Dutch Trading Networks in Early North America, 1624-1750
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COUNTRIES WITH BORDERS - MARKETS WITH OPPORTUNITIES: DUTCH TRADING NETWORKS IN EARLY NORTH AMERICA, 1624-1750 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Kimberly Ronda Todt August 2012 © 2012 Kimberly Ronda Todt ii COUNTRIES WITH BORDERS – MARKETS WITH OPPORTUNITIES: DUTCH TRADING NETWORKS IN EARLY NORTH AMERICA, 1624-1750 Kimberly Ronda Todt, Ph. D. Cornell University 2012 Examining the Dutch in early America only through the prism of New Netherland is too limiting. The historiography inevitably follows a trajectory that leads to English takeover. This work explores how Dutch merchants fostered and nurtured trade with early American colonies at all levels and stages – from ship owners to supercargos to financiers – and over the varied geographical and political terrains in which early American commodities were grown, hunted, harvested, and traded. Chapters are organized geographically and chronologically and survey how Dutch trading networks played out in each of early America’s three major regions – New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Chesapeake and later the Lower South from 1624 through 1750. Chronicling Dutch trade also serves to emphasize that participants in early America were rooted in global – as well as in local, regional, and imperial – landscapes. Accordingly, while each of the chapters of this work is regional, they are also integrated into something larger. In the end, this is a study that thinks across the Atlantic world yet explores various commodities or individual merchants to understand markets and networks. This narrative also demonstrates how profoundly Dutch capital, merchants, and iii goods affected early America. It confirms stereotypes about the intimacy of the Dutch with commerce or capital, about the character of Dutch merchants who thrived in a competitive commercial atmosphere, about the proliferation of Dutch trade throughout the Atlantic world during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By examining Dutch trade, we develop a more nuanced and vivid understanding of commerce in early America. iv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Kim Todt received her B.A. in History and Government from Cornell University. She attained an M.A. with High Honors in History from Yale University in 2005. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Cornell University in 2009 and 2012, respectively. v To Ewan vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research for this dissertation was made possible by the generous support of many institutions. I would like to thank The Manuscript Society for the Maass Memorial Research Grant, the Quinn Foundation for a Quinn-Library Fellowship at the New York State Library, The American Association for Netherlandic Studies for its Research Scholarship, Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam for the Prof. J.C.M Warnsinck Fellowship, and the New York State Archives for the Larry Hackman Research Residency. In addition, Cornell University and the Cornell History Department funded much of this project with fellowships and travel grants. I am grateful to the Einaudi Center and the Society of the Humanities for travel grants. As well, early in the exploration of material for this project I received an American Studies Grant that was crucial for me to view archival materials in New York City and Albany and to formulate the general research questions for the thesis. I am appreciative of the many libraries and archives that opened their doors to me, in particular the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, the Stadsarchief Rotterdam, the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, the National Archives in Kew, the New York State Archives, the New York State Library, the New-York Historical Society, and the New York Public Library. In addition, I would like to thank the staff and librarians of Cornell’s many libraries including Olin, Uris, and Africana. This project has introduced me to many wonderful people, all of whom have contributed in different ways to its evolution. I would like, first of all, to express my vii gratitude towards my advisor, Mary Beth Norton. She accepted a phone call from me a number of years ago in which I asked to assist her with one of her research projects. I had hoped to undertake research for an established historian to determine whether I wanted to pursue graduate school as a career change. While she initially hesitated, my offer to work for a “peppercorn” helped to persuade her. Upon meeting at the end of the summer, she asked whether I had enjoyed my research on seventeenth and eighteenth century early American newspapers. I replied that I had had a “blast.” Her only response was that I was “hooked.” Indeed, I was, and continue to be, “hooked” on history. I am appreciative to Mary Beth for all of our conversations, her patience, her guidance, her sense of humor, and her support. I have learned from her the practice of history and how to be an effective teacher in the classroom. I have indeed been fortunate to work with someone of such intelligence, rigor, and integrity. I will be forever grateful to her for answering her phone. My additional committee members, Rachel Weil, Robert Travers, and David Hancock, have provided input and council and encouraged me to expand my thinking about the dissertation in a way that is intellectually exciting and challenging. Their scholarly contributions to this thesis are immeasurable and I am sure my thesis would have been less rigorous and less interesting without them. Aside from my official committee, I was fortunate to benefit from an informal committee of friends and colleagues. My academic home away from home while in Amsterdam was Het Scheepvaartmuseum. There, I was able to share many of my ideas, meals, and delightful moments with my fellow “fellow” Ron Brand, Remmelt Daalder, Henk Dessens, Anton Oortwijn, Joost Schokkenbroek, Elizabeth Spits, and viii Diederick Wildeman. The other significant portion of my time in Amsterdam was spent at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. The archivists and staff were welcoming and provided many resources and ideas for my project. In addition, I benefited from the “regulars” at the archives, not all of whom were historians, but each of whom loved history and offered their own moral support and suggests for my research. In New York, I was fortunate to have the assistance of the respective staffs at the New York State Archives and the New York State Library. Paul Mercer and Vicki Weiss provided encouragement and their unparalleled knowledge about the archival collection. In addition, Christine Beauregard, Helen Weltin, Fred Basset, Bill Gorman, Nancy Horen, and Jim Folts offered guidance and perseverance in tracking down material. Of the many friends we made in Amsterdam, none were so dear as Pauline, Marcel, and little Silver Metz. They welcomed us into their lives and home. I have been fortunate to have the friendship of Martha Dickinson Shattuck. While we were asked to work on an article together, we soon found we had much in common. Distance between our geographical locations was never an issue as long as the batteries on our respective phones could hold out for marathon discussions. I have sought Martha’s counsel throughout my research and writing. My thinking about this project has benefited from her years of scholarship. It is a personal and professional friendship I cherish and will always do so. Research and writing is a solitary endeavor. I have been fortunate to have two companions always nearby. My scholarly Labradors, Floyd and Zeppie, have provided constant laughter, understanding, and distraction. ix My parents, Mary Lou and Ron Todt, have provided their love and support throughout this project. Both stepped in at crucial moments during my graduate studies to assist with childcare, to listen to my concerns, and to encourage me to keep my focus. I am thankful for my mother’s wisdom throughout the years. Though she is no longer with us, I hear her laughter still, remember her kindnesses, and hold in my heart her unfailing belief in me. I am proud of my father for stepping up and stepping in whenever I have needed him. His moral compass never waivers and for that I am grateful. Last, but far from least, I am so grateful for my son, Ewan. When I began graduate school, he was a preschooler. Now, he is ready to embark on the next phase of his academic career, as I embark on mine. But we do it together. He has been my joy and inspiration for all of these years. He is, and shall always be, my greatest accomplishment. I am so proud to be his mother. He has lived with my dissertation for the majority of his young life. It is to him whom this dissertation is dedicated. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii Author Biography v Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 30 Chapter 2 84 Chapter 3 120 Chapter 4 163 Chapter 5 202 Chapter 6 235 Conclusion 268 Bibliography 278 xi xii Introduction Too often historians have viewed early American history exclusively through Anglo eyes, when in fact it had multiple temporalities and narratives, many of them beginning in Europe. My dissertation seeks to recapture the parameters of cross-cultural trading networks in early America originating with Dutch merchants. It is a history sensitive to the multiple experiences of the marketplace and will strive to show how the global mercantile culture of the Dutch Republic, with its laws and customs, coexisted with highly localized and segmented social and legal trading arrangements in early America. It focuses less on the concept of identity than on social networks, power, and institutions. It is concerned with intertwined networks of communities, partial acculturation, and cultural accommodation. Examining the Dutch in early America only through the prism of New Netherland is too limiting.