Trade operates in networks. They reach far beyond the economic sphere and include activities in the fields of politics, science, philanthropy and leisure. This article investigates these non-economic aspects of networks of merchants, active in the Asia-European trade around the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Focusing on Swiss merchants, the article illustrates how the economic status of traders was linked to their social prestige as members of social clubs, philanthropic associations or collectors of cultural artifacts and donors for museums. The analysis is partly based on approaches in digital history, in particular the automatic extraction of information from a digitized business directory that was widely used by merchants during the period examined.