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The Eighteenth-Century MODULE

Atlantic Economy 2.4
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During the eighteenth century, the combined forces of global trade and international warfare
altered the political and economic calculations of imperial powers. This was especially true for
British North America, where colonists settled as families and created towns that provided key
markets for Britain’s commercial expansion. Over the course of the century, British colonists
became increasingly avid consumers of products from around the world. Meanwhile, the king and
Parliament sought greater control over these far-flung commercial networks.
As you read this module, think about the effects of the economic and political developments
you encounter, and be sure to consider the reasons why they occurred. In other words, why did a
particular development lead to the results that followed? Think about the ways important effects
led, in turn, to subsequent effects.

Colonial Traders Join

Global Networks

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, trade became truly global. Not only
did goods from China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and North America become desirable
in England and the rest of Europe, but the tastes of European consumers also helped shape
goods produced in other parts of the world. For instance, by the early eighteenth century,
the Chinese manufactured porcelain teapots and bowls specifically for the English market.
Similarly, European tastes shaped the trade in cloth, tea, tobacco, and sugar.
The exploitation of enslaved African laborers also contributed significantly to this
global commerce. They were considered a crucial item of trade in their own right, and
their labor in the Americas ensured steady supplies of sugar, rice, tobacco, and indigo
for the world market.
By the early eighteenth century, both the volume and the diversity of goods mul-
tiplied. Silk, calico, porcelain, and other items were carried from the East to Europe
and the American colonies. The colonies filled returning ships with cod, mackerel,
shingles, pine boards, barrel staves, rum, sugar, rice, and tobacco. A lively trade also
grew up within North America as New England fishermen, New York and Charleston
merchants, and Caribbean planters met one another’s needs. Salted cod and mackerel
flowed to the Caribbean, and rum, molasses, and enslaved people flowed back to the
mainland. This commerce required ships, barrels, docks, warehouses, and wharves, all
of which ensured a lively trade in naval stores such as lumber, tar, pitch, rope, and rosin.
A flow of information was critical to the flow of goods and credit. During this time,
coffeehouses flourished in port cities around the Atlantic, providing access to the latest
news. Merchants, ship captains, and traders met in person to discuss new ventures and
to learn of recent developments. British and American newspapers reported on parlia-
mentary legislation, commodity prices in India and Great Britain, the state of trading

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