Abstract Earlier research about the Swedish East India company has not focused on the globalization perspective on a wider scale. The research has for the most part been on the company’s profits and the exclusive goods that the company imported, but the idea that the Swedish east India company was part of a global process haven’t been the focus. Leos Müller is one of the most famous maritime historians in Sweden and his research puts the Swedish east India company into a global perspective. In his book Swedens first global century Müller measures globalization through the words: goods, people, and politics and together they can help explain the globalization of the 18th centaury. This essay is a case study where letters from the journey made by the ship the Hope will be studied. Müllers theory about globalization was used to measure and study the globalization that Sweden experienced during the 18th centaury through the trading networks of the Swedish east India company. The letters show that the journey with the ship the Hope was 10 months longer than the average journey. The reason behind the long journey was because the ship was late to arrive in Canton for the trading season and therefore decided to stay over, to get better prices on Chinese goods. What the case study shows is a micro historic perspective on the Swedish east India company’s role in developing new commodity chains in the Swedish and global maritime trade. What the essay shows is that the east Indian trade was a complex arena for trade. The commodity chains that were established were affected by both social networks and political structures, were much of the goods imported and later re-exported by the Swedish east India company got smuggled to other mercantile countries in Western Europe.