1st Edition

The Atlantic Staple Trade Volume 1: Commerce and Politics; Volume 2: The Economics of Trade

Edited By Susan Socolow Copyright 1996
    840 Pages
    by Routledge

    This two volume set reprints the most important standard studies and interpretations of the development of the crucial Atlantic trade. The first volume, concerned with general trade and political economy, approaches the topic from the viewpoint of individual trading nations in the Atlantic - England, France, Ireland, Spain - whilst not neglecting the importance of regions like West Africa. Rivalry between the different national traders is also considered, as well as the vexed question of the relation of trade to the old colonial empires. The impact of administration, war and regulation as reflected by the contraband issue highlights the strong political element in the developing Atlantic commercial world. Case studies are provided of major staple and luxury commodity trades: rice, molasses, tobacco, cochineal, logwood, hides, cacao and the sometimes neglected whaling industry. These set the scene for quantitative and technical studies of the contribution of shipping to trade. Specific markets considered in more detail include a comparison of Philadelphia and Havana, the changing scale of business activity in the Chesapeake trade, and the impact of trade on port development in America. The volume closes with seminal studies by McCusker and Price on the central role of trade and the Atlantic economy. Taken together these two volumes provide the best possible foundation for the detailed study of the Atlantic trade in global expansion.

    Contents: Volume I: Introduction; General trade: Structure and magnitude of the colonial economic interdependencies (1500-1750): a world trade in development, Teodoro Hampe-Martinez; Colonies as mercantile investments: the Luso-Brazilian empire, 1500-1808, José Jobson de Andrade Arruda; The imperial response to ’free trade’: Spanish imports from Spanish America, 1778-1796, John Fisher; English foreign trade, 1660-1700, Ralph Davis; English foreign trade, 1700-1774, Ralph Davis; Irish Atlantic trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, R. C. Nash; Traditions and changes in French Atlantic trade between 1780 and 1830, P. Butel; Trade between western Africa and the Atlantic world in the pre-colonial era, David Eltis and Lawrence C. Jennings; Political economy: Dutch-Spanish rivalry in the Caribbean area, 1594-1609, Engel Sluiter; Power, corruption, and commerce: the making of the local administrative structure in 17th-century Buenos Aires, Zacarías Moutoukias; Doing business in the smuggling way: Yankee contraband in the Rio de la Plata, Jerry W. Cooney; Oceanic commerce and Platine merchants, 1796-1806: the challenge of war, Jerry W. Cooney; The American Revolution and the British West Indies’ economy, Selwyn H. H. Carrington. Volume II: Specific commodities: Rice: South Carolina and the Atlantic economy in the late 17th and 18th centuries, R.C. Nash; The colonial rice trade, Henry C. Dethloff; Molasses: The colonial molasses trade, Gilman M. Ostrander; Tobacco: The Portuguese tobacco trade and tobacco growers of Bahia in the late colonial period, Catherine Lugar; The economic growth of the Chesapeake and the European market, 1697-1775, Jacob M. Price; Cochineal: Cochineal production and trade in New Spain to 1600, Raymond L. Lee; Logwood: The logwood trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, Arthur M. Wilson; Cacao: The cacao economy of the 18th-century province of Caracas and the Spanish cacao market, Eugenio Piñero; Hides: Rio Grande do Sul

    Biography

    Susan Socolow

    'European and Non-European Societies and Christianity and Missions along with the other volumes in An Expanding World should become a standard collection for any academic library. The invaluable bibliography, the variety of themes, and the historical problems will engage students of all levels, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral, in many aspects of early modern and world history for years to come.' Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. XXX, No. 1