W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1996 Ship of wealth: Massachusetts merchants, foreign goods, and the transformation of Anglo-America, 1670-1760 Phyllis Whitman Hunter College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Hunter, Phyllis Whitman, "Ship of wealth: Massachusetts merchants, foreign goods, and the transformation of Anglo-America, 1670-1760" (1996). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623879. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-skdp-cf18 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. 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Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. SHIP OF WEALTH: MASSACHUSETTS MERCHANTS, FOREIGN GOODS, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF ANGLO-AMERICA, 1670-1760 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the American Studies Program The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Phyllis Whitman Hunter 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9701090 Copyright 1997 by Hunter, Phyllis Whitman All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9701090 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bnvllis Whitman Hunter Author Approved, April 1996 Robert M. Gross ^ JtiWl (klijLjhx Michael McGiffert ^ //?, J cyc/I Margaretta M. Lovell Adam Potkay Richard Lyman Bushman "j Columbia Umversity u Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES v ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER 2. PROVIDENCE AND PROFITS 22 CHAPTER 3. MUCH COMMERCE AND MANY CULTURES 56 CHAPTER 4. CHANGING WORLDVIEW: VALUING THE VISIBLE 133 CHAPTER 5. THE NEW WORLD OF COSMOPOLITAN BOSTON 174 CHAPTER 6. CONFLICT IN THE STREETS 209 CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION: FINDING PEACE IN SALEM 247 BIBILOGRAPHY 286 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This “Ship of Wealth” was constructed with the aid of generous fellowship support from the College of William and Mary, the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Peabody Essex Museum. Particular thanks go to Nancy Burkett, Joanne Chaison, John Hench, and all my other friends at AAS, to Peter Drummey, Conrad Wright and the staff of MHS, and to Will La Moy, Jane Ward and their staff at the James Duncan Phillips Library. While I may have conceived the design of this ship, her hull, rigging, and sails have been shaped and filled not only by my own labor but by a group of masters. Foremost among them is Robert Gross who applied his extraordinary intensity, brilliance, and commitment over several years, to compel me to sharpen my argument and connect it with previous scholarship. Michael McGiffert went well beyond the role of first reader, offering not only his superb editing skills but also a willingness to listen carefully and question perceptively any new, and sometimes unfounded, ideas. Margaretta Lovell has also been a significant part of the planning and crafting of this ship and has sustained the builder in numerous ways. Adam Potkay recently joined the partnership to offer guidance based on the English experience. Richard Bushman of Columbia University provided a reading from his considerable expertise in matters of colonial consumption and cultural change, and raised important issues for future consideration. Each member of the dissertation committee has held out a vision of a completed work; these visions have not been realized, but without them, far less would have been accomplished. I also want to thank Sharon Zuber for reading the entire manuscript at a critical moment and giving both professional and personal support. Two other William and Mary faculty members had important influence on this work. Barbara Carson first introduced me to the world of goods and to theories about consumption -- her influence on this craft is considerable. Clyde Haulman kindly provided needed guidance about economic matters. Friends, far and near, and my children, Kim and Zac, sustained, encouraged, and routed for me throughout the entire construction project. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Indentured Servants Brought to Salem by Philip 83 English and Family, 1675-1731 2. Wealth Inequality in Boston, 1689-1765 follows 221 3. Emergence of Capital Markets in follows 259 Massachusetts, 1730-1780 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This study examines capitalism and cultural change in early New England. The research focuses on leading merchants in Boston and Salem Massachusetts from the last third of the seventeenth century to 1760. During this period, merchants, royal officials, and professionals formed a prominent, influential elite that refashioned the town landscape and social structure of colonial ports. Merchants adopted a new Anglo-American worldview that gradually supplanted Puritan spiritual and providential understanding of the world and, instead, emphasized visible, material characteristics as the source of value in science, commerce, and consumption. The resultant “world of goods, "created a social marketplace where identity, shaped by owning and displaying high-style goods and genteel manners, could be purchased by anyone with money. Incorporating both exotic imports and foreign merchants, the new culture fostered capitalism and helped to dispel earlier conflicts over sectarian beliefs and ethnic origins that had plagued Boston and Salem. Thus, this study argues that it was consumption and a worldview that placed value in the material not Puritan asceticism, as sociologist Max Weber and his supporters insist, that initiated the spirit of modern capitalism. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SHIP OF WEALTH: MASSACHUSETTS MERCHANTS, FOREIGN GOODS, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF ANGLO-AMERICA, 1670-1760 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In Boston, Massachusetts, fifty years after its founding by Puritan entrepreneurs and preachers from eastern England, ministers Samuel Willard and Increase Mather published a vehement attack on religious toleration that harkened back to the first generation of colonists. In the pamphlet, part of a long-standing quarrel with an embattled Baptist church across the river in Charlestown,1 Willard insisted, “our first Planters' . business was not Toleration”; they “were professed Enemies of it. ”2 And so were Willard and Mather. Yet, forty years later, Mather helped to ordain a Baptist minister in Boston, offering “the right hand of fellowship,” and then his son Cotton preached a sermon onBrethren Dwelling Together in Unity emphasizing the importance