Merchant activity across Europe, America and China was vital to economic growth during the long eighteenth century. Using a unique data set from accounts and correspondence, contributors show the fragmented nature of merchant activity and the importance of trust-based social and cultural networks. Case studies from the 'Age of Commerce' include Franco-British attempts to recall Chinese debt in 1779-80, the price signals between Spain and colonial South America and the risk avoidance strategies of tobacco-planters in early national period America.
Introduction: The Many Scales of Merchant Profit: Accounting for Norms, Practices and Results in the Age of Commerce - Pierre Gervais, Yannick Lemarchand and Dominique Margairaz Part I: Understanding Merchant Transactions 1 The Current Account as Cognitive Artefact: Stories and Accounts of la Maison Chaurand - Yannick Lemarchand, Cheryl McWatters and Laure Pineau-Defois 2 Why Profit and Loss Didn't Matter: The Historicized Rationality of Early Modern Merchant Accounting - Pierre Gervais Part II: The Credit Nexus and its Pitfalls 3 Terms of Payment in Retailing: A Tool for Fostering Customer Loyalty or a Form of Managerial Constraint? A Few Observations Based on Accounts from Lorraine in the Eighteenth-Century - Julien Villain, translated from the French by Darla Rudy-Gervais 4 The Wing of a Butterfly: Private Creditor Strategies in the 'Chinese Debts' Crisis of 1779-80 - Frederic Grant, Jr Part III: Beyond Price Signals: The Institutional Framework 5 The Transatlantic Flow of Price Information in the Spanish Colonial Trade, 1680-1820 - Xabier Lamikiz 6 Product Quality and Merchant Transactions: Product Lines and Hierarchies in the Accounts and Letters of the Gradis Merchant House - Dominique Margairaz, translated from the French by Darla Rudy-Gervais Part IV: Diversification and Risk Management 7 The Pinet Family in Gap and their Business Relations, 1785-1816: Official Activities and the Issue of Commercial Risk - Boris Deschanel, translated from the French by Darla Rudy-Gervais 8 'The Way to Make a Huge Fortune, Easily and without Risk': Economic Strategy and Tactics among Tobacco-South Planters in the Early National United States - Steven Sarson Conclusion: Reorienting Early Modern Economic History: Merchant Economy, Merchant Capitalism and the Age of Commerce - Robert DuPlessis
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