Empires Cost: Forged in Paper by William H Brothers
Amsterdam, 1595. The Dutch Republic is rising—and a new kind of power is being forged in contracts, ledgers, and shares.
Willem Jansen Schutt inherits his family’s forge and the memory of persecution that drove them from their home. When the newly formed Dutch East India Company invites ordinary citizens to invest, Willem sees a chance to secure his family’s future. But war, shipwreck, ambition, and speculation draw the Schut family from Amsterdam’s counting houses to dangerous seas—and every profit carries a hidden price.
Step into the thrilling rise of the Dutch Golden Age through the lives of one unforgettable family. Rich in period detail but always driven by human stakes, Empire’s Cost: Forged in Paper makes history vivid, immersive, and deeply entertaining.
A sweeping novel of faith, family, ambition, and the human cost of empire. Book Two of The 500-Year Journey; it can be enjoyed as a standalone or in the series which begins with The Night the Bells Burned.
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Author Bio:
William H. Brothers is the author of *The 500-Year Journey*, an eight-book historical family saga that follows one family across five centuries—from religious persecution in the Netherlands to the making of America.
Before turning full attention to fiction, Brothers built a career in broadcasting and media. He was known to television and radio audiences as **Bill Brothers**—the same person who now writes under the name William H. Brothers. An entrepreneur as well as an on-air personality, he owned and operated two television stations and approximately a dozen FM radio stations between 1990 and 2010.
His lifelong interest in history, family, and the choices ordinary people make in extraordinary times led him to more than a decade of genealogical research. That work became the foundation for his novels: immersive, character-driven stories grounded in real places, documented history, and the lives that official records often leave untold.
His professional legacy also includes the Bill Brothers Moving Image Collection, named by the University of Florida Libraries in recognition of a significant archive preserving broadcasting history.
Brothers lives in Florida with his family. When he is not writing before dawn or late at night, he enjoys time with his children and grandchildren, tennis, travel, and research trips to the towns, archives, battlefields, and rivers that bring his stories to life.