Connecting the Kingdom: Captains' Discretion, Conversation, and Partnership in the Transatlantic Tobacco Trade, 1720-1776

Connecting the Kingdom argues that during the eighteenth century a ship captain’s role transformed from auxiliary businessman to interpreter of the Atlantic. Tobacco trading captains, often men from modest backgrounds, coordinated market activities between Chesapeake planters and agents and British merchants. Their privileged position in the transatlantic network allowed them to broker the market information tobacco trading firms needed to increase efficiency. Their transatlantic conversations also forged and reinforced a mercantile culture characterized by profit motivation, respect for the terms of partnerships, and valuing time and information.