colony framings to understand transnational dynamics of labor migration, economic competition, and environmental extraction across Southeast Asia, India, China, Australia, and the United States. In so doing, he tells an urgently human story about the fragility of environments in the face of devastating yet fleeting colonial, martial, and economic demands for control." -- Kate Imy , associate professor and Fellow the Kerr Chair, University of Texas at Austin, author of Losing Hearts and Minds: Race, War, and Empire in Singapore and Malaya, 1915-1960.