Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550-1653

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 2
Copyright......Page 3
Dedication......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Tables and Map......Page 7
Preface......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 14
PART ONE The Transformation of English Commerce and of the London Merchant Community, 1550-1650......Page 16
I The Dynamics of Commercial Development, 1550-1640 - A Reinterpretation......Page 17
Commercial Crisis and the Interpretation of Commercial Change\r......Page 18
The Elizabethan Expansion: Causes and Character\r......Page 20
TABLE 1.1 London Cloth Exports: Denizens, 1488-1614\r......Page 23
TABLE 2.1 London Cloth Exports: Total, Denizens, and Aliens, 1488-1614\r......Page 24
Commercial Crisis and Change in the Early Stuart Period\r......Page 37
TABLE 1.3 Raw-Silk Imports (in lbs.)\r......Page 40
TABLE 1.4 Levant Currants Imports\r......Page 41
TABLE 1.5 Levant and East India Imports: Official Values and Proportion of Total Imports, Excluding Wines and Trade with the Americas\r......Page 43
TABLE 1.6 Cloth Exports to the Levant\r......Page 46
The Cloth Export Crisis\r......Page 47
The Rise of Imports\r......Page 53
The Power of English Commerce\r......Page 59
II Government Privileges, the Formation of Merchant Groups, and the Redistribution of Wealth and Power, 1550-1640......Page 65
The Merchant Adventures: Temporary Consolidation and Long-Term Collapse\r......Page 66
The Rise of the Levant-East India Combine\r......Page 75
The Redistribution of the Trade\r......Page 88
The Levant-East India Combine\r......Page 89
TABLE 2.1 Levant Company Trade Distriibution\r......Page 90
The Redistribution of Wealth and Offices\r......Page 93
Mere Merchants versus the City\'s Domestic Tradesment\r......Page 97
The Levant-East India Combine and the Merchant Political Elite\r......Page 103
III The Company Merchants and American Colonial Development......Page 106
The Virginia Company\r......Page 107
City Merchants, the Landed Class, and Colonial Development\r......Page 116
IV The New-Merchant Leadership of the Colonial Trades......Page 127
The Merchant-Councilor Interest\r......Page 130
The Kent Island Project\r......Page 134
Trade\r......Page 139
Land and Plantations\r......Page 154
The Puritan Connection\r......Page 162
The Massachusetts\rBay Company......Page 163
The Bermuda Company\r......Page 167
The Providence Island Company\r......Page 170
The New Merchants on the Offensive: West Indian Sugar Capitalism, Virginian\rExpansion, and East Indian Interloping, 1640-1649......Page 173
Sugar Plantations and Triangular Trades\r......Page 175
Virginian Expansion\r......Page 181
East Indian Interloping\r......Page 182
MAP\rThe New Merchants\' Commercial World: Places and Routes......Page 194
The New-Merchant Leadership\r......Page 195
TABLE 4.1 Socioeconomic Position of London\'s Overseas Merchants, Pre-Civil War\r......Page 197
TABLE 4.2 The New-Merchant Leadership: Partnerships in the Colonial-Interloping Trades, 1616-1649\r......Page 198
TABLE 4.3 Some Family and Apprenticeship Connections Among the New Merchants\r......Page 208
PART TWO The Emergence of Political Conflict, 1620-1642......Page 210
V The Rise of Merchant Opposition in the 1620s......Page 211
Merchants, Crown, and Parliament, 1600-1624\r......Page 217
The Rise of Merchant Opposition\r......Page 231
VI The Merchant Community, the Caroline Regime, and the Aristocratic Opposition......Page 252
The Rise of the Aristocratic Colonizing Opposition\r......Page 255
The Aristocratic Opposition, the Company Merchant Establishment, and the New-Merchant Leadership: A Critical Realignment\r......Page 281
The Company Merchants and the Crown\r......Page 293
The Levant Company Merchants\r......Page 294
The French Company Merchants\r......Page 296
The Merchant Adventures\r......Page 297
The East India Company\r......Page 300
The Merchant Community and the Crisis of the Regime\r......Page 302
Ship Money\r......Page 303
Abortive Reconciliation and a New Offensive\r......Page 310
Scottish War\r......Page 316
Short Parliament\r......Page 318
VII Merchants and Revolution......Page 328
Parliamentary Reform, the Rise of City Radicalism, and the Colonial Offensive\r......Page 331
Radical Electoral Initiatives\r......Page 333
The Root and Branch Petitions\r......Page 336
Anti-Spanish Initiatives\r......Page 337
Finance, the Scots, and Strafford\r......Page 341
Deepening Radicalization\r......Page 353
Revising the City Constitutions\r......Page 355
Company Merchants under Pressure\r......Page 357
The West Indian Offensive\r......Page 361
Deepening Reformation?\r......Page 363
From Reform to Revolution\r......Page 364
The Split in Parliament\r......Page 367
Revolution in London\r......Page 371
Consolidating the Revolution\r......Page 383
The Levant-East India Combine\r......Page 386
The Merchant Adventures\r......Page 393
The Colonial-Interloping Merchants\r......Page 399
TABLE 7.1 The Civil War Politics of London\'s Overseas Merchants\r......Page 400
PART THREE Radicalization, Reaction, and Revolution, 1642-1653......Page 402
VIII The Radicals\' Offensive, 1642-1643......Page 403
The City Revolution and the Origins of City Radicalism\r......Page 406
The Additional Sea Adventure to Ireland\r......Page 410
Captain Jackson\'s Voyage to the Caribbean\r......Page 420
Toward Religious Independency\r......Page 422
The Radical Offensive, 1642-1643\r......Page 437
Supporting the War Effort: The Army and the Assessment\r......Page 438
Supporting the War Effort: The Navy and the Customs\r......Page 442
Thwarted Revolution\r......Page 445
IX Political Presbyterianism......Page 470
The Moderates\' Offensive: From Military Victory to Civil War Settlement\r......Page 475
The Composition of the Political Presbyterian\rLeadership......Page 491
Politics\r......Page 493
Religion\r......Page 496
Socioeconomic Characteristics\r......Page 497
TABLE 9.1 Political Presbyterian Commutteemen\r......Page 501
X The New Merchants Come to Power......Page 504
Political Independents on the Defensive, 1645-1647\r......Page 506
The Army\'s Invasion of London\r......Page 522
Defeating Counterrevolution, 1648\r......Page 538
Toward Revolution\r......Page 543
The City Radicals Consolidate Their Power\r......Page 551
The City Revolution\r......Page 552
Securing the New Regime against Its Enemies\r......Page 557
Staffing the New Regime: The Militia\r......Page 560
Staffing the New Regime: The Navy\r......Page 561
Staffing the New Regime: Finance\r......Page 565
XI Political Independents, New Merchants, and the Commonwealth......Page 568
Oligarchic Republicanism\r......Page 573
Religious Reformation......Page 575
Progressive Reform of the Law and Governmental Administration\r......Page 579
Cheap and Efficient Government\r......Page 580
Law Reform\r......Page 581
XII The New Merchants and Commercial Policy under the Commonwealth......Page 587
Military Security and Naval Buildup\r......Page 590
From Military Defense to Commercial Aggression: The American Colonies\r......Page 594
Commercial Policy and World Power\r......Page 608
The Creation of the Council of Trade\r......Page 612
Free Trade\r......Page 618
Free Ports and the Navigation Act\r......Page 623
The Navigation Act\r......Page 635
Naval War against the Dutch\r......Page 638
XIII The New Merchants and the Fall of the Commonwealth......Page 643
The Traditional Social Interpretation of the English Revolution\r......Page 648
The Revisionist Challenge\r......Page 654
Toward a New Social Interpretation\r......Page 657
Unparliamentary Taxation: The Crown and Company Merchants Allied\r......Page 676
The Parliamentary Classes against Unparliamentary Taxation of Trade\r......Page 680
Conflict over Religion and Foreign Policy\r......Page 683
The Parliamentary Classes and the Overseas Company Merchants\r......Page 691
The Aristocratic Opposition and the New-Merchant Leadership\r......Page 694
From the Consolidation of Alliances to the Outbreak of Civil War\r......Page 698
Roots of Radicalization\r......Page 710
Political Presbyterians and Political Independents\r......Page 713
The Meaning of the Commonwealth\r......Page 717
Conclusion\r......Page 719
Index......Page 727
Back Cover......Page 745