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Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses historically the role of technological and technical innovations in two main cases of comparison, using Bachelardian epistemology. The first such comparison contrasts the economic competition between 18th century Britain and (pre-revolutionary) France with the late Western Roman empire and examines the role of social attitudes toward innovation. The second comparison contrasts the French colony of Nouvelle-France (AKA New France) with the mother country, Metropolitan France.

This article investigates the project of a naval expedition to the Pacific planned by the South Sea Company in 1712, which has been disregarded by historians as either a political farce or an inexplicable incident. By examining the company's documents and pamphlets, this article reveals the contemporary economic and political situations that obliged it to plan an expedition for securing trading bases in Spanish America. It also shows that the failure of the project and the acceptance of the Asiento were a turning point in the history of Britain's struggle to take the Spanish American market from France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which strategies enabled merchants to sustain commercial expansion in the risky context of Atlantic trade? This study evaluates the role of kinship and long-term relationships as solutions to the problems posed by long-distance trade, when there is a common national and legal framework. Tobin & Pinney did not rely much on family connections to develop and support their operations. As former planters themselves, they took advantage of the contacts and 'friendships' they had established with planters and agents in Nevis before setting up in the commission trade in Bristol, and their success was based on repeated interaction and their former proximity to the Nevis planter class. This risk reduction strategy however limited the partners' ability to expand their business beyond Nevis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1750 to 1821, Britain's Company of Merchants Trading to Africa relied upon its company slaves to fulfil its mission of facilitating Britain's African trade. Company slavery was a unique system within the Atlantic, for while these slaves were property, they received a wage, retained specific rights and integrated themselves into the local community. The toil of these slaves played an important role in expanding Britain's African trade, yet they consistently resisted the company and, in doing so, defined a coastal position for themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1749, the house of commons appointed a committee of enquiry into the lands and trade of Hudson's Bay. This was the climax to nearly 20 years' work by the Ulsterman, Arthur Dobbs, which focused first on renewed search for a northwest passage and later widened to attempt to expand trade and settlement by challenging the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. Dobbs's Irish patriotism, linked by support for union with Britain with his remarkably expansive vision of British empire, became concentrated on this campaign with a zeal and tenacity which overrode contrary evidence based on experience. Propaganda pamphlets, mobilisation of compatriots, merchant and political contacts, briefs for MPs, marshalling of evidence and witnesses for parliamentary committees, 30 petitions from a variety of places, organised by Liverpool and Bristol merchants who took the lead in the final campaign: all were used to attempt to influence parliament. This was an impressive mid-century effort to promote British commerce and manufactures, actively supported by the parliamentary opposition which was reviving under Leicester House leadership. Yet, while this campaign could shape the report of the committee of enquiry, the House itself was not so easily moved, especially when public expenditure was likely to be involved. A motion arising from the report was decisively defeated. The impressive campaign came to nought. While it indeed reveals powerful visions of commercial and imperial expansion in the mid 18th century, the outcome suggests that realism and scepticism prevailed at the heart of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article celebrates the contribution which Professor Holmes made to the field of British politics and society by the study of an important collection of political tracts. The compiler of the collection is identified as Sir Charles Cooke, one of the most significant commercial politicians of his day. The organisation of the collection illuminates the ways in which City politicians used various channels of information, both printed and personal, to support their political platforms. It also demonstrates how Cooke contributed to the defeat of the tories over the French Commerce Bill of 1713, by supplying key sources to combat the ministry's position. On a wider plane, although it suggests that partisan politics tainted all information advanced in the public sphere, this did not relieve political rivals of the need to establish the superior authority of their sources, and political success only saw Cooke redouble his efforts to gain as wide a base of information as possible. Statistical precision remained elusive, but his archive stands testament to a growing need for authority of source in a political world of party and vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]