The Early Modern Atlantic Economy

This book throws new light on the interlocking commercial relationships of the Atlantic trading world during the centuries ending with the American and French Revolutions. Grouped under four themes - the role of merchants and their connections; the development of trades; imperial economies; and colonial working societies - and written by an international team of thirteen celebrated economic historians, these essays add to our knowledge and understanding of the transatlantic economy. Contributions range from studies of individual businessmen, labour patterns, port cities, and branches of trade, to comparative studies of trading nations. They consider the role of the British and French empires as well as the imperial endeavours of other European powers in the Atlantic, drawing attention to the wider implications. This book throws new light on commerce and the early modern Atlantic economy, and will be a valuable resource for economic historians at all levels.

Introduction John J. McCusker and Kenneth Morgan; Part I. The Role of Merchants and their Connections: 1. Risk, credit and kinship in early modern enterprise Peter Mathias; 2. Business networks in the British export trade to North America, 1750–1800 Kenneth Morgan; Part II. The Development of Trades: 3. Property versus commerce in the mid-eighteenth century port of London Henry Roseveare; 4. Irish businessman and French courtier: the career of Thomas Sutton, Comte de Clonard, c. 1722–1782 L. M. Cullen; 5. 'A revolution in the trade': wine distribution and the development of the infrastructure of the Atlantic market economy, 1703–1807 David Hancock; 6. Law, credit, the supply of labour, and the organization of sugar production in the colonial greater Caribbean: a comparison of Brazil and Barbados in the seventeenth century Russell R. Menard; 7. The revolutionary impact of European demand for tropical goods Carole Shammas; 8. The business of distilling in the Old World and the New World during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the rise of a new enterprise and its connection with colonial America John J. McCusker; Part III. Imperial Economies: 9. France, Britain, and the economic growth of colonial North America Stanley L. Engerman; 10. Merchants and bankers as patriots or speculators? Foreign commerce and monetary policy in wartime, 1793–1815 Patrick K. O'Brien; 11. America and the crisis of the British imperial economy, 1803–1807 François Crouzet; Part IV. Colonial Working Societies: 12. Emigration and the standard of living: the eighteenth-century Chesapeake Lois Green Carr; 13. After tobacco: the slave labour pattern on a large Chesapeake grain-and-livestock plantation in the early nineteenth century Richard S. Dunn.

This book throws new light on the interlocking commercial relationships of the Atlantic trading world during the centuries ending with the American and French Revolutions. Essays by thirteen celebrated economic historians cover the role of merchants and their connections, the development of trades, imperial economies, and colonial working societies.