Empires Cost: Forged in Paper by William H Brothers
Empire’s Cost: Forged in Paper Book Two of The 500-Year Journey
Amsterdam, 1595. The Dutch Republic is fighting for its future—and the Schutt family forge stands one unpaid debt from extinction.
Wilhelm Schutt and his son Jansen shape the iron that arms the Prince of Orange’s soldiers and holds Dutch ships together. Then the Dutch East India Company opens the world to fortunes beyond imagination. But each investment carries danger: storms, privateers, plague, predatory creditors, betrayal—and a single signature that can cost a family everything.
Across three generations, from the Battle of Nieuwpoort and the guns of Gibraltar to plague-ravaged Amsterdam and the birth of New Amsterdam, the Schutts discover that empire is not built by merchants alone. It is forged by ordinary people who must live with its price.
When Jansen’s son Hawk uncovers a gunpowder plot beneath Amsterdam’s Exchange, he must risk all that remains to save his family’s future.
A sweeping historical family saga of courage, faith, maritime peril, and the rise of the Dutch Empire.
★★★★★ Readers’ Favorite
“Cleverly plotted, wise, warm, and heartbreaking; … historical fiction at its most human.”
★★★★★ Readers’ Favorite
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Author Bio:
William H. Brothers—known to television and radio audiences for years as Bill Brothers—is the author of The 500-Year Journey, an eight-book historical family saga spanning five centuries of war, faith, migration, enterprise, and endurance.
A former broadcaster and entrepreneur, Brothers spent more than a decade tracing his family through records in the Netherlands, New York, and beyond. That research became the foundation of his fiction: immersive stories where documented history meets the private choices that shape a family across generations.
His commitment to preserving history extends beyond the page. The **Bill Brothers Moving Image Collection** at the University of Florida Libraries safeguards rare motion pictures and visual records for future researchers, students, and storytellers.
William lives in Florida with his family. He writes in the quiet hours before dawn and enjoys history, travel, tennis, castles, and gardens.
Learn more at www.WilliamHBrothers.com.