Merchants and Empire: Trading in Colonial New York (Early America: History, Context, Culture) [Hardcover]

Professor Cathy Matson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 1997 | Series: Early America: History, Context, Culture

In Merchants and Empire, Cathy Matson examines the economic ideas and behavior of New York City's commercial wholesalers, especially the middling merchants who, as a majority of active traders, affected the character of city commerce over its colonial years. Although less prominent in transatlantic dry goods commerce than the great traders, this middling majority spread dissenting economic ideas and flouted political authority time and again when the benefits to their interests were clear. Indeed, middling or lesser merchants fashioned a plausible alternative to mercantilism, and contributed significantly to the challenges Americans offered to British rule in the final colonial years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this important new book, Cathy Matson breaks the mold by examining the entire New York merchant community across the entire colonial period. This inclusiveness yields good results; it provides a better understanding of New York's success as an American port city... Matson constructs her story out of careful research in the extensive correspondence and account books left by New York merchants and tells her story in rich and compelling detail, along the way constructing a new standard and a new paradigm for scholarship on colonial merchants." -- Russell Menard, Journal of American History

"The book is a major new contribution to New York and colonial economic and commercial history..[It] has readability and interest for anyone with a taste for American History." -- Alan Cameron, Lloyds List

"Matson offers a very detailed view of the growth of the New York mercantile community..backed by extensive documentation." -- James F. Shepherd, Journal of Economic History

"Merchants and Empire capably shows how New York became a great port..[It] is a valuable addition to historical literature on the commercial development of American colonies and on the economic growth of American Cities." -- Condrad Edick Wright, H-Urban, H-Net Reviews

"Matson's subject is a hsitorically important phenomenon, her agenda significant, and her presentation a potentially powerful explication of merchant ideology." -- David Hancock, William and Mary Quarterly

"Matson's book not only makes an important contribution to scholarship on the economic history of New York and the Middle colonies but also provides a comprehensive analysis of developments in Anglo-American economic discourse between 1620 and 1770." -- Deborah A. Rosen, American Historical Review

"Merchants and Empire is a very solid study of New York merchants and a valuable addition to the literature of Anglo-American Atlantic commerce." -- Carl E. Swanson, Mariner's Mirror

About the Author

Cathy Matson is an associate professor of history at the University of Delaware. She is coauthor of A Union of Interests: Politics and Economy in the Revolutionary Era.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801856027
• ISBN-13: 978-0801856020
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,190,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, fascinating, May 15, 2009

By 

felicitaz "felicitaz" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merchants and Empire: Trading in Colonial New York (Early America: History, Context, Culture) (Paperback)

I'm nearing the end of this book, and have found it to be scholarly and gripping. Matson has done impressive research, and loaded it with contemporary references which make it a valuable resource for anyone seeking information about 17th & 18th century mercantile New York. Lots of things I didn't know:

- the contrast between the free-trade policies of the "Amsterdam Entrepot" versus the highly-regulated trade of the English after the ascent of Charles II, and its effect on New Netherland/New York,
- the very organized and rampant illicit trade which went on between NY merchants. Europe and the West Indies,
- the extent to which (illegal) colonial cottage industries began to emerge in the countryside and supplant English goods on the NY market,
- how many of the first families of NY were involved in illicit trade,

...and a lot of other things that don't deal with smuggling. It covers NY history from its earliest days under the Dutch, the corruption of the Stuyvesant administration, the increasing regulations imposed by the English government and how they impacted NY merchants' businesses and drove many of them into the black market. Matson also goes into the economic recessions following the bust of the "South Sea Bubble" and Seven Years' War. One can't help notice parallels to modern-day ponzi schemes, tax hikes and market crashes.

My one complaint is that Ms. Matson has a tendency to group several different pieces of information from different times and sources under a single footnote, without indicating what information was derived from which source. This makes it difficult for a reader to cite from her primary sources, or easily track down the specific information.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys well-researched, well-written history.