Mercantile Credit and Trading Rings in the Eighteenth Century

Pierre Gervais

doi:10.1017/s239856820000042x

Abstract

Merchant credit was the main source of profit for economic agents in the eighteenth-century. Managing cash, commercial instruments, and account books, Atlantic traders such as Gradis of Bordeaux—who dealt in colonial products (including indigo, sugar, and coffee) and exported staples (flour and wine) to Quebec—or Hollingsworth of Philadelphia (an important dealer in flour and colonial produce) achieved market domination through specialized credit networks integrating market exchange and both moral and social interactions. Since a Weberian or a Homo Oeconomicus view of these complex credit activities leads to anachronisms, this article eschews standard economic approaches in favor of more historicized views of early modern economic activity, credit networks, and profit-making techniques.

Highlights

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On September 22, 1755, a major eighteenth-century merchant in Bordeaux, France, named Abraham Gradis[1] recorded the following entry in his accounting ledger: “Salles & C° my Acct/ Dr ; to Jacob Raphael his Acct £4878 =p=r our Remittances Viz. = W 1000 626 at 57 at 2/U drawn this Day by Pre Taffart fils ainé On Jean Clemens and Loan of Amstdm = W 1626 discounted at 57.”2 His notation offers an excellent introduction to the complexity of eighteenth-century credit practices
Annales HSS 67, no. 4 (October-December 2012): 693–730. It states that Gradis had forwarded two letters of credit, which were drafted in Bordeaux, drawn on a firm in Amsterdam, and brokered by his Paris correspondents, Salles & Cie.[3]

Summary

Pierre Gervais

Mercantile Credit and Trading Rings in the Eighteenth Century. On September 22, 1755, a major eighteenth-century merchant in Bordeaux, France, named Abraham Gradis[1] recorded the following entry in his accounting ledger:. = W 1000 626 at 57 at 2/U drawn this Day by Pre Taffart fils ainé On Jean Clemens and Loan of Amstdm = W 1626 discounted at 57.”2 His notation offers an excellent introduction to the complexity of eighteenth-century credit practices. 1. Fonds Gradis, Archives Nationales (hereafter referred to as “AN”), Paris. I would like to thank the Gradis family, who granted me access to their archives. On the Gradis family, see: Richard Menkis, “The Gradis Family of Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux: A. Gradis accounts for 1755 are available online, courtesy of the ANR Marprof project: http://marprof-base.univ-paris1.fr. Annales HSS 67, no. 4 (October-December 2012): 693–730

PIERRE GERVAIS

Credit Tools and the Regulation of Transactions

Bills Payable Profits and Losses Credit Balance

Accounting Practices and Credit

Findings

Credit in the Age of Commerce