Synopses & Reviews
This book examines the political and social impact of English overseas merchants during the upheavals of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It explores the merchant societies of London, York, and Liverpool, and illuminates the growing prominence of the overseas trader in the press and in Parliament.
Review
"Gauci has woven into a single narrative mercantile, social, and political change at a critical moment in the evolution of the modern state. The Politics of Trade has moved the shadow world of overseas trading communities of the Augustan Age closer to their rightful place near center stage."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Mercantile City
i. Sampling the London Elite
ii. Merchant Distribution in the City
iii. Topography and City Association
iv. Provincial Parallels
Business and Public Life
i. The Background and Training of the City Merchant
ii. Independence and Association: Office-Holding in the City
iii. Status as an Urban Phenomenon
iv. Provincial Parallels
Mercantile Association and Commercial Politics
i. The Formal Organization of Overseas Trade
ii. The Unregulated Trades
iii. The Livery Companies
iv. Provincial Parallels
The Merchant, Politics, and the Press
i. The Mercantile Press
ii. The Press and the Profession
iii. The Histories of Trade
iv. The Representation of Commerce
The Merchant and Parliament
i. Merchant Representation at Westminster
ii. Parliament and the Representation of Overseas Trade
iii. Parliament and the Passage of Commercial Legislation
The Politics of Trade: The French Commerce Bill of 1713
i. Origins and Novelties
ii. The Rage of Party and the Politicization of Trade
iii. The Great Vote and Trade on the Hustings
iv. Consequences and Recriminations 1713-14
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index