Fur, Fashion and Transatlantic Trade during the Seventeenth Century: Chesapeake Bay Native Hunters, Colonial Rivalries and London Merchants

305 Pages·2021·4.897 MB·English

by  John C. Appleby

FUR, FASHION AND TRANSATLANTIC
TRADE DURING THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY

FUR, FASHION AND
TRANSATLANTIC TRADE DURING
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
CHESAPEAKE BAY NATIVE HUNTERS, COLONIAL
RIVALRIES AND LONDON MERCHANTS
John C. Appleby
THE BOYDELL PRESS
© John C. Appleby 2021
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
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without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of John C. Appleby to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2021
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 78327 579 3 hardback
ISBN 978 1 78744 843 8 ePDF
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
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Cover image: Jodocus Hondius the Elder,‘Nova Virginiae Tabula’ from his
Atlas Major (1630), based on John Smith’s 1612 map of Virginia.
Image courtesy of Geographicus Rare Antique Maps via
Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain
Cover design: www.ironicitalics.com
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
A Note on Conventions vii
Abbreviations viii
Maps ix
Introduction 1
1 Fur and Fashion: The Infrastructure of a New Trade 13
2 Commerce and Colonization: The Emergence of the Fur Trade in
Chesapeake Bay 45
3 Trade and Rivalry: The Promise of Expansion and Innovation
during the 1630s 85
4 Trade, Rivalry and Conflict during a ‘Time of Troubles’ from
1640 to 1660 131
5 Commercial Change and Conflict: Contrasting Experiences after
1650 165
6 Trade, Consumption and Industry: Transatlantic Constraints on
the Bay Trade 205
Conclusion 241
Appendix 253
Select Bibliography of Works Consulted 255
Index 281
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I began work on this study many years ago, when I was able to benefit from
the advice and encouragement of Kenneth R. Andrews and David B. Quinn,
two scholars who towered over the field of early English expansion but who,
sadly, are no longer alive. I am particularly grateful for their support and
critical reading of early chapters, which have since been revised in the light of
recent publications and research. Though diverted by other work and commit-
ments, I presented papers on various aspects of the subject at the Institute
of Historical Research, London, the Posthumus Institute, the University of
Utrecht, and at Lock Haven University, Pennsylvania. I am grateful to the
organizers of these events, and to the participants, for their helpful comments
and questions. I was delighted to be able to speak on the Susquehannocks and
the fur trade, almost by the banks of the Susquehanna River, at Lock Haven,
and I am deeply grateful to Sandy Barney and her colleagues for the warm
welcome, and their kindness and hospitality. Scholarship is a shared activity
and, in using a wide and varied range of studies and sources, I have drawn
on the work of many scholars to whom I am indebted. I am very grateful to
the late Howard Todd for organizing a tour of Kent Island while I was a Taft
Fellow at the University of Cincinnati. I have benefited from the anonymous
reader’s report on an outline of this study, which gave me the opportunity to
refine and reconsider key aspects of it, and for subsequent comments on a draft
of the work itself. I have accumulated other debts to friends and colleagues
who have listened and commented on work in progress, passed on references,
and provided support at crucial moments. They include Stephen Behrendt,
Paul Dalton, Simon Hill, Janet Hollinshead, Fiona Pogson and Sonja Tiernan,
as well as the late Robert J. Hunter. In addition, I am indebted to Carol
Devine and her colleagues in the inter-library loan service at Liverpool Hope
University for their sterling work in procuring books and other material for
me, and to Sandra Mather for preparing the maps with such skill. It has been
a great pleasure to work with Boydell and Brewer, and I am very grateful to
Peter Sowden for his support, advice and patience.
A NOTE ON CONVENTIONS
I follow the common convention of using old-style English dates which were
slightly out of step with the new style adopted by many other European
countries after 1582. The start of the year is taken as 1 January. Quotations
are given in the original spelling, with some minor modifications, including
the expansion of abbreviations and contractions. To avoid unnecessary and
potentially tiresome repetition, throughout this study I have usually employed
the Bay as shorthand for the Chesapeake Bay. English currency is in pounds,
shillings and pence (£ s d), according to which 12 pence made up one shilling,
while 20 shillings were equivalent to one pound. Providing modern values for
money during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is difficult. There are
helpful guides to conversion rates at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-
converter and at www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/
inflation-calculator. According to the latter, goods or services valued at £2
(the cost of certain types of beaver hats) in 1600 would be worth £614 in 2019.
ABBREVIATIONS
APC Acts of the Privy Council
BL British Library, London
C Chancery
CO Colonial Office
CSPD Calendar of State Papers Domestic
CSPC Calendar of State Papers Colonial
Documents of Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the
New York State of New York
E Exchequer
HCA High Court of Admiralty
HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission
Force Peter Force (ed.), Tracts and Other Papers, Relating
Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of
the Colonies in North America, from the Discovery
of the Country to the Year 1776, 4 vols. (Washington,
1836–47)
MHM Maryland Historical Magazine
PC Privy Council
RVC Records of the Virginia Company of London
Smith, Works The Complete Works of Captain John Smith
(1580–1631)
SP State Papers
TNA The National Archives, Kew, London
VMHB Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
WMQ William and Mary Quarterly
Map 1. The North Atlantic