The trouble with networks: Managing the scots' early-modern madeira trade

Business History Review

Volumn 79, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 467-491

  Hancock, David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 30344464071     PISSN: 00076805     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0007680500081411     Document Type: Review

References (127)

1. Nitin Nohria, "Introduction: Is a Network Perspective a Useful Way to Study Organisations?" in Networks and Organisations: Structure Form and Action, eds. Nitin Nohria and Robert Eccles (Boston, 1992), 3.
2. On the lack of a distinct, overarching theory, see Amalya L. Oliver and Mark Ebers, "Networking Network Studies," Organization Studies 19 (Sept. 1998): 1-31.
3. Cf. Walter W. Powell and Laurel Smith-Doerr, "Networks and Economic Life," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, eds. Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg (Princeton, 1994), 368-402, who decry its "general vagueness" but offer little precision;
4. and Silvia Marzagalli, "The Establishment of a Transatlantic Trade Network: Bordeaux and the United States, 1783-1815," International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800, Harvard University, 2003, 2-3, who agrees but offers it up as a broad category of "structure which underlay coordination mechanisms." The meanings of "network" and "network analysis" are at best imprecise, as they have been applied to a multiplicity of operations and situations at various times. The scholarship is voluminous, and only a fraction of it is referenced in the pages that follow.
5. The techniques themselves are well outlined in Stanley Wassennan and Katherine Faust, Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications (New York, 1994).
6. A theory of networking in business has begun to emerge: Robert Eccles and Nitin Nohria, Beyond the Hype (Boston, 1992);
7. Thomas J. Peters, Liberation Management (New York, 1992). At base, networks facilitate firm sharing and occupy a liminal entrepreneurial space.
8. Ehud Zuscovitch, "Networks, Specialization and Trust," in The Economics of Networks: Interaction and Behaviors, ed. Patrick Cohendet (Berlin, 1998), 244-45.
9. Anna Grandori and Giuseppe Soda have also dissected networks, in "Inter-firm Networks: Antecedents, Mechanisms and Forms," Organization Studies 16 (1995): 183-214.
10. Other scholars who have tried to develop a "theory" of business networks include the following: Yoram Ben-Porath, "The F-Connection: Families, Friends, and Firms and the Organization of Exchange," Population and Development Review 6 (1980): 1-30;
11. Gary Gereffi and Miguel Korzeniewicz, Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (Westport, Conn., 1994);
12. Oddy Jarl Borch and Michael B. Arthur, "Strategic Networks among Small Firms: Implications for Strategy Research Methodology," Journal of Management Studies 32 (1995): 419-37;
13. Maxine Robertson et al., "The Role of Networks in the Diffusion of Technological Innovation," Journal of Management Studies 33 (1996): 333-59;
14. Gisèle Umbhauer, "The Economics of Networks," in The Economics of Networks, ed. Patrick Cohendet (Berlin, 1998), 1-13.
15. Business and economic histories that analyze networks include Barry E. Supple, "A Business Elite: German-Jewish Financiers in Nineteenth-Century New York," Business History Review 31 (1957): 143-78;
16. John Padgett and Christopher Ansell, "Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici," American Journal of Sociology 98 (1993): 1259-1319;
17. Gillian Cookson, "Family Firms and Business Networks: Textile Engineering in Yorkshire, 1780-1830," Business History (1997): 1-20;
18. Leos Müller, The Merchant Houses of Stockholm, c. 1640-1800 (Uppsala, 1998), 32-36, 222-24;
19. Nuala Zahediah, "Credit, Risk and Reputation in Late Seventeenth-Century Colonial Trade," Research in Maritime History 15 (1998): 53-74;
20. Silvia Marzagalli, Les Boulevards de la fraude: Le negoce maritime et le Blocus continental, 1806-1813 (Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1999);
21. Mary B. Rose, Firms, Networks and Business Values: The British and American Cotton Industries since 1750 (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).
22. For study by historians, see Bernard Farber, Guardians of Virtue (New York, 1972);
23. J. William Frost, The Quaker Family in Colonial America (New York, 1973);
24. Jerome H. Wood Jr., Conestoga Crossroads: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1730-1790 (Harrisburg, 1979), 93-112;
25. Darrett and Anita Rutman, A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650-1750 (New York, 1984);
26. Lorena S. Walsh, "Community Networks in the Early Chesapeake," in Colonial Chesapeake Society, eds. Lois G. Carr et al. (Chapel Hill, 1988), 200-41;
27. Eli Faber, A Time for Planting: The First Migration, 1654-1820 (Baltimore, 1992);
28. Peter Bearman, Relations info Rhetoric: Local Elite Social Structure in Norfolk England, 1540-1640 (New Brunswick, 1993);
29. Claudia Schnurmann, "Atlantic Trade via Supranational Networks," International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800, Harvard University, 1999;
30. Rosalind Beiler, "Distributing Aid to Believers in Need: The Religious Foundations of Transatlantic Migration," Pennsylvania History 64 (Special Suppl., 1997): 73-87;
31. Eric Hinderaker, Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673-1800 (Ithaca, 1997);
32. R. D. Meadows, "Engineering Exile: Social Networks and the French Atlantic Community, 1789-1809," French Historical Studies 23 (2000): 67-102,
33. and "Social Networks and Transatlantic Migration: Saint-Domingue Refugees during the French and Haitian Revolutions," International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800, Harvard University, 2001.
34. For a study by an archaeologist, see Charles E. Orser Jr., "Consumption, Consumerism, and Things from the Earth," Historical Methods 27 (1994): 61-70.
35. In geography, see Paul M. Hohenberg et al., The Making of Urban Europe, 1000-1994 (Cambridge, Mass., 1995).
36. Social scientists have been attempting to derive a "theory" of social networks for decades. See Eric R. Wolf, "Kinship, Friendship, and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies," in The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies, ed. Michael Banton (London, 1966), 1-22;
37. Mustaf Emerbaya and Jeff Goodwin, "Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency," American Journal of Sociology 99 (1994): 1411-54;
38. Duncan J. Watts, Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness (Princeton, 1999),
39. and his compelling and readable Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (New York, 2003).
40. Several students of business management have looked at the failure of modern business networks and of private-sector/government networks. See Raymond E. Miles and Charles C. Snow, "Causes of Failure in Network Organizations," Californía Management Review 34 (Summer 1992): 53-72;
41. Andrew Koch and Gerhard Fuchs, "Economic Globalization and Regional Penetration: The Failure of Networks in Baden-Württemberg," European Journal of Political Research 37 (2000): 57-75. But this perspective is at odds with the overriding optimism of most scholarship. Examples of the "optimistic" approach include Cookson, "Family Firms";
42. Wood, Conestoga Crossroads;
43. Schnurmann, "Atlantic Trade."
44. Julian Hoppitt, Risk and Failure in English Business, 1700-1800 (Cambridge, U.K., 1987), 1.
45. Julian Hoppitt, Risk and Failure in English Business, 1700-1800 (1987) Ibid., 1;
46. David Hancock, "Commerce and Conversation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic: The Invention of Madeira Wine," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (1998): 197-219.
47. Bible (Tyndale English transl., 1530), Exod.: 28:4;
48. Bible (Geneva English transi., 1560), Exod.: 27:4;
49. J. W. Clay, ed., The Parish Registers of Ledsham, in the County of York, 1539-1812 (York, 1906), 35;
50. Edmund Spenser, Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie (London, 1590), 368.
51. Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or, A discourse of the sepulchrall urnes lately found in Norfolk: together with the Garden of Cyrus (London, 1658), book 3, 148;
52. Richard Blackmore, A treatise of consumptions and other distempers belonging to the breast and lungs (London, 1724), 19;
53. Abbé Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, transi. J. O. Justamond, 8 vols. (London, 1783), 5:188.
54. Samuel T. Coleridge, A lay sermon, addressed to the higher and middle classes, on the existing distresses and discontents (London, 1817), 373;
55. Connop Thirlwall, A History of Greece, 8 vols. (London, 1839), 6: 110;
56. David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857), book 10, 199;
57. Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits (London, 1856), 43;
58. Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians 12 (1883): 551.
59. Science News 4 (1947): 37.
60. Elizabeth Bott, Family and Social Network (London, 1957), 62, 92.
61. Gordon Prestoungrange and Ronald Yearsley, eds., Handbook of Management Technology (New York, 1967), 73, 74, 98.
62. Analog Science: Fact/Fiction (Dec. 1960): 68;
63. John Le Carré Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (New York, 1974), 196.
64. One example appeared in the Canadian Journal of Linguistics 15 (1970): 103: "Once we express a grammar in terms of a relational network, intermediate symbols become completely superfluous." Examination of the Social Science Citation Index reveals 106 different citations with "network" in the title, key word, or abstract entries in 1945-54; 261 in 1955-64; and 1,647 in 1965-74.
65. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1704), vol. 3: 601;
66. Daniel Defoe, Colonel Jack (London, 1722), 171.
67. Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (London, 1768), 34;
68. Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (London, 1773), vol. 1: ii;
69. Tobias G. Smollett, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, 3 vols. (Dublin, 1771), vol. 2: 37;
70. William Cowper, The Task and Other Poems, 2 vols. (London, 1784), vol. 2:684;
71. Rose Lawrence, Gortz of Berlingen (Liverpool, 1799), 40.
72. The Americans in 1768 included Marylanders James Jenkins, Thomas Patten, and Joseph Gillis, all of Lamar, Hill, Bisset & Co.; New Yorkers John Searle and James Ayres; and another Marylander, Henry Cock. The representation of Quakers and Huguenots was high, out of proportion to the general population.
73. Walter and Robert Scott first appear in the Saidas on 15 Dec. 1728, and 25 Aug. 1729, respectively. Livros dos Saidas, no. 252, ff. 53, 69, Arquivo Nacional do Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Portugal. A younger brother, John, arrived several years later and took over the management of the house when Robert moved to London in 1736 or 1737. On the Scotts, see Colonial Office 137/17 sub 29 May 1737, National Archives of England, Kew, Surrey;
74. Kenneth G. Davies, ed., Calendar of State Papers (Colonial Series), vol. 43 (London, 1963), 259-60;
75. Walter B. Edgar, ed., The Letterbook of Robert Pringle, 2 vols. (Columbia, 1972), vol. 1: 29, 158;
76. Will of Robert Scott, dated 11 Apr. 1769, proved 1 June 1771, PROB 11, National Archives of England, Kew, Surrey, England;
77. and Arthur H. Plaisted, The Manor and Parish Records of Medmenham, Buckinghamshire (London, 1925), 139-40.
78. On the firm founded by James Gordon of Letterfourie and managed by James Gordon, his brother Alexander Gordon, and their nephews James, Robert, and William Duff of Pitchaish, see Alistair and Henrietta Tayler, The Book of the Duffs, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1914), 466-88;
79. Jacobites of Aberdeenshire & Banffshire in the Forty-Five (Aberdeen, 1928), 144, 203-4;
80. Jacobites of Aberdeenshire & Banffshire in the Rising of 1715 (Edinburgh, 1934), 108-9;
81. John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th ed. (London, 1972), 384-85.
82. According to one contemporary account by an Englishman, in A Genuine & True Journal of the Escape of the Young Chevalier (London, 1749), a ring was given to Alexander Gordon by Prince Charles Edward after the Battle of Culloden as a remembrance of meritorious service. What little is known of the Newtons before 1748 is documented in volume 2 of the Newton & Gordon Letterbooks, David Cossart Collection, Suffolk, England.
83. Mark Granovetter, "The Strength of Weak Ties," American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973): 1360-80,
84. and "The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited," in Social Structure and Network Analysis, eds. Peter Marsden and Nan Lin (Beverley Hills, 1982), 105-30. Granovetter calls relationships like that between the Newtons and the Gordons of the firm Newton & Gordon "weak" ties, in contrast to the "strong" ties of family, and he points to "the strength of weak ties." The value of weak ties is that they connect one primary group to another, serving as channels for both information and support.
85. Cf. John F. Padgett, "Organizational Genesis, Identity, and Control: The Transformation of Banking in Renaissance Florence," unpublished ms., 2000, 12.
86. Henry Hill to Newton & Gordon, 4 Nov. 1773, Newton & Gordon Papers, Bundle 5, Box 1, Guildhall Library, London, England.
87. On the connections of the Scott, Pringle, Murray, and Veitch clans, see note 20, above; Burke, Landed Gentry, 3 vols. (London, 1846), vol. 2: 903, 3 (Suppl.): 267;
88. Alexander Pringle, The Records of the Pringles or Hoppringills of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh, 1933), 171-79;
89. Thomas Craig-Brown, The History of Selkirkshire, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1886), vol. 2: 299-313, 335-48;
90. James W. Buchan and Henry Paton, eds., A History of Peebleshire, 3 vols. (Glasgow, 1927), vol. 3: 438-43;
91. William Wilson, Folk Lore and Genealogies of Uppermost Nithesdale (Dumfries, 1904), 206-13;
92. and Anon., Genealogical Fragments (Berwick, 1855), 13-15.
93. On the Cheaps, see The Court and City Register (London, 1765), 109;
94. Gentleman's Magazine 64 (Suppl.): 1, 206;
95. Will of Thomas Cheap, proved 15 Apr. 1795, PROB 11/1259, National Archives of England; Academia das Ciênciàs de Lisboa, Descriptive List of the State Papers, Portugal, 1661-1780, in the Public Record Office London, 3 vols. (Lisbon, 1983), vol. 3:15, 25-26, 56, 71, 83-84, 87-88;
96. James G. Parker, "The Directors of the East India Company" (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1977), 197-99.
97. Thomas Cheap to Secretary of State, 3 June 1771, SP 89/71/130, National Archives of England. Also beneficial was Cheap's service as a director of the East India Company in 1777-78 and 1780-83, when he could procure for his firm large orders for wine sent to the India Presidencies. Parker, "Directors," 197-99.
98. On the Loughnans, as well as the Fergussons, Dempsters, and Fearnses to whom the Loughnans were related, see George Spence to Francis Newton, 26 Oct. 1753, vol. 1, f. 77, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Michael Nowlan to Gedley Clare Burges, 24 June 1756, Nowlan & Burges Letterbook, Private Collection, Funchal, Madeira; Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary, 406-7;
99. Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage (London, 1959), 846-48;
100. James Fergusson, ed., Letters of George Dempster to Sir Adam Fergusson, 1756-1813 (London, 1934);
101. Last Will of James Fearns, written 13 Mar. 1797, proved 13 June 1797, PROB 11/292, National Archives of England.
102. David Hancock, Oceans of Wine, Empires of Commerce (forthcoming), ch. 6.
103. I say "usually" because one of the principal projects of economists in the last generation has been to complicate the textbook economic model. Some of the complications have moved in the direction of considering how agents respond to others in the economy, depending on who they are or the agents' personal history of interactions. A game-theoretical model in which agents in an economy are explicitly individuals is presented in Alexander Kelso and Vincent Crawford, "Job Matching, Coalition Formation, and Gross Substitutes," Econometrica 50 (1982): 1483-1504. Note, however, that some of the economics literature does refer to the relations among traders in textbook economic markets as a "network."
104. John Corrie to Thomas Gordon, 7 Jan. 1771, Box 5, Bundle 1770-71, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Guildhall Library, London; Ursula Carlyle to David Hancock, 22 Aug. 2001 (no Mercer lists before 1833 have survived); Christ's Hospital Admissions Registers, c. 1735-42, Ms. 12,818/8, ff. 229-55, Mss. Section, Guildhall Library;
105. Peter W. Coldham, ed., Child Apprentices in America from Christ's Hospital, London, 1617-1778 (Baltimore, 1990), 86, 91, 98, 100. Christ's alumni later tapped included William Antrobus of Antigua, Richard Allnutt of London, and John Jackson of Antigua.
106. Thomas Newton to Anthony Sarly, 22 Jan. 1756, to Malcolm Campbell, 22 Jan. 1756, to Dr. Robert Knox, 23 Mar. 1756, to Evan Cameron, 3 June 1756, to Malcolm Campbell, 27 Sept 1756, to Francis Newton, 12 Feb. 1759, Thomas Newton Letterbook, ff. 1, 3, 7, 15, 19, 50, and Samuel & David Bean to Newton & Gordon, 15 Apr. 1760, Loose Letters, Madeira Wine Company Archives, Funchal, Madeira; Thomas Gordon to Francis Newton, 8 Apr., 15 May 1769, vol. 4, ff. 326, 341, Newton & Gordon to Fisher & Berney, 20 Apr. 1789, vol. 11, f. 41, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. Cf. William Alder to A. Clow & Co., 26 Apr. 1790, Correspondence Folder 1785-1798, Box 6oD, Claude W. Unger Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alder had met Clow in Liverpool and, on setting up business in Madeira in 1790, made "a tender of... best Services" based on the establishment of that acquaintance. On trust, see Lame T. Hosmer, "Trust: The Connecting Link between Organizational Theory and Philosophical Ethics," Academy of Management Review 20 (1995): 379-403.
107. Newton & Gordon to Fisher & Berney, 20 Apr. 1789, vol. 12, p. 41, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Newton & Gordon to John Rowe, 17 Sept. 1762, vol. 3, f. 45, 4 Apr. 1767, 14 Apr. 1768, 23 July 1771, vol. 4, ff. 79, 205, 597, and to Francis Newton, 28 May 1774, vol. 5, f. 361, and 9 Nov. 1775, vol. 6, f. 11, 9 Nov. 1775, to Henry Hill, 14 Aug. 1788, vol. 10, f. 42, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
108. On Hill's early struggles, and his successful attempt to overcome suspicions harbored by fellow Quakers, see John Jay Smith, Letters of Doctor Richard Hill and His Children (Philadelphia, 1854), 23, 27, 34, 36-39, 56.
109. See also Robert Scott to Richard Hill Sr., 10 Sept. 1740, with Hill's note at foot, and Richard Hill Sr. to Richard Hill Jr., 27 Jan. 1741, Folder 1, Richard Hill Sr. to Richard Hill Jr., 14 Sept. 1742, 4 July 1743, and Deborah Hill to Hannah Moore, 6 June 1750, Gulielma Collection, Haverford College Library, Haverford, Pennsylvania.
110. Newton & Gordon to John Rowe, 17 Sept. 1762, vol. 3, f. 45, 4 Apr. 1767, 14 Apr. 1768, 23 July 1771, vol. 4, ff. 79, 205, 597, and to Francis Newton, 28 May 1774, vol. 5, f. 361, and 9 Nov. 1775, vol. 6, f. 11, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
111. On problems with the Bean brothers, see Samuel & David Bean to Newton & Gordon, 15 Apr. 1760, Loose Letters, Madeira Wine Company Archives; Newton & Gordon to Samuel & David Bean, 29 Jan. 1761, 24 Feb. 1763, 29 Nov. 1766, 12 Apr., 30 July, 17 Aug. 1767, Thomas Gordon to Francis Newton, 8 Apr., 15 May 1769, vol. 4, ff. 326, 341, to Samuel & David Bean, 29 July, 3 Sept. 1769, 9 Apr. 1770, to Francis Newton, 27 Nov. 1773, 24 Apr. 1776, 8 Jan. 1778, 20 Feb. 1780, to Samuel Bean, 23 Dec. 1775, 22 Apr. 1776, and to Wilkinson & Gordon, 23 Apr. 1776, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
112. On Joseph Gillis, see Smith to Gordon Brothers, 178os, Gordon of Letterfourie Papers, Private Collection, Banffshire, Scotland; Bisset to Hill, 178os, Hill Family Papers, John Jay Smith Collection "A," Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
113. Nan Lin, "Social Resources and the Emergence of Social Structure" (unpublished ms., 1990), and Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (New York, 2001). Providing a refuge on the island forged links to individuals with new information and contacts and brought people from different worlds and empires and with different social and economic networks together. It initiated relationships of trust among previous strangers. Such "cross-fertilization" also exposed Atlantic sojourners to new ideas; and the distributors made sure that among them was the idea of drinking a wine that perhaps they had not tasted before and in a manner that was new. Of course, the contacts were two-way channels, and they also offered the distributors new ideas and customs. By creating a climate of trust, distributors accessed information sources and consumer contacts as diverse as the empires they came from, although powerful and highly ranked customers were always preferred. Many a future customer or correspondent began with a merchant providing a room or a meal to a visitor who arrived at his door bearing the flimsiest of introductions. For instances of hospitality,
114. see Gordon Brothers to James Gordon, 27 Dec. 1761, Letterfourie Papers; Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, 20 Feb. 1793, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks, vol. 15, f. 64. In addition to commercial and social visitors were the "medical" visitors, who came in droves toward the end of the century.
115. Thomas Murdoch to Francis Newton, 1 Feb. 1790, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks, vol. 12, f. 218; John Leacock Jr. to William Leacock, 18 Oct. 1799, 28 Oct. 1800, 28 May 1801, Leacock & Leacock Letterbook 1799-1802, ff. 80, 206, 258, Leacock Papers.
116. On the assumed understanding among members, which in fact broke down, see Newton & Gordon to Alexander Johnston & Co., 25 Nov. 1773, vol. 5, f. 277, Newton & Gordon to Francis Newton, 15 Apr. 1778, vol. 6, f. 371, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. See also Isaac Norris Sr. to Benjamin Bartlett, 7 Dec. 1717, f. 117, Norris of Fairhill Papers, vol. 8, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; John Brown to Welcome Arnold & George Benson, 29 Sept. 1787, VG35, Brown Family Papers, John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R.I.; Hill, Lamar & Hill to Samuel Galloway, 5 Mar. 1754, Galloway Papers, Box 1, Folder 1: Correspondence, 1739-54, Box 1, New York Public Library, New York, N.Y.; Alexander Oliphant to William Reeve, Son & Hill, 3 Sept. 1768, Letterbook of Alexander Oliphant & Co., 1766-71, GD 306/1/1, National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.
117. Systematic Sociology (New York, 1932), 355.
118. Although this was not an inevitable consequence of long-distance trade. The East India Company, for example, was organized as a hierarchy.
119. The Newton & Gordon/Willing & Morris relationship is recorded in Newton & Gordon to Kearny & Gilbert, 10 June 1768, vol. 4, f. 222, to Thomas Gordon, 25 Aug. 1787, vol. 10, f. 33, to Tunno & Cox, 28 Apr. 1795, vol. 17, f. 275, 25, 28 Mar. 1798, vol. 18, f. 281, 4 Sept. 1798, vol. 19, f. 82, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Willing Morris & Swanwick to Newton, Gordon & Johnston, l Oct. 1791, Cossart Gordon Papers, Box 1791-92, Bundle 6, Guildhall Library; letters to and from Willing, Morris & Swanwick, 1783-85, papers of Willing, Morris & Swanwick, MG 134, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Thomas Willing Letterbook, Willing Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Dominick Lynch & Thomas Stoughton Papers, 2 vols., 1783-94, New York Historical Society, New York, New York; Robert Morris Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
120. See note 39, above.
121. John Searle to Newton, Gordon & Johnston, 9 Dec. 1789, Box 1788/1789, Cossart, Gordon Papers, Guildhall library; Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, 6 Mar. 1790, vol. 13, f. 257, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Richard Lamar Bisset to Henry Hill, 17 Sept. 1791, vol. 10, f. 146, Hill Family Papers. See also Daniel Henry Smith to James Gordon, 16 Mar., 15 June 1776, Leacock Papers. Take, for example, the ups and downs of the Swedish supply of fish: Alexander Gordon to James Gordon, 8 Oct. 1760, Chambers, Torngren, Bellenden & Co. to James Gordon, 15 Sept. 1762, 2 Mar., 14 Sept. 1763, Alexander Gordon to James Gordon, 8 July 1766, Letterfourie Papers; Orders from Gothenburg, 1764-65, Box 3, Cossart Gordon Papers. Charles Murray supplied the Marquis of Carmarthen with a detailed qualitative and quantitative report on the state of the island's fish trade in 1786. Memo, 15 July 1786, Foreign Office 63/7, National Archives of England.
122. Ledger A, 1724-1731, Norris of Fairhill Papers, vol. 13, f. 29, and Isaac Morris Sr. to Miles & Richbell, Benjamin Bartlett, Oliveira & Mordecai, and Vasconcelos D. Bettencourt, 20 Nov. 1716, Isaac Norris Sr. Letters, Norris of Fairhill Papers, vol. 8, ff. 39-41; Lamar, Hill, Bisset & Co. to Samuel Galloway, 8 Mar. 1763, Galloway Family Correspondence, vol. 6, 1762-64, Galloway-Maxcy-Markoe Family Papers, Library of Congress; Lamar, Hill, Bissett Papers, John Jay Smith Family Papers A, vols. 6-8, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; In-Letters, 1763-75, Baynton, Wharton & Morgan Papers, Pennsylvania State Archives; Gerard Garret Beekman to John Searle, 3 June 1764, to Eleazer Trevett, 10 Oct. 1764, to Hill, Lamar & Hill, 15 Jan. 1759, to David Barclay & Sons, 1758, in The Beekman Mercantile Papers, 1746-1799, 3 vols., ed. Philip L. White (New York, 1956), vol. 1: 466, 474, 328, 337.
123. Newton & Gordon to Fisher & Berney, 20 Apr. 1789, vol. 12, p. 41, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Newton & Gordon to John Rowe, 17 Sept. 1762, vol. 3, f. 45, 4 Apr. 1767, 14 Apr. 1768, 23 July 1771, vol. 4, ff. 79, 205, 597, and to Francis Newton, 28 May 1774, vol. 5, f. 361, and 9 Nov. 1775, vol. 6, f. 11, 9 Nov. 1775, to Henry Hill, 14 Aug. 1788, vol. 10, f. 42, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. On conversation, see Hancock, "Commerce and Conversation."
124. Newton & Gordon to Charles Hunter, 19 July 1772, to Alexander Johnston, 25 July 1772, to Francis Newton, 25 July, 15 Aug. 1772, vol. 5, ff. 90, 93, 92, 113, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
125. Newton & Gordon to Fisher & Berney, 20 Apr. 1789, vol. 12, p. 41, Newton & Gordon to John Rowe, 17 Sept. 1762, vol. 3, f. 45, 4 Apr. 1767, 14 Apr. 1768, 23 July 1771, vol. 4, ff. 79. 205, 597, and to Francis Newton, 28 May 1774, vol. 5, f. 361, and 9 Nov. 1775, vol. 6, f. 11, to Henry Hill, 14 Aug. 1788, vol. 10, f. 42, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
126. Miles and Snow, "Causes of Failure," 67.
127. This and the following paragraphs are drawn from: Henry Hill to Robert Bisset, 27 Oct. 1792, Folder 7, Sarah A. G. Smith Collection, Hill Family Papers; List of Outstanding Debtors, 1797, vol. 1, f. 172, Robert Bisset to Henry Hill, 23 Apr., 25 May, 20 June, 9 July 1798, vol. 12, ff. 69, 69, 84, 94, John Jay Smith Collection "A," Hill Family Papers. The "Losses & Debts" list drawn up for the suit waged by the widow Lamar lists debtors as of 25 Jan. 1797; since all sales were on credit, the list of outstanding debtors provides some sense of who received wine from the firm several years before 1797.