Carousing and Trade: Early American Merchants in Surinam

The study begins with a brief survey of Dutch Surinam and the rise of sugar.  With the loss of New Amsterdam in 1664, the Dutch Republic lacked a temperate zone colony to complement the industrial life of its tropical settlements. Almost immediately, New England merchants were attracted to Surinam and what the Dutch could offer.  This trade threatened English sugar plantations in the West Indies. Soon, the Board of Trade urged the Privy Council to enact a law prohibiting the New England trade to Surinam. The paper examines New England merchants who were rather immune to the arguments of English sugar plantation owners about the detrimental effects of trade with the Dutch in Surinam. The Dutch in Surinam offered diverse trade goods and higher prices for commodities than New England merchants tendered in return. The Dutch sold their sugar for lower prices than the English.  Simple economics dictated that commercial traffic would flow to Surinam. English sugar plantation owners asserted if the Dutch produced their own sugar in South America, the Dutch would purchase less brown sugar in the London market.  Thus, indirectly, they argued, the New England colonies were helping to depress the price of sugar in England. Furthermore, the paper grapples with New England merchants’ motivations.  Why did New England merchants choose to break away from traditional commercial networks and a strong West Indian lobby in Parliament and engage in trade with the Dutch in Surinam? What commodities did New England offer Surinam in exchange for sugar?  How beneficial was the sugar trade with Surinam in establishing the nascent shipbuilding industry in New England? The trade between New England merchants and Dutch plantation owners in Surinam provides a glimpse into the world of trade and investment beyond the purviews of international political and diplomatic circles.