Abstract
By nature, wars appear hostile to commerce, bringing disruption to international relations and to everyday life. By focusing on the individuals involved in continuing commerce, however, an increasing body of scholarship has shown that merchants in a number of contexts continued to operate successfully during periods of war. This article builds on these recent methodological shifts in business history, applying them to the three Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century. Although these conflicts have been described as being harmful to commerce, there has been no focus hitherto on merchants’ experiences of or responses to these wars. This article addresses this problem and, in so doing, proposes a different way of analyzing and thus characterizing the relationship between the Anglo-Dutch Wars and business. Through examining the surviving correspondence of merchants operating during these wars, I investigate the various methods used—both successfully and unsuccessfully—to navigate obstacles to business during these conflicts. The value of considering this activity in broader British and European contexts is explored, and the range of concerns exhibited by merchants during these periods of conflict is analyzed, showing that war was not paramount among their concerns, despite the political context. Throughout, I show that although all three Anglo-Dutch Wars had an impact on commerce, this was not necessarily negative, and that the most enterprising and proactive merchants benefited from commercial opportunities created by the conflicts.
Highlights
By nature, wars appear hostile to commerce, bringing disruption to international relations and to everyday life
Throughout, I show that all three Anglo-Dutch Wars had an impact on commerce, this was not necessarily negative, and that the most enterprising and proactive merchants benefited from commercial opportunities created by the conflicts
The seventeenth century has long been characterized as a period of “general crisis,” with Europe frequently erupting into episodes of armed conflict that brought disruption to international relations and everyday life
Summary
Wars appear hostile to commerce, bringing disruption to international relations and to everyday life. “if the threat of war caused problems, the threat and reality of peace demanded readjustments.” Henry Thompson initially balked at the idea of trading in an uncertain market, as examined earlier, we have seen that he overcame those fears, utilizing foreign shipping and alternative markets to allow him to continue his business His methods were so successful that when news of the first Peace of Westminster reached him in March 1654, fears of a saturated market stirred him to write two letters on the same day, one to John and Joseph Drew in Amsterdam to “conjecture wee shall have suddently vessels either from Amsterdam or Rotterdam,” and one to Thomas Benson complaining that “if peace be with the Hollanders I feare this ordinary way of trade will not be very benificiall.”100 This example suggests two things: first, not all merchants looked forward to the return of peacetime trading, as they were accustomed to the opportunities. Far more concerning to them were the less predictable obstacles to business, including unreliable workmen, cultural barriers, the behavior of business associates, and the restrictions of monopoly trade
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