Perry Gauci - The Politics of Trade. The Overseas Merchant in State and Society, 1660-1720 [2001][A]

Book Description
This book examines the political and social impact of the English overseas merchant during this key era of state development. Historians have increasingly recognized the significance of this period as one of commercial and political transition, but relatively little thought has been given to the perspective of the overseas traders, whose activities transended these dynamic arenas. Analsis of the role of merchants in public life highlights their important contribution to England's rise as a commercial power of the first rank, and illuminates the fundamerntal political changes of the time. Case-studies of London, Liverpool, and York reveal the intricate workings of mercantile politics, while studies of the press and Parliament illustrate the increasing prominence of the trader on the national stage. The author's pioneering approach shows how crucial the political accomodation which the merchant class secured with the landed gentry was to the country's success in the eighteenth century.

Reviews
... lucid, well argued and historiographically deft ... it is an accomplished addition to the growing literature concerned with the urban, commercial and middling classes of later seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. (Urban History)

... there is much to applaud in this book ... his arguments should receive a warm welcome from a wide variety of scholars. (The London Journal)

... along the way [the] chapters are marked by a great richness of contextual and historiographical investigation which adds substantially to current discussions of merchants, colonies, trade-networks, and alien communities. (The London Journal)

Gauci's broad remit significantly advances our knowledge of this social and occupational group. (The London Journal)

... a fascinating and rewarding volume which fortunately rejects the convention of excessive length in favour of a slimmer and more readable literary elegance. (The London Journal)

Basing his research on government and commercial archives as well as on a massive secondary literature, Gauci develops a meticulous and convincing analysis, one that specialists in any number of overseas trades would be wise to read, even if the particular trades in which they are interested are not specifically mentioned. (The Northern Mariner)

This scholarly and effective study makes an important contribution to our understanding of the development of public politics in Britain. (History)