Customer Reviews

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

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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.