Title
Atlantic Intersections: Early American Commerce and the Rise of the Spanish West Indies (Cuba)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2005
Abstract
An Atlantic approach to the history of early American trade challenges traditional British opinions and, indeed, much Anglo-American scholarship regarding the commercial prospects of the new United States. Contemporary Spanish observations, in contrast to the more familiar and widely cited ones in English, correctly predicted the post-Revolutionary War integration of American and Spanish imperial markets. As political, diplomatic, and economic upheavals broke down the old mercantilist system, U.S. merchants quickly succeeded in exploiting their comparative advantage in the expanding Atlantic economy. The debate over the "decline" of the British West Indies is amplified by examining the concurrent "rise" of the Spanish West Indies, particularly Cuba, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Identifier
10.2307/25097114
Publisher
The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Repository Citation
Salvucci, L.K. (2005). Atlantic intersections: Early American commerce and the rise of the Spanish west Indies (Cuba). Business History Review, 79(4), 781-809. doi: 10.2307/25097114
Publication Information
Business History Review