diff --git a/sample.project.clj b/sample.project.clj
index b8658446..b8982292 100644
--- a/sample.project.clj
+++ b/sample.project.clj
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@
   ;; development. Projects that depend on this project will not pull
   ;; in its dev-dependencies, and they won't be included in the uberjar.
   :dev-dependencies [[org.clojure/swank-clojure "1.2.1"]]
+  ;; Global exclusions are applied across the board, as an alternative
+  ;; to duplication for multiple depedencies with the same excluded libraries.
+  :exclusions [org.apache.poi/poi
+               org.apache.poi/poi-ooxml]
   ;; Only re-fetch dependencies when they change in project.clj or
   ;; when :library-path directory is empty.
   :checksum-deps true
diff --git a/src/leiningen/deps.clj b/src/leiningen/deps.clj
index 6a25c740..19e6d51c 100644
--- a/src/leiningen/deps.clj
+++ b/src/leiningen/deps.clj
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@
     (doseq [repo (make-repositories project)]
       (.addConfiguredRemoteRepository deps-task repo))
     (doseq [dep (project deps-set)]
-      (.addDependency deps-task (make-dependency dep)))
+      (.addDependency deps-task (make-dependency project dep)))
     deps-task))
 
 (defn use-dev-deps? [project skip-dev]
diff --git a/src/leiningen/util/maven.clj b/src/leiningen/util/maven.clj
index 591e651d..82bf74db 100644
--- a/src/leiningen/util/maven.clj
+++ b/src/leiningen/util/maven.clj
@@ -145,26 +145,29 @@ the :classifier key (if present) is the classifier on the
 dependency (as a string). The value for the :exclusions key, if
 present, is a seq of symbols, identifying group ids and artifact ids
 to exclude from transitive dependencies."
-  [dependency]
-  (when-not (vector? dependency)
-    (abort "Dependencies must be specified as vector:" dependency))
-  (let [[dep version & extras] dependency
-        extras-map (apply hash-map extras)
-        exclusions (:exclusions extras-map)
-        classifier (:classifier extras-map)
-        type (:type extras-map)
-        es (map make-exclusion exclusions)]
-    (doto (Dependency.)
-      ;; Allow org.clojure group to be omitted from clojure/contrib deps.
-      (.setGroupId (if (and (nil? (namespace dep))
-                            (re-find #"^clojure(-contrib)?$" (name dep)))
-                     "org.clojure"
-                     (or (namespace dep) (name dep))))
-      (.setArtifactId (name dep))
-      (.setVersion version)
-      (.setClassifier classifier)
-      (.setType (or type "jar"))
-      (.setExclusions es))))
+  ([dependency]
+     (make-dependency {} dependency))
+  ([project dependency]
+     (when-not (vector? dependency)
+       (abort "Dependencies must be specified as vector:" dependency))
+     (let [[dep version & extras] dependency
+           extras-map (apply hash-map extras)
+           exclusions (:exclusions extras-map)
+           classifier (:classifier extras-map)
+           type (:type extras-map)
+           es (map make-exclusion (concat exclusions
+                                          (:exclusions project)))]
+       (doto (Dependency.)
+         ;; Allow org.clojure group to be omitted from clojure/contrib deps.
+         (.setGroupId (if (and (nil? (namespace dep))
+                               (re-find #"^clojure(-contrib)?$" (name dep)))
+                        "org.clojure"
+                        (or (namespace dep) (name dep))))
+         (.setArtifactId (name dep))
+         (.setVersion version)
+         (.setClassifier classifier)
+         (.setType (or type "jar"))
+         (.setExclusions es)))))
 
 (defn make-repository [[id settings]]
   (let [repo (Repository.)]