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

A major reinterpretation of the transformation of English commerce in the century after 1550.Merchants and Revolution examines the activities of London’s merchant community during the early Stuart period. Proposing a new understanding of long-term commercial change, Robert Brenner explains the factors behind the opening of long-distance commerce to the south and east, describing how the great City merchants wielded power to exploit emerging business opportunities, and he profiles the new colonial traders, who became the chief architects of the Commonwealth’s dynamic commercial policy. 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 ......Page 18 The Elizabethan Expansion: Causes and Character ......Page 20 TABLE 1.1 London Cloth Exports: Denizens, 1488-1614 ......Page 23 TABLE 2.1 London Cloth Exports: Total, Denizens, and Aliens, 1488-1614 ......Page 24 Commercial Crisis and Change in the Early Stuart Period ......Page 37 TABLE 1.3 Raw-Silk Imports (in lbs.) ......Page 40 TABLE 1.4 Levant Currants Imports ......Page 41 TABLE 1.5 Levant and East India Imports: Official Values and Proportion of Total Imports, Excluding Wines and Trade with the Americas ......Page 43 TABLE 1.6 Cloth Exports to the Levant ......Page 46 The Cloth Export Crisis ......Page 47 The Rise of Imports ......Page 53 The Power of English Commerce ......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 ......Page 66 The Rise of the Levant-East India Combine ......Page 75 The Redistribution of the Trade ......Page 88 The Levant-East India Combine ......Page 89 TABLE 2.1 Levant Company Trade Distriibution ......Page 90 The Redistribution of Wealth and Offices ......Page 93 Mere Merchants versus the City's Domestic Tradesment ......Page 97 The Levant-East India Combine and the Merchant Political Elite ......Page 103 III The Company Merchants and American Colonial Development......Page 106 The Virginia Company ......Page 107 City Merchants, the Landed Class, and Colonial Development ......Page 116 IV The New-Merchant Leadership of the Colonial Trades......Page 127 The Merchant-Councilor Interest ......Page 130 The Kent Island Project ......Page 134 Trade ......Page 139 Land and Plantations ......Page 154 The Puritan Connection ......Page 162 The Massachusetts Bay Company......Page 163 The Bermuda Company ......Page 167 The Providence Island Company ......Page 170 The New Merchants on the Offensive: West Indian Sugar Capitalism, Virginian Expansion, and East Indian Interloping, 1640-1649......Page 173 Sugar Plantations and Triangular Trades ......Page 175 Virginian Expansion ......Page 181 East Indian Interloping ......Page 182 MAP The New Merchants' Commercial World: Places and Routes......Page 194 The New-Merchant Leadership ......Page 195 TABLE 4.1 Socioeconomic Position of London's Overseas Merchants, Pre-Civil War ......Page 197 TABLE 4.2 The New-Merchant Leadership: Partnerships in the Colonial-Interloping Trades, 1616-1649 ......Page 198 TABLE 4.3 Some Family and Apprenticeship Connections Among the New Merchants ......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 ......Page 217 The Rise of Merchant Opposition ......Page 231 VI The Merchant Community, the Caroline Regime, and the Aristocratic Opposition......Page 252 The Rise of the Aristocratic Colonizing Opposition ......Page 255 The Aristocratic Opposition, the Company Merchant Establishment, and the New-Merchant Leadership: A Critical Realignment ......Page 281 The Company Merchants and the Crown ......Page 293 The Levant Company Merchants ......Page 294 The French Company Merchants ......Page 296 The Merchant Adventures ......Page 297 The East India Company ......Page 300 The Merchant Community and the Crisis of the Regime ......Page 302 Ship Money ......Page 303 Abortive Reconciliation and a New Offensive ......Page 310 Scottish War ......Page 316 Short Parliament ......Page 318 VII Merchants and Revolution......Page 328 Parliamentary Reform, the Rise of City Radicalism, and the Colonial Offensive ......Page 331 Radical Electoral Initiatives ......Page 333 The Root and Branch Petitions ......Page 336 Anti-Spanish Initiatives ......Page 337 Finance, the Scots, and Strafford ......Page 341 Deepening Radicalization ......Page 353 Revising the City Constitutions ......Page 355 Company Merchants under Pressure ......Page 357 The West Indian Offensive ......Page 361 Deepening Reformation? ......Page 363 From Reform to Revolution ......Page 364 The Split in Parliament ......Page 367 Revolution in London ......Page 371 Consolidating the Revolution ......Page 383 The Levant-East India Combine ......Page 386 The Merchant Adventures ......Page 393 The Colonial-Interloping Merchants ......Page 399 TABLE 7.1 The Civil War Politics of London's Overseas Merchants ......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 ......Page 406 The Additional Sea Adventure to Ireland ......Page 410 Captain Jackson's Voyage to the Caribbean ......Page 420 Toward Religious Independency ......Page 422 The Radical Offensive, 1642-1643 ......Page 437 Supporting the War Effort: The Army and the Assessment ......Page 438 Supporting the War Effort: The Navy and the Customs ......Page 442 Thwarted Revolution ......Page 445 IX Political Presbyterianism......Page 470 The Moderates' Offensive: From Military Victory to Civil War Settlement ......Page 475 The Composition of the Political Presbyterian Leadership......Page 491 Politics ......Page 493 Religion ......Page 496 Socioeconomic Characteristics ......Page 497 TABLE 9.1 Political Presbyterian Commutteemen ......Page 501 X The New Merchants Come to Power......Page 504 Political Independents on the Defensive, 1645-1647 ......Page 506 The Army's Invasion of London ......Page 522 Defeating Counterrevolution, 1648 ......Page 538 Toward Revolution ......Page 543 The City Radicals Consolidate Their Power ......Page 551 The City Revolution ......Page 552 Securing the New Regime against Its Enemies ......Page 557 Staffing the New Regime: The Militia ......Page 560 Staffing the New Regime: The Navy ......Page 561 Staffing the New Regime: Finance ......Page 565 XI Political Independents, New Merchants, and the Commonwealth......Page 568 Oligarchic Republicanism ......Page 573 Religious Reformation......Page 575 Progressive Reform of the Law and Governmental Administration ......Page 579 Cheap and Efficient Government ......Page 580 Law Reform ......Page 581 XII The New Merchants and Commercial Policy under the Commonwealth......Page 587 Military Security and Naval Buildup ......Page 590 From Military Defense to Commercial Aggression: The American Colonies ......Page 594 Commercial Policy and World Power ......Page 608 The Creation of the Council of Trade ......Page 612 Free Trade ......Page 618 Free Ports and the Navigation Act ......Page 623 The Navigation Act ......Page 635 Naval War against the Dutch ......Page 638 XIII The New Merchants and the Fall of the Commonwealth......Page 643 The Traditional Social Interpretation of the English Revolution ......Page 648 The Revisionist Challenge ......Page 654 Toward a New Social Interpretation ......Page 657 Unparliamentary Taxation: The Crown and Company Merchants Allied ......Page 676 The Parliamentary Classes against Unparliamentary Taxation of Trade ......Page 680 Conflict over Religion and Foreign Policy ......Page 683 The Parliamentary Classes and the Overseas Company Merchants ......Page 691 The Aristocratic Opposition and the New-Merchant Leadership ......Page 694 From the Consolidation of Alliances to the Outbreak of Civil War ......Page 698 Roots of Radicalization ......Page 710 Political Presbyterians and Political Independents ......Page 713 The Meaning of the Commonwealth ......Page 717 Conclusion ......Page 719 Index......Page 727 Back Cover......Page 745 In Merchants And Revolution Robert Brenner Offers A Socio-political Account Of The Transformation Of English Commerce In The Century After 1550 And A Socio-economic Explanation Of The Political Activities And Alignments Of The London Merchant Community In The Conflicts Of The Early Stuart Period. In A Major Reinterpretation Of Long-term Commercial Change, He Shows That New Possibilities In The Import Trades - More So Than Problems In The Traditional Cloth Trade - Were Behind The Foundation Of The Long-distance Commerce To The South And East. Brenner Brings Out, In Turn, The Way In Which Social Groups Of Great City Merchants Wielded Organizational And Political Power To Exploit The Emerging Commercial Opportunities. The Very Success Of Elite Merchants In Their Recently Established Levant-east India Trades, He Argues, Opened The Way For A Whole New Social Group Of Entrepreneurial Traders, Recruited Largely From Outside The Merchant Community, To Pioneer The Development Of The Plantation Trades In America, Amassing Riches And Building Their Power In The Process. Brenner Demonstrates The Enormous Significance Of Merchant Politics For National Political Development From 1621 To 1653, Bringing Out, In Particular, The Decisive Roles Played From 1640 By London's Great Company Merchants In Support Of The Crown And By The New Colonial Merchants, Who Were Politically Radical And Militantly Puritan, In Support Of The Parliamentary Leadership. The New Colonial Merchants, Brenner Shows, Ultimately Assumed Great National Influence With Cromwell's Rise To Power, Becoming The Chief Architects Of The Commonwealth's Dynamic Commercial Policy.--book Jacket. Part One: The Transformation Of English Commerce And Of The London Merchant Community, 1550-1650 -- 1. The Dynamics Of Commerical Development, 1550-1640: A Reinterpretation -- 2. Government Privileges, The Formation Of Merchant Groups, And The Redistribution Of Wealth And Power, 1550-1640 -- 3. The Company Merchants And American Colonial Development -- 4. The New-merchant Leadership Of The Colonial Trades -- Part Two: The Emergence Of Political Conflict, 1620-1642 -- 5. The Rise Of Merchant Opposition In The 1620s -- 6. The Merchant Community, The Caroline Regime, And The Aristocratic Opposition -- 7. Merchants And Revolution -- Part Three: Radicalization, Reaction, And Revolution, 1642-1653 -- 8. The Radicals' Offensive, 1642-1643 -- 9. Political Presbyterianism -- 10. The New Merchants Come To Power -- 11. Political Independents, New Merchants, And The Commonwealth -- 12. The New Merchants And Commerical Policy Under The Commonwealth -- 13. The New Merchants And The Fall Of The Commonwealth. Robert Brenner. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Merchants and Revolution details the transformation of English commerce in the century after 1550, examining in particular the activities of London's merchant community during the early Stuart period. In a major reinterpretation of long-term commercial change, Robert Brenner explains the factors behind the opening of long-distance commerce to the south and east, describing how the great City merchants wielded power to exploit emerging business opportunities, and profiles the new colonial traders, who became the chief architects of the Commonwealth's dynamic commercial policy.

Merchants and Revolution examines the activities of London’s merchant community during the early Stuart period. Proposing a new understanding of long-term commercial change, Robert Brenner explains the factors behind the opening of long-distance commerce to the south and east, describing how the great City merchants wielded power to exploit emerging business opportunities, and he profiles the new colonial traders, who became the chief architects of the Commonwealth’s dynamic commercial policy.