British Overseas Trade Research Articles

Reorienting the “origins debate”: Anglo-American trafficking in enslaved people, c. 1615–1660

ABSTRACT This article argues that trafficking in enslaved Africans and Natives constituted a chief element in English overseas colonization and was a primary component of English overseas trade from the mid-1610s. The managers of this commerce seamlessly translated Atlantic slavery into the Anglophone world decades before the establishment of the Royal African Company in 1672. Accordingly, there was never a transition in planter labor preferences from indentured servitude to slavery. Only access to supplies of enslaved Africans determined the number of Africans in Anglo-America while the act of trafficking in human beings automatically relegated those enslaved to inferior status.

Merchants Revisited: Long-Distance Traders and the World they Made

When faced with Esther Sahle's, Edmond Smith's, and Dane A. Morrison's recent books on English and American merchants, their activities, and their communities, a reader with any level of exposure to the field of early modern and early republic business history might legitimately ask, do we really need more? Historians have so completely associated early modern economic activity with merchant activity that many have deemed the period an era of “merchant capitalism.” The field is full of excellent studies and one might rightfully ask whether historians such as Jacob Price (Capital and Credit in British Overseas Trade [1980]), David Hancock (Oceans of Wine [2009]), Cathy Matson (Merchants and Empire [1998]), and Francesca Trivellato (The Familiarity of Strangers [2009]), among many others, have not plumbed the depths of the subject. Scholars of the Black Atlantic have also increasingly questioned the legitimacy of projects that continue to render the violence of slavery ancillary to discussions of business practice. To some extent, genuine historical engagement with merchants must reproduce the views of colonizers and enslavers to make the people whom it studies legible to modern audiences. This reproduction does damage as it illuminates, and business historians must engage this critique directly to maintain the legitimacy of their projects. In a crowded field with foundations that are seriously challenged by an emergent strain in this historical discipline, it is worth skeptically asking what three additional studies can add.

Medieval Merchants and Money: Essays in Honour of James L. Bolton, ed. Martin Allen and Matthew Davies

This book is a collection of essays that came out of conference papers initially presented at Queen Mary University in London in 2013. Its main purpose is to celebrate and honour the work of Professor Jim Bolton. The sixteen essays included in this collection are divided into six sections which comprise four more general themes: London, Merchants, Immigration and Money—the main topics Jim Bolton was interested in throughout his career. The collection, edited by Martin Allen and Matthew Davies, is opened by four studies (Justin Colson, Matthew Davies, Caroline Barron and Christian Steer) on London which consider the city’s guilds and merchants. Their focus ranges from the Companies’ record-keeping and their politics, to the devotional dynamics of the mercantile community. The following three contributions are very good examples of how existing digitised records databases can be used for demographic research. Adrian Bell and Sam Gibbs investigate the merchants and their involvement in the English military by combining the poll tax returns and ‘The Soldier in Later Medieval England’ databases; the importance of mobility is examined by Francesco Guidi Bruscoli and Jessica Lutkin by looking at English merchants’ presence and their activities in Florence and the presence of aliens in London, respectively. Although Anne Sutton’s chapter deals principally with the Iceland trade, it also illuminates our understanding of English overseas trade and the relationship between the English Crown and native and alien merchants. We are reminded once again that commercial success was a prerequisite for any political aspiration by Samantha Harper’s excellent case-study of English goldsmiths and their presence at the royal court. Martin Allen gives a chronologically wide overview of how English and Burgundian governmental attempts to regulate bullion were not only prejudicial for the exchange rate, but for merchants and trade too. On the same topic, through several case-studies drawn from royal legal records (King’s Bench), Hannes Kleineke informs us that, even though counterfeiting coin was considered a serious crime, the punishments arising from prosecution were rather ineffective.

The public rivalry between regulated and joint stock corporations and the development of seventeenth-century corporate constitutions

This article analyses the public debates about the two corporate forms used in the seventeenth century to develop England's international commercial reach: the regulated and joint stock company. It examines pamphlets to assess the changing public postures of the two forms across the period, and challenges histories of seventeenth-century English overseas trade that argue the triumph of free trade over monopoly. The article instead suggests that the public debate about the two company forms contributed to the development of new corporate constitutions derived from both models and therefore recovers the neglected significance of the regulated company in this period.

Between monopoly and free trade: the English East India Company, 1600-1757

The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. Between Monopoly and Free Trade locates the source of that success in the innovative policy by which the Company’s Court of Directors granted employees the right to pursue their own commercial interests while in the firm’s employ. Exploring trade network dynamics, decision-making processes, and ports and organizational context, Emily Erikson demonstrates why the English East India Company was a dominant force in the expansion of trade between Europe and Asia, and she sheds light on the related problems of why England experienced rapid economic development and how the relationship between Europe and Asia shifted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though the Company held a monopoly on English overseas trade to Asia, the Court of Directors extended the right to trade in Asia to their employees, creating an unusual situation in which employees worked both for themselves and for the Company as overseas merchants. Building on the organizational infrastructure of the Company and the sophisticated commercial institutions of the markets of the East, employees constructed a cohesive internal network of peer communications that directed English trading ships during their voyages. This network integrated Company operations, encouraged innovation, and increased the Company’s flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to local circumstance. Between Monopoly and Free Trade highlights the dynamic potential of social networks in the early modern era.

Of "Barren Islands" and "Cursèd Gold": Worth, Value, and Womanhood in The Sea Voyage

This essay takes up the two original plot lines of The Sea Voyage: one involves a group of pseudo-Amazons, formerly Portuguese women, now gone native on an abandoned island; the other concerns a pile of gold, also abandoned on the island. Both, it would seem, have little use value, removed as they are from the circuits of exchange and intercourse that govern the civilized world. Thus both are at the center of a larger crisis of meaning that forms the subject of the play—a crisis that can be resolved only through the timely intervention of male venturers. In its dramatization of this crisis, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's island romance appears to emerge from and engage with a very particular set of economic debates from the 1620s concerning English overseas trade and its renegotiation of the terms of worth, valuation, and exchange in the domestic realm. Its island logic, borne out by the crises of its people and materials, derives from questions about metal—its intrinsic value and its exchange value—which had become especially fraught during the 1620s in the wake of the developing East India trade.

Dutiful Daughters and Colonial Discourse in Jane West's A Gossip's Story

In A Gossip's Story and a Legendary Tale (1796), Jane West engages with both the contemporary ideology and the political reality of the British empire by explicitly supporting British overseas trade while acknowledging the precarious nature of a transatlantic empire. For West, the female body is a potent site through which to explore colonialist ideologies. The fates of various female characters reinforce ideas about feminine virtue and sexual regulation shaped by British contact with the Atlantic world, thus promoting a moral code that would come to define the empire. If young women do represent the British subject in didactic fiction of this period, with the father figure representing state authority, West's portrayal of these characters in A Gossip's Story against the backdrop of British Caribbean colonies alters our understanding of the national culture she promotes. A Gossip's Story's overt message —the importance of filial duty—urges its female readers not just to be good daughters, but to be good daughters of the British empire.

Dutiful Daughters and Colonial Discourse in Jane West's <i>A Gossip's Story</i>

In A Gossip's Story and a Legendary Tale (1796), Jane West engages with both the contemporary ideology and the political reality of the British empire by explicitly supporting British overseas trade while acknowledging the precarious nature of a transatlantic empire. For West, the female body is a potent site through which to explore colonialist ideologies. The fates of various female characters reinforce ideas about feminine virtue and sexual regulation shaped by British contact with the Atlantic world, thus promoting a moral code that would come to define the empire. If young women do represent the British subject in didactic fiction of this period, with the father figure representing state authority, West's portrayal of these characters in A Gossip's Story against the backdrop of British Caribbean colonies alters our understanding of the national culture she promotes. A Gossip's Story's overt message —the importance of filial duty—urges its female readers not just to be good daughters, but to be good d...

The British balance of payments, 1772‐1820: India transfers and war finance

A lbert Imlah's justified skepticism should not deter us from re-examining, as more evidence is uncovered, major issues surrounding the British balance of payments during the French wars. The present attempt arose from ongoing work on British overseas trade and services in the period 1765-1820. The courage was mustered from the unexpected consistency of the new estimates with independent conjectures on Britain's external position in benchmark years. The main purpose is to facilitate corrections and other input with ample disclosure of sources and procedures. Recent subject literature has sought to downplay the importance of exports as a causal factor in British industrialization. But 'small ratios' arguments in terms of national income aggregates have been challenged on several counts, and debate on the dynamic roles of overseas trade confronts insurmountable problems of measurement.4 This article will tackle the relative importance of Britain's external sector from a different angle. It will suggest that, without the accumulated credits from India transfers since 1757, Britain's financing of land warfare during the French wars could have been compromised.5

What Merchants Did: London Traders in the British Atlantic

London-the political, financial, and commercial heart of the British empirehas suffered an odd fate in the historiography of the eighteenth-century Atlantic. More colonial trade circulated through London than all other English ports combined during the first three quarters of the century. Yet despite its precedence in the imperial economy, the breadth and complexity of London's Atlantic commerce has failed to receive extended examination. Surveys concerned with British overseas trade accord prominence to the metropolis, and fine studies exist of individual merchants and particular branches of commerce. No published work on Georgian London, however, equals the scholarship on trade through Glasgow or Bristol, cities for which port books and firm records survive in greater quantity.1 For historians of early America, the deficiency is serious. In the absence of a view from London, those seeking a broad perspective on the operation of Britain's commercial empire find themselves with peripheries and no core. David Hancock helps fill the void with an intensive inquiry into the work of twenty-three loosely affiliated merchants active in the five decades before the close of the American Revolution. Six owned and operated a slaving fort on Bance Island in the Sierra Leone river from 1748 to 1784; the remaining seventeen represent all known partners in the other ventures conducted by the six principals-Augustus Boyd, John Boyd, Alexander Grant, John Mill, Richard Oswald, and John Sargent. The associates, as Hancock terms this group, represent the increasingly diverse origins of the London mercantile community. They hailed from the provinces, a majority from Scotland and Ireland, and labored, at first, outside the chartered companies and at the perimeter of established trading networks. In Hancock's words, they were marginal men, opportunistic in seizing new prospects for profit, prepared to direct multiple enterprises on a global scale in ways that integrated

The Rising Share of British Industrial Exports in Industrial Output, 1700–1851

Ongoing research on British overseas trade does not support supply-side explanations of British industrialization. Contrary to widely publicized views, the share of British industrial exports in alternative measures of industrial output rose almost continuously throughout the period 1723 to 1851. This finding rests on the official values of British domestic exports, and it is confirmed by new annual estimates of Britain's domestic export, and it is confirmed by new annual estimates of Britain's domestic export values at current an constant prices form 1772 to 1821. Further research on prices, and on Britain's strikingly underutilized trade records, may lead to a more balanced perception of supply and demand forces during the Industrial Revolution.

:Cooperation to Competition: English Perspective and Policy on Anglo-Dutch Economic Relations during the Reign of James I

For centuries English overseas trade depended on economic cooperation with the Low Countries. By the seventeenth century Dutch commerce had produced the highest standard of living in Europe, and the English viewed the Dutch with a mixture of awe and resentment. With the accession of James I, Anglo-Dutch relations began to change. The English perspective and policy response to their economic relationship with the Dutch shifted from cooperation at the beginning of James I's reign (1603-1625) to rivalry at the end of it.

'Crowded with traders and a great commerce': London's Domination of English Overseas Trade, 1700–1775

(1992). 'Crowded with traders and a great commerce': London's Domination of English Overseas Trade, 1700–1775. The London Journal: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 27-35.

'Crowded with traders and a great commerce': London's Domination of English Overseas Trade, 1700–1775

'Crowded with traders and a great commerce': London's Domination of English Overseas Trade, 1700–1775

Political Theory in Practice: the Forced Loan on English Overseas trade of 1317–18

Political Theory in Practice: the Forced Loan on English Overseas trade of 1317–18

Capitalism in a Mature Economy: Financial Institutions, Capital Exports and British Industry, 1870-1939.

Capitalism in a Mature Economy charts the development of the City as the undisputed financial centre of the world in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, reflecting Britain's dominant position in the world economy. The book focuses on four inter-related themes: the development and operations of English capital markets including the stock exchange and the clearing and merchant banks, the financing of British industry, the role of financiers and company promoters, and the financing of British overseas capital investment and trade.

Structural change and market growth in the food industry: flour milling in Britain, Europe, and America, 1850-1914

p. 86). In col. 3 where necessary I5 per cent was deducted to allow for seed and tail corn (The Times, 8 June I914, i6c). Sources: cols. I and 5, Statistical abstract and Annual abstract of statistics; col. 3, I850-4, Schlote, British overseas trade, p. 62, estimates annual output for I849 to I854 at I6.7 million quarters; I855-84, Broomhall, Yearbook I904, p. I38; I885-I9I4, Agricultural returns, G.B.: col. 7, cols. I + 3 + 5; col. 8, col. 7 divided by U.K. population from Mitchell and Deane, Abstract, pp. 8-Io. 26 Milling, ii May I90I, p. 3I2. 27 R.C. on Depression in Trade and Industry, first report (PP. i886, xxi), app. A, pp. 93-4. 28 Broomhall, Yearbook I904, p. 7. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.113 on Wed, 05 Oct 2016 04:27:57 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

What Did Merchants Do? Reflections on British Overseas Trade, 1660–1790

The relative dynamism of English and Scottish foreign trade from 1675 to 1775 can largely be explained by the interrelated phenomena of the growing domestic demand for American and Asian consumer goods and North European raw materials; the growing market in northern and western Europe for re-exports of American and Asian consumables; and the growing protected market for British manufactures in the American colonies and Africa. Trade growth depended on development of a wide variety of credit practices, supported primarily by big wholesalers and export merchants. Wholesalers and merchants also accounted for important institutional innovations.

Geographical Aspects of British Overseas Trade: A Framework and a Review

This paper is an overview of geographical studies into the British involvement in international trade. A conceptual framework comprising three elements is presented: internal regional economies, British trading ports, and overseas trading partners. The interactions among these three elements are discussed in order to review the rationale for an academic interest in British geography of overseas trade. The existing literature on the subject is also briefly discussed.

AIRMEC '83

The 3rd international Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Exhibition and Congress, AIRMEC 83, was staged in Düsseldorf for the first time. The space‐city style raised walkways, with their oval glass roofing, which link the halls and buildings of the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre, made an appropriate setting for an Exhibition of modern Aerospace technology. The Exhibition occupied a stand space of approximately 3,000 sq. metres. The displays offered a comprehensive picture of current developments in the servicing and overhauling of aircraft of all kinds. AIRMEC 83 attracted exhibitors from 15 countries. Of the 110 companies taking part, 45 were from West Germany. Britain had the second largest group, with 18 stands covering a floor space of 352 m2. Thirteen of the British contingent were grouped together in a British Joint Venture organised by the British Overseas Trade Board. Visiting the various stands, I found that most of the exhibitors were pleased not only with the attendance figures (2,500), but also with the quality of the visitors. Those attending the show came from 34 countries, and were, almost without exception, members of the technical management of their company or were sales executives. More than half were from establishments with more than a thousand employees. However, on the Friday, which was the last day, a number of exhibitors were complaining about the timing of the Conference in relation to the exhibition. The Conference ended on the Thursday lunch‐time, as a result, attendance at the Exhibition was somewhat sparse on the Friday morning and virtually non‐existent in the afternoon. Many exhibitors felt that the Conference should have been spread over the full period of the Exhibition. During the Conference, experts from 10 countries delivered a total of 32 lectures on aircraft maintenance and overhauling. These ranged from a series of lectures on hangars to training of personnel, design of engine maintenance and computer‐aided maintenance and spares management. The knowledge gained was not only of significance for airlines of developing and emerging industrial countries that have no sophisticated maintenance facilities of their own, but also to long‐established airlines. In times of dwindling profits, every airline has to keep a careful eye on possibilities for cutting operating expenditure, whilst at the same time ensuring optimum safety of the aircraft. Through the international exchange of experience and the presentation of new maintenance techniques, AIRMEC greatly contributed to the achievement of this objective.