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Gone is the Ancient Glory: Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1534-2000, by James Robertson. Kingston, Jamaica, Ian Randle Publishers, 2005. xviii, 477 pp. $49.95 US (cloth), $30.00 US (paper). In this comprehensive [...]

The article presents a response to the essay "Rethinking Mercantilism: Political Economy, the British Empire, and the Atlantic World in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," by Steve Pincus, published in the issue. It examines Pincus' writings on Atlantic historians' views of mercantilism, British colonies, and ideologies of political economy. The author particularly comments on Pincus' critique of the book "Empires of the Atlantic World," by J.H. Elliott. The ideas of explorers John Smith and Sir Walter Ralegh concerning colonies are considered.

An article discussing the role of maps in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River region of colonial North America is presented. The author examines the problems of overlapping territorial claims and boundary disputes in regions such as the Mid-Atlantic Colonies, which were occupied by the English and Dutch empires. Addressing the involvement of New Netherland ambassador Augustine Herrman in the dispute, the author explains how cartological errors in maps of the Chesapeake, such as the one used by secretary of Maryland Philip Calvert, impacted the trade relations between the two imperial presences. The involvement of business interests such as the West India Company and records of land purchases from Native American tribes are also included.

The article presents an exploration into the arguments and advocacy for free trade and economic control by English colonists in Barbados and other Caribbean areas in the mid 17th century. The author highlights various perspectives and literature published regarding the desire for influence on economic decisions as well as asserting the arguments were not bids for independence, but merely representation in the greater context of the British Empire.