Commodities in Motion in Maritime America, 1765 – 1800

Global commodities dominated the maritime business landscape of colonial, revolutionary, and early-national America. Commodities such as tea, wine, spices, iron, copper, sugar, and indigo, introduced American consumers to a widening world of goods. Moreover, the central importance of global commodities in American business indicates that the United States was conceived, born, and nurtured as a child of transnational commerce, where global business networks were essential to economic success. This panel presents fresh perspectives on the movement and manipulation of global goods in maritime America during the late eighteenth century. Jeremy Land discusses the credit, barter, and accounting mechanisms that enabled colonial American merchants to dominate the coastal and West-Indian commodities trade. A key part of this paper will explore how intra-regional business networks helped expand trans-imperial networks. Eric Oakley assesses the geographic footprint of Pacific Ocean commerce upon Bostonian forelands and hinterlands from 1787-1800. The throughput of commodities demonstrates that Boston’s emergent empire in the Pacific depended upon the orchestration of goods originating in, or destined for, dozens of locales across the globe. Torsten dos Santos Arnold evaluates the central role of Hamburg merchants in the importation of American plantation commodities to Europe. The paper concentrates upon their adaptation to changes in trade and new commodities chains resulting from the Atlantic Revolutions.