The English Historical Review Advance Access originally published online on May 20, 2009
The English Historical Review 2009 CXXIV(508):545-570; doi:10.1093/ehr/cep143
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
‘Requisites of a Considerable Trade’: The Letters of Robert Plumsted, Atlantic Merchant, 1752–58*
University of Hull
Hinchingbrooke School
Correspondence: Corresponding author: Professor Simon D. Smith, Department of History, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX
The 1,551 letters written by the Quaker merchant, Robert Plumsted of London, provide a unique insight into transatlantic commerce and credit during the early phase of the Seven Years War. The rare survival of his last two letter books allow for a reconstruction of his firm's accounts and reveal a cyclical trade, with net-flows of capital in and out of his business of up to £10,000. Trade with the West Indies and North America posed difficulties, not least the ongoing management of the cash-gap (referred to by contemporaries as ‘Circulation’), as well as problems caused by the onset of war. In its blend of socio-religious commentary and financial insights, the letter books illustrate how Plumsted used private ordering systems to ease transactions. Moreover, his often frank expositions to Friends on the moral requirements of merchants and customers highlight the importance of social capital within the Quaker community. The letters demonstrate how trust was cemented by the operation of family succession, reputation-promoting behaviour, arbitration mechanisms, Quaker ostracism, and a rhetoric of persuasion. Yet the correspondence also demonstrates how the expansion of colonial market redefined the qualities needed to be a successful merchant, and how Plumstead was forced to react to changes in the transatlantic iron trade. Influenced by the mid-eighteenth century Quaker reform movement, Plumsted criticised declining standards of conduct among traders and condemned over-liberal credit extension.