Merchants and Empire

Examines the attitudes and practices of New York's wholesale merchants, a group that operated beneath the gaze of imperial traders yet made up as much of 80 per cent of the mercantile community. The text shows them as opportunistic, quick to flout authority to their own advantage, but also willing to enjoy the benefits of British imperial protection when it suited them. These merchants succeeded in extending their interior market range up navigable rivers and on early roads, drawing as many settlers as they could reach into the commercial economy. They also defied British law by trading with the West Indies. It was this opportunism, the book argues, that helped middling or lesser merchants fashion an alternative to mercantilism - and to make the challenge to British rule in 1775 commercially viable. The text offers detailed portraits of individual trades and vivid descriptions of their New York City environs, taking the reader inside the shops and warehouses where business was transacted.