The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan Palgrave macmillan
the self-perception of early modern capitalists Copyright Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan, 2008. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60447-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the US - a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-61781-0 DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-61380-5 ISBN 978-0-230-61380-5 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The self-perception of early modern capitalists / edited by Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Merchants History. 2. Commerce History. I. Jacob, Margaret C., 1943- II. Secretan, Catherine. HF479.S45 2008 381.09 dc22 2007052833 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: August 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing 2008
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments v vii Introduction 1 Margaret C. Jacob (University of California at Los Angeles) and Catherine Secretan (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) Part I Prologue 1 Theological Roots of the Medieval/Modern Merchants 17 Self-Representation Giacomo Todeschini (University of Trieste) Part II Self-Images 2 Images and Self-Images of Sephardic Merchants in Early 49 Modern Europe and the Mediterranean Francesca Trivellato (Yale University) 3 Merchants in Charge: The Self-Perception of Amsterdam 75 Merchants, ca. 1550 1700 Clé Lesger (University of Amsterdam) 4 Merchants on the Defensive: National Self-Images in the 99 Dutch Republic of the Late Eighteenth Century Dorothee Sturkenboom (Roosevelt Academy Middelburg, Utrecht University) Part III Capitalism as Normative 5 Merchants and Gentlemen in Eighteenth-Century 125 Sweden: Worlds of Jean Abraham Grill Leos Müller (Uppsala University)
iv Contents 6 Professional Ethics and Commercial Rationality at the 147 Beginning of the Modern Era Jochen Hoock (University of Paris, Paris 7-Denis Diderot) 7 The Anxious Merchant, the Bold Speculator, and the 161 Malicious Bankrupt: Doing Business in Eighteenth-Century Hamburg Mary Lindemann (University of Miami) 8 Accounting for War and Revolution: Philadelphia 183 Merchants and Commercial Risk, 1774 1811 Cathy Matson (University of Delaware) Part IV Individuals and Striving 9 Accounting for Science: How a Merchant Kept His 205 Books in Elizabethan London Deborah E. Harkness (University of Southern California) 10 Coming of Age in Trade: Masculinity and Commerce in 229 Eighteenth-Century England John Smail (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) 11 Success and Self-Loathing in the Life of an 253 Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur Matthew Kadane (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) Index 273
Illustrations 2.1 Ottoman Jewish Merchant in Istanbul 61 2.2 The Dedication of the Portuguese Jewish Synagogue 64 in Amsterdam 3.1 Amsterdam s City Maiden (Amsterdamse Stedemaagd, 86 by Reinier Vinkeles 1741 1816) 4.1 First economic print. Atlas van Stolk, Engelsche kraam 101 etc., no. 4318, Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam. 4.2 The World of the Great. Detail from Atlas van Stolk, 102 Engelsche kraam etc., no. 4318, Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam. 4.3 Klaas as would-be gentleman. Detail from Atlas van 103 Stolk, Engelsche kraam etc., no. 4318, Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam. 4.4 Second economic print. Atlas van Stolk, Eerwaardigen 104 Nederlander, no. 4322, Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam. 4.5 Patriotic citizens following Reason. Detail from Atlas 105 van Stolk, Eerwaardigen Nederlander, no. 4322, Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam. 6.1 European production of commercial texts in the 150 sixteenth century 7.1 John Parish (1743 1829) 169
Acknowledgments The editors wish to thank the Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Studies at UCLA and its director, Peter Reill, who made possible the conference out of which these essays emerged. Our authors have been especially diligent about the timetable we set for producing their final texts, and for that we are also very grateful. Funding for this project came from both the CNRS, and UCLA and its then dean, Scott Waugh. Finally, the editors would like to acknowledge their mutual enjoyment and enrichment from this rewarding international collaboration.