Book Review

The study of the early modern Atlantic economy is becoming in the 1990s and the new century what the analysis of antebellum slavery was in the 1960s and 1970s: the area of economic history where some of the most exciting work is being done and where many of the best minds are focusing their efforts. Conferences, monographs, and edited collections all testify to the ascent of this new field. Why this fascination with a world of new staples, clashing empires, and precarious commerce? New bodies of data, such as the compilations for the slave trade, are important. So is a heightened appreciation of the impact of these exchanges on domestic growth. And perhaps historians are reflecting the concerns of their own world, which has been dramatically changed by globalization. This collection of essays, which is dedicated to Jacob Price, the doyen of Atlantic historians, illustrates the breadth of topics that characterize the field.

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Four of the essays deal with the business networks that oversaw these international exchanges. David Hancock provides a model study of the merchants who supervised the Madeira wine trade in the eighteenth century. He shows them to be resourceful marketers who refashioned their product to suit different tastes. Kenneth Morgan examines commerce between Britain and North America, 1750–1800, and notes the important role played by shippers and manufacturers who visited correspondents on the other side of the Atlantic. Peter Mathias takes a still broader view of Atlantic trade and demonstrates how ties of kinship linked far-flung traders. Louis M. Cullen examines Thomas Sutton, comte de Clonard, who was involved with both Irish and French commercial circles.

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