Making a Port in a Storm: The Role of Voluntary Associations in Philadelphia's Atlantic Fortunes

Philadelphia flourished in the eighteenth century as a critical node that linked the North American hinterland with the Atlantic world.  Founded after Boston and New York, the city quickly overtook both as the leader of British North American commerce and migration.  Many factors contributed to the city’s rising economic fortunes, but one that has gone unexplored is the impact of civic organizations in shaping Philadelphia as a center for commerce and an inviting harbor for temporary docking (mariners) or permanent settlement (immigrants).

This paper argues that the rich voluntary associational culture that came to characterize the city after 1725 played a critical role in facilitating Philadelphia’s role in the Atlantic world.  In the context of hands-off provincial government and an almost entirely defunct municipal government, it was the voluntary associations that provided much of the infrastructure that made Philadelphia an attractive port.  Such organizations made available tens of thousands of pounds to merchants in the form of badly needed loans—an aspect of capital accumulation previously unknown to historians.  They smoothed the transition of newly-arrived immigrants through advice, housing, medical care, and economic assistance, and worked to provide a safety net for mariners and sea captains through the efforts of the Hospital and the Society for the Relief of Poor and Distressed Ships Captains.  Finally, Philadelphia’s voluntary associations made the city an attractive and safer place to do business, offering everything from carefully managed social networks where contacts could be made, to protection of merchants’ warehouses and ships from fire.  Philadelphia pioneered many forms of voluntary association in British North America, creating a unique civic community that shaped decisively the city’s rising fortunes in the Atlantic world of commerce and migration.