Abstract
The St. Petersburg merchant who wrote these words was not specifically thinking of relations between England and Holland when he made this observation, but his sentiments would have been approved by those, from both countries, who were assisting each other in trade. In Russia, the beginnings of co-operation between the two communities can be found very early in the eighteenth century. That it was extremely beneficial to both groups is demonstrated by the fact that this mutual assistance continued throughout the century, being managed with increasing ease and confidence. The Russian link is, however, only one in a chain of mutually supportive and beneficial contacts by which English and Dutch merchants were able to enhance their trading activities. The hub of this network was the Amsterdam-London connection but it reached outwards from there to Russia in the East, North America in the West and southwards into the Mediterranean. Though this relationship began on a purely commercial basis, it developed as time passed with shared experience and background leading to a widening and deepening of contacts.
I wish to acknowledge the generosity of the Carnegie Trust in giving me the financial support which made this paper possible.
’We here... think it Obsinate & Vild to hear that any man in trade should not study his Corrispondents good, Espetially as it is a Mutuall service.’2
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References
Public Record Office (PRO), London, Chancery Masters Exhibits C.104/141, 4 February 1746 Alexander Cook, St. Petersburg, to William Heath, London.
The areas in which members of the Eastland and Russia Companies could trade were clearly differentiated and the Eastland Company operated in the ports from Narva westwards.
For details of English trade with Russia see PRO, Kew, London, Ledgers of the Inspector General, Imports and Exports (Customs 3), 1697–1780. Direct evidence of Dutch trade with Russia is unfortunately lacking but the calculation of the residual element in both the import and export trades from Russian and British trade statistics, from the 1740s, is highly suggestive of this relationship. On Russian trade statistics see N.L. Rubinstein, ‘Vneshnyaya torgovlya Rossii i Russkoe kupechestvo vo vtoroi polovine XVIIIv.’ In: Istoricheskie Zapiski, 54 (1955) pp.344–8, which is based on the original material in H. von Storch, Tableau Historique et Statistique de l’Empire de Russie (Paris, 1801) table 1.
Throughout the century there are references to loans by the Dutch to the English and there are details of bills drawn by English merchants in Russia on their agents in Amsterdam. See, for example, Gemeente Archiefdienst, Amsterdam, Brants Archief, PA.88/866, 10 April 1712 Jan Leeuw, Moscow, to David Leeuw, Amsterdam; PA.88/984 9 January 1718, Tobias Puytelingh, Archangel to David Leeuw; PA.88/1327, 27 April 1751, Levin, Hartwig, Schaub & Co., St. Petersburg to Jan Isaak de Neufville, Amsterdam; 10 November 1760, van Brouwe en Bagge, St. Petersburg to Jan Isaak de Neufville.
Figures for French imports from and exports to Russia from 1745–1789 are given in W. Kirchner, Commercial Relations between Russia and Europe 1400 to 1800 (Bloomington, 1966) pp. 164–7. These show that the balance of trade fluctuated widely up to the late 1760s, after which it became predominantly positive. As Professor Kirchner points out, these figures are calculated, until the late 1760s, from declarations made by merchants to the tax farmers and show great under-estimation when compared with estimates made by the French merchant, M. Godin at St. Petersburg. More efficient methods of calculation were used from about 1770 and the gap between these and Russian figures closed.
This does not mean that exports of specie ceased completely but resort was only made to this method of finance for government subsidies (as in 1748) and when adverse exchange rates made the drawing of bills very expensive. An example of the operation of this mechanism can be found in Graffin Prankard’s letters to Muilman and Sons, Amsterdam dated 30 March 1737, 18 June 1737 and 15 February 1738; Somerset Record Office (SRO), DD/DN 427. Exports of coin to Russia from London and the outports are listed in Customs 3.
SRO, DD/DN 424 24 August 1728 Graffin Prankard, Bristol, to Paul Jenys, Charleston; Cumbria Record Office (CRO), DX/524/1, 10 October 1739 Walter Lutwidge to Robert Harris, Rotterdam; West Register House, Edinburgh (WRH), CS.96/2250 19 October 1772 James Inglis, Edinburgh, to Daniel Crommelin & Sons, Amsterdam.
Such arrangements could only be made in ports where the customs officials were lenient and one of these was Newcastle upon Tyne. For examples of these procedures see Northumberland Record Office (NRO), Carr-Ellison (Hedgeley) MSS, ZCE.10/14, 21 August 1750 Ralph Carr, Newcastle, to Henry Lane; ZCE.10/16 6 September 1745 Ralph Carr to Edmund and Joshua Quincy, Boston; 8 November 1746, Ralph Carr to John Hodshon, Amsterdam. I am most grateful to Sir Ralph Carr-Ellison for allowing the temporary loan of these letter books to Edinburgh and to Mr. R.M. Gard, the County Archivist, NRO, and Dr. I. Rae, head of the Department of Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland for their co-operation in the transfer of the documents.
When English merchants sent their ships to Amsterdam they frequently left their ultimate destination at the discretion of their Dutch correspondents who would know the best market for the cargo they carried or where to pick up the return cargo they required: CRO, DX/524/1 10 July 1740 Walter Lutwidge, Whitehaven to Archibald Hamilton, Rotterdam. For confidential information about the reliability of merchant houses see: SRO DD/DN 428, 29 November 1738 Graffin Prankard, Bristol to Henry and Peter Muilman, London; NRO ZGE. 10/22, 1 February 1765 Ralph Carr to Hope & Company, Amsterdam. Dutch correspondents were also used as arbitrators in disputes: WRH CS.96/2250 9 August 1773 James Inglis, Edinburgh to Muilman & Sons, Amsterdam; GRO, DX/524/1, 29 September 1739 Walter Lutwidge to Molewater & Son, Rotterdam.
The two biggest bill-broking houses in Anglo-Dutch trade were the Hopes and the Cliffords. Both were founded by young English merchants who traded in Amsterdam and settled there permanently. Charles Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1941) pp. 65–9.
Gordon Jackson, Hull in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1972) p. 99. Links between Hull and the Netherlands were extremely close as this was a major port from which exports were despatched. It is common to find a member of Hull mercantile families established in each capital, dealing with orders and finance, while another member handled the shipping of goods from the home port — for example the Kirkby family, Hull University Library, DDSY/101, 2 March 1715 Christopher Kirkby to Benjamin Hay-ward, London.
The Amsterdam firm, Muilman and Sons, who acted as correspondents for many English merchants, established two sons, Henry and Peter, in England where they remained permanently. Perhaps the most successful of the Dutch colony in England were Gerard and Joshua van Neck who not only continued their mercantile activities in Europe and the East Indies, but were government financiers and underwriters. Joshua van Neck, who developed the financial side of the partnership, became a Governor of the Bank of England and was made a baronet in 1751, Wilson, op.cit., pp. 31, 74, 111–114.
Peter Muilman married Miss Chiswell, daughter of an old City of London family, and their son, Richard, who became his father’s partner, changed his name in 1772 to Trench Chiswell when he inherited Debden Hall in Essex from his uncle, Richard Chiswell. Wilson, op.cit., p. 115.
Many weddings between the English and Dutch communities are recorded in the Diocese of London, Foreign Registers, the British Factory in Russia 1706–1815, Guildhall, London, MS 11192B.
J.G. van Dillen, ‘Amsterdam marché mondial des métaux précieux au XVII et au XVIII siècle’. In: Revue Historique, 152 (1926) p. 199; J.C. Riley, International Government Finance and the Amsterdam Capital Market (Cambridge, 1980) chapter 2.
SRO DD/DN 426, 12 April 1735 Graffin Prankard to Muilman and Sons; Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh, 6/6/1 18 September 1746 British Linen Company Minute Book; WRH CS.96/1986 27 February 1776 Hunter and Smith, Leith, to Walter Shairp, London.
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Newman, K. (1983). Anglo-Dutch Commercial Co-operation and the Russia Trade in the Eighteenth Century. In: Wieringa, W.J. (eds) The Interactions of Amsterdam and Antwerp with the Baltic region, 1400–1800. Werken. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5952-6_11
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