Irish-American Trade, 1660–1783

An important contribution to both the new history of colonial British America and revisionist Irish economic and social history, this book assaults well established myths depicting Irish involvement in transatlantic trade as subordinate to narrow British interests. Ireland's vigorous trade with British America was essentially inter-colonial commerce, contributing to commercial development at home, the West Indian islands, and the North American mainland. In colonial ports from Philadelphia to Bridgetown, Barbados, overseas Irish merchant communities managed a trade that took its lead from entrepreneurs in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast with ties to Irish agriculture and manufacturing. As well as commodities and the men who moved them, the book examines the formation of Irish-colonial trade, its place in the mercantilist framework, the structure and financing of trade, the relationship between transatlantic trade and emigration, and the impact of the American Revolution on the commercial relationship between Ireland and America.