This book uses the case studies of Liverpool and Philadelphia to investigate the nature of the British-Atlantic trading community between 1760 and 1810. By using a wide definition of the term 'trader', this work stresses the role of lesser traders, including women, in the distribution of goods around the Atlantic. Through comparing and contrasting these trading communities, it highlights the different structures of the economies of these cities during this period of conflict and change. However, by using the concepts of networks of people, credit and goods, this book also demonstrates how a...

In 1780 Richard Sheridan noted that merchants worked 'merely for money'. However, rather than being a criticism, this was recognition of the important commercial role that merchants played in the British empire at this time. Of course, merchants desired and often made profits, but they were strictly bound by commonly-understood socio-cultural norms which formed a private-order institution of a robust business culture. In order to elucidate this business culture, this book examines the themes of risk, trust, reputation, obligation, networks and crises to demonstrate how contemporary merchants...