Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785

ISBN-13: 9780521629423 / Angielski / Miękka / 1997 / 504 str.

David Hancock

Opis

Citizens of the World examines the business and social strategies of the men who developed the British empire in the eighteenth century. This book focuses on twenty-three London merchants who traded with America in an age of imperial expansion. These "associates" started their careers as marginal people, sought and took advantage of opportunities around the world, and approached their business and social lives with the improving ideals of the practical Enlightenment. This activity is placed in the context of the developing institutions of Britain's colonies in America and the social world of polite and industrious men and women at home.

Recenzje

"This is a detailed study of the business and social climbing of a group of eighteenth century British merchants active in the Atlantic world....Hancock has done a prodigious amount of research." J.R. McNeill, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Spis treści

Part I. The Crucible of Trade: 1. A larger world; 2. Mercantile origins: 'passengers only'; Part II. The Management of Trade: 3. Managing from a 'Merchant's public counting house'; 4. Shipping and trading in an 'empire of the seas'; 5. Planting: 'a great fund of riches and of strength to Great Britain'; 6. Slaving: Bance Island's 'general rendezvous'; 7. Government contracting: 'a work of Hercules'; 8. Financing: 'turning the great wheel of unfathomable commerce round'; Part III. Becoming a Gentleman: 9. The urge to improve; 10. The way to be rich and respectable; Epilogue: mercantile legacies: 'industrious friends'.