The Early Modern Atlantic Economy

by John J. McCusker (Editor), Kenneth Morgan (Editor)

Overview

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 economic historians, these essays increase our knowledge and understanding of the transatlantic economy. Contributions include studies of individual businessmen, labor patterns, port cities, branches of trade, and comparative studies of trading nations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521782494
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/11/2001
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.98(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"This collection of essays, which is dedicated to Jacob Price, the doyen of Atlantic historians, illustrates the breadth of topics that characterize the field." Journal of American History

"This volume offers scholars and students of the Atlantic world a useful introduction to some of the main thinking in the field by some of the most prominent scholars working in it...one of the strengths of the Atlantic world model more generally—-is the way that it brings together scholars of different periods and places who are all working on the same questions from different perspectives." Maryland Historical Magazine

"This volume will interest and inform all scholars of this expanding field." Canadian Journal of History

"...much to interest and inform." International Journal of Maritime History

"...a marvelous tribute to Price, a historian's historian of the early modern Atlantic world." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

"Readers of this collection will gain a renewed appreciation for the complexities of the world being created and transformed by European enterprise." Itinerario

"In this welcome volume, which honors the achievements of Jacob M. Price in transatlantic economic history, thirteen acclaimed scholars contribute deep and considered research to the revival of Atlantic World studies." Cathy Matson, The International Journal of Business History

"In fine, The Early Modern Atlantic Economy is an estimable collection of essays by eminent scholars focused around the principal concerns of an economic historian of monumental substance and import. In other words, it is an exemplary festschrift. Jacob Price should be both proud and honored by the volume." Journal of Southern History

From the Publisher