Session Abstract

 Merchants’ Lives in an Eighteenth-Century Global Context:  New York, China, and In-between

     Trade—both legal and contraband—has a history as old as exchange itself. Trade thrived around the globe in the eighteenth century. Networks and methods of exchange in New York, New France, Europe, the Caribbean, and China shared much in common. At their heart lay intermediaries, traders, and merchants. “Merchants’ Lives in an Eighteenth-Century Global Context: New York, China, and In-Between,” will explore the relationships merchants cultivated with each other and their governments.

     Relationships of trade brought merchants together or into competition through the rigors of supply and demand. Relationships of kinship and fictive kinship helped merchants open and solidify their ties to distant markets. These same connections shut doors of opportunity when soured and further complicated already intricate networks of exchange. Part of the complexity of trade systems emerged from the links merchants shared with their national or imperial governments. Individuals’ associations and experiences with their governments offer great insights into the world of eighteenth-century inter-imperial trade.

     Each panelist will examine merchant relationships and trade strategies in the Atlantic and Asiatic worlds. Collectively, they will show the ways in which salt monopolies in China, the fur trade of North America, and the trafficking of European manufactures united the fortunes and stories of individuals on the far-flung corners of the globe. The points at which these stories intersect offer answers about the merchants’ lives in the early-modern world but they also raise important questions about trade, autonomy, dependency, and cultural exchange.