For nearly two centuries the Dutch Republic, despite its small size and population, functioned as the hub of world trade, shipping, and finance. This is the first detailed general account of that hegemony from its origins in the sixteenth century to the final collapse of the Dutch trading system in the eighteenth century. The economic structure of the early modern world was such that the Dutch Republic--particularly its chief business emporium, Amsterdam--was able to dominate the world economy to a far greater degree than any commercial power before or since. Using archival and secondary sources, this book explains how one small nation was able to maintain this ascendancy for so long, and details the mechanisms by which this was achieved and sustained, as well as the stages of its evolution.

In a model study Jacob Price illuminates the dynamic growth of Britain’s foreign trade in the eighteenth century through an investigation of the investment patterns and credit institutions that financed that expansion. Concentrating on the trade between Britain and the Chesapeake tobacco colonies of Virginia and Maryland, for which a unique set of records exists, Price surveys the ways in which commerce developed and working capital was mobilized in Britain to support expanding overseas trade. Price develops the clearest picture ever of the financial environment within Britain as it affected Southern colonies in the preindustrial age. He does so by determining the kind of capital resources merchants in foreign trade actually commanded and measuring how much of their own wealth merchants brought to trade. In great and absorbing detail he discusses also the development of merchant-oriented banks in London and other ports, reinvestment of profits, long-term borrowing on bond, and the long-term credit provided to export merchants by wholesalers in textiles, ironmongery, and other industries. The relationship of debt to the coming of the American Revolution is also treated. Tobacco growers suffered more than others from a psychological unease caused by immense debt and were more revolutionary than farmers with less intensive capital needs and, hence, with lighter debt. This history will enlighten Anglo-American historians, economic historians, and historians of the American revolutionary era.

A reissue of Eric H. Cline's highly regarded study of trade in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, first published in 1994 and out-of-print since 2000. The monograph is composed of three principal parts: 1) an analytical section discussing the trade and contacts which occurred between the Aegean, Italy, Egypt, and the Near East during the latter half of the second millennium BC, and the social, economic and cultural implications of such contacts; 2) first, a catalogue of literary and pictorial references to the LBA Aegean found in outside areas - primarily Egypt and the Near East - with transliterations and translations of the appropriate texts, and second, a compilation of the references to, and loanwords from, other areas of the Mediterranean found in the Linear B texts in the Aegean; and 3) a catalogue, by object type, of all the Orientalia and Occidentalia found in LBA contexts within the Aegean area. The monograph utilizes the catalogues in combination with previously published works by a variety of scholars to provide a detailed analysis of the trade and contacts between the LBA Aegean, Italy, Egypt and the Near East. The work is divided into six sections, each consisting of a series of interlinked essays. Section One provides an introduction to the topic, a brief overview of the previous scholarship in this area, and a discussion of the chronological problems involved. Section Two consists of an initial chapter discussing LBA trade and contact between the Aegean, Italy, Egypt and the Near East by centuries, followed by chapters discussing trade between the LBA Aegean and individual Mediterranean countries. Section Three contains discussions of the trade mechanisms involved, the trade routes, merchant nationalities, goods, motivations, and partnerships, plus a brief look at the Ulu Burun (Kas) and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks. Section Four presents an overview of the conclusions reached by this study and reiterates that the current work presents much raw data and some preliminary observations but is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of tapping the wealth of information which may be extracted from the accompanying catalogues.

The external economy of British North America has attracted considerable scholarly attention in the last two generations, and the papers reprinted here, in this second collection from Jacob Price, make important contributions to quantification, conceptualisation and debate. Studies presenting and analysing new statistical material from the English and Scottish customs accounts are supplemented by a general survey of the transatlantic economy in the 18th century which is required reading for all students of the subject. Price's treatment is diversified into financial arrangements and the role of credit in the slave trade and plantation economies. In a provocative chapter "Who cared about the colonies?," concern in Britain for the 13 colonies between 1714 and 1775 is explored in terms of the ability of the colonies to involve the interests and command the attention and concern of people in Britain from the politically eminent to those in trade and to the nation at large.

By the middle of the eighteenth century the merchants were dominant figures in the northern American colonies, powerful economically, politically, and socially. But in New England this preeminence had not been present in the first years of settlement; it had been achieved in the course of three generations of social development as the merchants often Puritans themselves, rose within the Bible Commonwealths to challenge the domination of the Puritan fathers. In lively detail Mr. Bailyn here presents the struggle of the merchants to achieve full social recognition as their successes in trade and in such industries as fishing and lumbering offered them avenues to power. Surveying the rise of merchant families, he offers a portrait in depth of the emergence of a new social group whose interests and changing social position powerfully affected the developing character of American society. The story of this group is the story of people and of their many-sided interests. The merchants were united by the demands of their common devotion to trade, yet they did not form a socially homogeneous unit. In fact their social differences--created in the confusions and dislocations of the early days of settlement came to play an important role in their business and political activities. Moreover, their commercial ventures, successes, and failures affected their social and political situation. Internationalists by occupation, they were deeply affected by personal relations with Europeans as well as by events in the Old World. Drawing on source material from many fields--business records, religious and political data, literary remains, and genealogical information--Mr. Bailyn has discovered much that is new about the merchants, and has brought it all together into a composite portrait of our economic founding fathers that is fascinating in itself and that will reorient our thinking about many aspects of early New England history.

"Spanish colonialism, the authors suggest, was the cutting edge of the early global economy. America's silver permitted Spain to graft early capitalistic elements onto its late medieval structures, reinforcing its patromonialism and dynasticism. However, the authors argue, silver gave Spain an illusion of wealth, security, and hegemony, while its system of "managed" transatlantic trade failed to monitor silver flows that were beyond the control of government officials." "Silver, Trade, and War is about men and markets, national rivalries, diplomacy and conflict, and the advancement or stagnation of states."--Jacket

"Spanish colonialism, the authors suggest, was the cutting edge of the early global economy. America's silver permitted Spain to graft early capitalistic elements onto its late medieval structures, reinforcing its patromonialism and dynasticism. However, the authors argue, silver gave Spain an illusion of wealth, security, and hegemony, while its system of "managed" transatlantic trade failed to monitor silver flows that were beyond the control of government officials." "Silver, Trade, and War is about men and markets, national rivalries, diplomacy and conflict, and the advancement or stagnation of states."--Jacket

After Ludwig von Mises's death in 1973, his wife, Margit von Mises, went through his unpublished and out-of-print essays and selected twenty-one of the essays for publication. The result was Money, Method, and the Market Process, published in 1990 by Kluwer Academic Publishers and the Ludwig von Mises Institute and reissued now by Liberty Fund. In his introduction to the book, Richard Ebeling describes it as a "convenient composite of Misesian economics.'" He says that the essays here touch on "almost every aspect of economic and social theory that Mises considered of paramount importance. The essays were written over a period of forty years, from the 1930s to the 1960s, so they serve as a wide sampling of Mises's thought on a wide range of subjects, and they are arranged thematically. The three essays in the first section, on "Method," discuss the differences between the social and natural sciences and include some of Mises's thoughts on the science of human action. The essays in the next section, on "Money," discuss inflation and money in economic exchange, and they include Mises's analysis of why stabilizing the price level will not necessarily stabilize economic activity. This leads readers to the section on "Trade," where Mises warns of the danger of international conflict in a world without free trade. There are seven essays on "Comparative Economic Systems," and they include detailed studies on capitalism versus socialism, the cooperative movement, the Russian Reform Movement, and equality and inequality. Under the heading of "Ideas," the final two essays are "The Role of Doctrines in Human History" and the well-known piece called "The Idea of Liberty Is Western". --

"In Apogee of Empire, the authors argue that the inability to renovate the Hapsburg legacies reflected reluctance to undertake radical changes first at home, then in Spain's relationship with its colonies." "The Steins trace in detail efforts to reform the Spanish establishment in the early 1760s, initially under the leadership of the marques de Esquilache, who accompanied Charles from Naples. Reformers had to determine which adjustments could be made without risking radical innovation. The ensuring seven-year conflict between reformers and traditionalists ended in a coup that outsted Esquilache. The authors then analyze the shift in focus to the colonies and the emphasis on incrementally modifying a key element of Spanish colonialism, transatlantic trade, via so-called free trade within the imperial system. Comercio libre, like most Bourbon reformism in general, neither realized a colonial pact nor improved Spain's competitive position in the Atlantic trading system. At the time of Charles III's death, the authors conclude, Spain had only made superficial changes, rather than the profound transformation the situation demanded, and by 1789 Spain and its wealthiest colony, New Spain, would be ill-prepared for the coming decades of upheaval in Europe and America."--Jacket

The India trade in Oriental spices, pharmaceutical, dyeing and other materials was the backbone of medieval economy, especially in the Islamic world. A unique source of documentation is now available in 11th-12th century Geniza letters, written in Judeo-Arabic (Middle Arabic in Hebrew characters), by participants in this activity. The documents are presented in translation with an introduction and notes. They deal with economic history and material, social, and spiritual civilization. Besides illuminating the activities of the traders of the Jewish Indian Ocean and their families in the territories from the Far East to southern Arabia and Egypt, the letters contain valuable information on Jewish and Islamic culture, relations between Jews and Arabs, Mediterranean culture, and Judeo-Arabic.

"'The economic history of European jews' attempts to make sense of the economic foundations of Jewish life in the different parts of late antique and early medieval Europe. In the first part Michael Toch describes the demographic arc, decline, subsequent rise, and spatial distribution of Jewish populations. This data is then broadened to include the range of economic activities. The second part analyses the actual share of Jews in different branches of the economy. This includes the idea of their pioneer role and the notion of an intercontinental network of Jewish commerce, the phenomenon of Jews in agriculture and entrepreneurship, gender roles and the household mode of production, and the difficult subject of the significance of minority status for economic activity, among others"--provided by publisher.

Of all the activities of the most neglected century in English History, England's trade has received the least attention in proportion to its importance. It was obviously in the course of the later Middle Ages, and more particularly in the fifteenth century, that there took place the great transformation from medieval England, isolated and intensely local, to the England of the Tudor and Stuart age, with its world-wide connections and imperial designs. It was during the same period that most of the forms of international trade characteristic of the Middle Ages were replaced by new methods of commercial organization and regulation, national in scope and at times definitely nationalistic in object, and that a marked movement towards capitalist methods and principles took place in the sphere of domestic trade. Yet little has been written concerning English trade in this period. First published in 1933, this classic volume goes a long way to fills this gap superbly. There is an abundance of material, and the writers have compiled a statistical analysis of the Enrolled Customs Account from 1377-1482, which provides an essential measure of the nature, volume, and movement of English foreign commerce during the period.