Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York (review)

Reviewed by: Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York James Pritchard Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York. By Thomas M. Truxes. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-11840-7. Maps. Glossary. Notes. Index. Pp. xv, 288. $30.00. Trade and commerce often receive short shrift from historians of the eighteenth century, which is too bad. Thomas Truxes tells the relatively unknown, yet important, story of New York's illicit trade with the French colonies during the Seven Years' War. He does so very well, with lots of action, vivid settings and colorful characters. This is not a tale of a few squalid characters on the fringes of commerce. Trading with the French involved the most powerful New York City families who employed every legal and political device in their power to bring prosperity to their city and untold wealth to individuals. The author's strong narrative of spies, street riots, court room dramas, political intrigue, maritime rendezvous in quiet coves, high seas seizures, ruthless merchants and powerful politicians who misused and abused the law, makes for riveting reading. The author is a senior lecturer in the history department at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and member of the Irish Studies faculty at New York University. This is his third book on the topic of Irish American trade in the eighteenth century, which gives his account a certain authority. Aside from the several helpful maps for which this reader is grateful, the strength of the book lies in Truxes's balanced portrayal of often unsavory merchants who hid their greed and illegal activity under long practiced 'salutary neglect' and demands for equal treatment under British commercial law. In the eighteenth century, war did not automatically interrupt commerce between belligerents. Although the British government sought to deprive the French of material resources to pursue the war, New York merchants viewed any commercial exchange with the enemy as a normal feature of war. Moreover, high returns, conniving of officials, lax enforcement of customs regulations, lawlessness on the high seas, and the rights of civilians versus those of combatants all made for much confusion at the best of times. Free flowing international trade had been the norm for centuries [End Page 948] as witnessed by the Dutch islands of Saint Eustatius and Curaçao, the Spanish port of Monte Christi on the island of Hispaniola, and the tradition of officially authorized, but privately financed, fags of truce or exchange cartels sailing directly into enemy ports. The Atlantic economies of French and British belligerents had long been inextricably linked, and British courts upheld French property rights in wartime. Business was business. If there is a weakness, it is less the book's focus on the merchants of colonial New York than the lack of a larger context for their activities. Although they may have been the largest colonial group to trade with the enemy--one would like to see some evidence for the claim--they were not alone. Others merchants from Boston, Newport, New London and Philadelphia appear only incidentally in this book, and those from Annapolis and Charleston are not mentioned at all. Yet, they all actively traded with the enemy. Until their story is told, Defying Empire will remain a very important contribution to understanding the central role of trade and commerce in the growing disaffection of America from Great Britain during the run up to the War of Independence. The author is to be congratulated on his achievement. Readers are encouraged to enjoy this book. James Pritchard Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada Copyright © 2009 Society for Military History

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