This book explains how Amsterdam financiers played a much more important role in financing the Louisiana Cession than they are credited for. Drawing on hitherto overlooked Dutch archival sources, alongside American, French and British archival sources, this book shows that in 1803 the international financial order was not yet centered on London, but that the financing of the Louisiana Cession initiated a shift of this order from Dutch to British firms, which would become more apparent after the Napoleonic Wars.

This book examines the strategies and operations of the...