The Temptations of Trade

Long prior to the eighteenth century, the Spanish Caribbean had become a space of increasing commercial interest for the British Empire due to its unique location and the opportunities presented by its protected markets. Not until 1713, during the asiento (agreement) period, however, did Spain concede limited trading rights to the British. At this point the persistent rivalry between the British and Spanish Empires in the Caribbean entered a phase of legally sustained interaction that would last until the 1750 Treaty of Madrid. In The Temptations of Trade Adrian Finucane traces, in close detail, these years of limited open trade during the asiento period. She does so through an examination of the life stories of British South Sea Company agents in the major Spanish American port cities. In theory, the asiento was a contract that benefited both Spain and Britain: the Spanish colonies needed slave labor for their plantations and mines, while the British were interested in increasing trade. However, as Finucane illustrates, this agreement encountered many problems, such as the primacy of individual interests and the persistence of contraband traffic and piracy in the region. Although legal British trade networks in the Spanish Caribbean expanded relatively quickly during these years, they did so along with increasing illegal trade and political tensions. Rising conflicts in the 1730s between the British and Spanish Empires led to the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1748), marking the end of cooperative trade

British Empire · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · International trade · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Port (circuit theory · Rivalry · Treaty · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · Historical Studies on Spain · History · Law

• All That Glittered

  Timothy Alborn, Timothy L Alborn•All That Glittered•2019

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