The Eastland Trade and the Common Weal in the Seventeenth Century

This book studies the English conception of 'the common weal' in relation to the trade of seventeenth-century English merchants with Baltic ports and Scandinavia.

R. W. K. Hinton (Author)

9781107586987, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 December 2015

258 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.33 kg

Originally published in 1959, this book presents a study of the English conception of 'the common weal' in relation to the trade of English merchants with Baltic ports and Scandinavia during the seventeenth century. The text provides a detailed account regarding the role of the Eastland Company in this period and its eventual loss of power 'whilst that of the state increased and made company organization unnecessary'. Documents relating to the Eastland Company, lists of members, two government-inspired pamphlets on trade policy and figures of trade at the Sound are reproduced in the appendices. Detailed notes are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in economic history and the development of European trade in the seventeenth century.

Preface
Abbreviations
1. Introductory: the expansion of the Eastland trade in the sixteenth century
2. The depression of 1620 and the Eastland Company's proclamation of 1622
3. The trade between the depression of 1620 and the depression of 1649
4. The purpose of a regulated company
5. Difficulties abroad: the weakness of the English state under Charles I
6. The Eastland Company's privileges at home: an example of government by prerogative
7. The crisis of 1649 and the Navigation Act of 1651
8. The growth of the navy and the demand for naval stores
9. The trade in the second half of the century
10. Government policy during the interregnum
11. The development of state control after 1660
Conclusion
Appendix A. Documents concerning the Eastland Company
Appendix B. The Advocate and Free Ports
Appendix C. Some members of the Eastland Company
Appendix D. Some figures of Baltic trade, 1591–1700
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]