Letterbook of Greg & Cunningham, 1756-57: Merchants of New York and Belfast: 28 (Records of Social and Economic History (New Series)) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0197262198 ISBN 13: 9780197262191

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2001

Synopsis

The correspondence from the most successful Irish-American trading firm of the colonial period forms a remarkable archive for economic historians of the eighteenth century.

This is an edition of a letterbook that contains the first nine months of correspondence from this New York trading house. The letters to commercial contacts throughout the North Atlantic region offer a vivid picture of the transatlantic economy. And the private communications of Waddell Cunningham to his partner, Thomas Greg in Belfast, allow a rare behind-the-scenes look at the management and operation of an overseas merchant house.

Guided by Professor Truxes's authoritative introduction, we can see in these letters the difficulties of decision-making over long distances, the problems of over-stretched resources, and the impact of the Seven Years War on the evolution of a vigorous enterprise.

About this title

Review

Truxes has placed us even more fully in his debt by editing this significant letter book of Greg and Cunningham ... He has loaded this meticulous edition with very detailed information about the characters, the places, the practices and the goods mentioned in the letters. (Irish Economic and Social History)

It will be welcomed by scholars of eighteenth-century trade and those interested in gaining insights into the organisation of mercantile firms, as well as those interested in tracing the more specific origins of an unusual family firm. (Business History)

Thomas Truxes has undertaken painstaking and revealing research which, not only places the volume in a wider context, but which throws much light on aspects of the Greg family which have been for too long obscure. (Business History)

As a mirror on the eighteenth-century Atlantic trade and business conditions it is intriguing. (Business History)

... combines the richness of the original source with an extensive and insightful introduction and footnotes. It is this which really adds value and makes the letter book of interest to eighteenth-century scholars generally. (Business History)

... this is an edition of the highest quality ... it underlines what a careful and resourceful editor can add to understanding of a text ... The enterprise, energy and learning brought to bear in the preparation of this work is manifest throughout. The British Academy, who have sponsored the edition, and Oxford University Press, its publisher, also deserve honourable mention, the former for accommodating it in their prestigious Records of Social and Economic History series and the latter for the quality of the resulting production. (Eighteenth-Century Ireland)

... provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the management and operation of a mid-eighteenth-century overseas merchant house and offers an opportunity to create a vivid mosaic of the North Atlantic economy from an Irish-American perspective. (Eighteenth-Century Ireland)

A young scholar studying trade could with advantage make this book a starting point ... this is the first instance of the publication of a letterbook whose main theme is the Irish trade. (Long Room: Ireland's Journal for the History of the Book)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197262198
• ISBN 13: 9780197262191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 476
• Editor: Truxes Thomas M.