1 For the British metropole, for example, see Stern, Philip J., The company-state: corporate sovereignty and the early modern foundations of the British empire in India, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 6, 10–14; Carson, Penelope, The East India Company and religion, 1698–1858, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2012 Google Scholar, esp. pp. 1–33; Phillips, C. H., The East India Company, 1784–1835 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1961)Google Scholar.

2 This article uses the word ‘transnational’ to indicate trans-state phenomena. Furber, Holden, Rival empires of trade in the Orient, 1600–1800, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1976, pp. 221–226 Google Scholar, offers an early transnational take on the European metropole.

3 van Dillen, J. G., Poitras, Geoffrey, and Majithia, Asha, ‘Isaac Le Maire and the early trading in Dutch East India Company shares’, in Geoffrey Poitras, ed., Pioneers of financial economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing House, 2006 Google Scholar, vol. 1, Contributions prior to Irving Fisher, pp. 45–63; Heijer, Henk den, De geoctrooieerde compagnie: de VOC en de WIC als interlopers van naamloze vennnootschap (The chartered company: the VOC and the WIC as limited company interlopers, Deventer: Kluwer, 2005, pp. 34–45 Google Scholar, 95–107.

4 Goldgar, Ann, Tulipmania: money, honor, and knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 217–229 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Den Heijer, Geoctrooieerde compagnie, pp. 78–80.

5 See Georges-Henri Dumont, L’épopée de la compagnie d’Ostende 1723–1727, Brussels: Le Cri, 2000, pp. 18–28; Koninckx, Christian, The first and second charters of the Swedish East India Company (1731–1766): a contribution to the maritime, economic and social history of north-western Europe in its relationships with the Far East, Kortrijk: Van Ghemmert Publishing, 1980, pp. 39–55 Google Scholar, 69–108; Schui, Florian, ‘Prussia’s “trans-oceanic moment”: the creation of the Prussian Asiatic Trade Company in 1750’, Historical Journal, 49, 1, 2006, pp. 143–160 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This article treats Denmark’s Dansk Asiatisk Compagni (henceforth DAC) and the Compagnie perpétuelle des Indes as restructurings of immediate, seventeenth-century-origin predecessors. See Feldbæk, Ole, ‘The Danish trading companies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, 34, 3, 1986, p. 208 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henry Weber, ‘La compagnie françaises des Indes’, PhD thesis, University of Paris, 1904, pp. 426–51.

6 See below for credit and capital’s roles in the SOIC, GIC, and KPAC.

7 Furber, Rival empires, pp. 227–9.

8 Mentz, Søren, The English gentleman merchant at work: Madras and the city of London 1660–1740, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2005, pp. 19–21 Google Scholar, 73–108, 129–32, 160–62; Nierstrasz, Chris., In the shadow of the company: the Dutch East India Company and its servants in the period of its decline (1741–1796), Leiden: Brill, 2012, pp. 79–87 Google Scholar; Trivellato, Francesca, The familiarity of strangers: the Sephardic diaspora, Livorno, and cross-cultural trade in the early modern period, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 238–250 Google Scholar.

9 For locale, see Giddens, Anthony, The constitution of society: outline of the theory of structuration, Cambridge: Polity, 2013, pp. 118–198 Google Scholar.

10 Abulafia, David, ‘Introduction: what is the Mediterranean?’, in David Abulafia, ed., The Mediterranean in history, Los Angeles, CA: Getty Publications, 2003, p. 17 Google Scholar.

11 Mulich, Jeppe, ‘Micro-regionalism and intercolonial relations: the case of the Danish West Indies, 1730–1830’, Journal of Global History, 8, 1, 2013, pp. 74–77 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 84–92.

12 To see how coalitions of networks – the building blocks of a commercial commons – did this, see Trivellato, Familiarity of strangers, pp. 153–69, 177–93, 238–50.

13 For vernacular economic practices, see Pope, Peter, Fish into wine: the Newfoundland Plantation in the seventeenth century, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, pp. 30–32 Google Scholar.

14 Nierstrasz, Chris., Rivalry for trade in tea and textiles: the English and Dutch East India Companies (1700–1800), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 20–53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, powerfully critiques the state of the field.

15 Antunes, Cátia and Polónia, Amélia, ‘Introduction’, in Cátia Antunes and Amélia Polónia, eds., Beyond empires: global, self-organizing, cross-imperial networks, Leiden: Brill, 2016, pp. 1–11 Google Scholar. Cf. Trivellato, Familiarity of strangers.

16 Nils Hybel, ‘The grain trade in northern Europe before 1350’, Economic History Review, n.s. 55, 2, 2002, pp. 219–47; Robert K. Bartlett, The making of Europe: conquest, colonization, and cultural change, 950–1350, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 167–82, 191–6; van Tielhof, Milja, The ‘mother of all trades’: the Baltic grain trade in Amsterdam from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, Leiden: Brill, 2002 Google Scholar; Flynn, Dennis O. and Giráldez, Arturo, ‘Cycles: global economic unity through the mid-eighteenth century’, Journal of World History, 13, 2, 2002, pp. 407–411 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 On merchant guilds and privileged ports, see below.

18 Israel, Jonathan I., Empires and entrepôts: the Dutch, the Spanish monarchy and the Jews, 1585–1713, London: Hambledon Press, 1990 Google Scholar), esp. pp. 394–6, 435–6, 440–3; Henry Kamen, Spain in the later seventeenth century, 1665–1700, London: Longman Group Ltd., 1983, pp. 116–19, 131–40; Weber, Klaus, Deutsche Kaufleute im Atlantikhandel 1680–1830: Unternehmen und Familien in Hamburg, Cádiz und Bordeaux, Munich: C.H. Beck Verlag, 2004, pp. 87–111 Google Scholar; Flynn and Giráldez, ‘Cycles’, pp. 403–11; Trivellato, Familiarity of strangers, pp. 5–6.

19 This argument builds on ideas in Rönnbäck, Klas, ‘New and old peripheries: Britain, the Baltic, and the Americas in the great divergence’, Journal of Global History, 5, 3, 2010, pp. 378–386 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. Pomeranz, Kenneth, The great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, pp. 211–251 Google Scholar, 253–60, 261–74. For London and Ostend, see Carruthers, Bruce G., City of capital: politics and markets in the English financial revolution, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 137–9, 146–151Google Scholar; Serruys, Michael-W., ‘Oostende en de Generale Indische Compagnie (Ostend and the Generale Indische Compagnie)’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis (Journal of Maritime History), 24, 2005, p. 43 Google Scholar.

20 Cheng, Weichung, War, trade and piracy in the China Seas (1622–1683), Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 24Google Scholar, 33–4, 45–6, 57–8, 66–71, 76, 80–100; Cheong, Weng Eang, The hong merchants of Canton: Chinese merchants in Sino-Western trade, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997, pp. 26–35 Google Scholar; On the mercantile coalitions, see the section ‘Institutionalizing capital, credit, and information culture in the South China Sea metropolitan locale, c.1670–1750’ below.

21 Blussé, Leonard, Strange company: Chinese settlers, mestizo women and the Dutch in Batavia, Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1986, pp. 73–75 Google Scholar, 77–84; Souza, George Bryan, The survival of empire: Portuguese trade and society in China and the South China Sea 1630–1754, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 20–29 Google Scholar.

22 For details, see the next two sections. On the ports’ recruiting and managing of mercantile labour, see esp. Blussé, Strange company, p. 77–80; van Dyke, Paul A., The Canton trade: life and enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2007, pp. 5–18 Google Scholar; Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 29–33; Souza, Survival of empire, p. 20.

23 Ward, Kerry, Networks of empire: forced migration in the Dutch East India Company, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 6 Google Scholar.

24 Furber, Rival empires, pp. 227–9, 307–9, 314–18; Nierstrasz., In the shadow, pp. 13–14, 21–3, 27–30; Mentz, English gentleman merchant, pp. 15–16, 19–40, 109–16, 154–7, 159–213. Cf. Sanjay Subramanyam, The political economy of commerce: southern India, 1500–1650, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 252–97.

25 For these ports’ commodity access, see van Dyke, Paul A., Merchants of Canton and Macao: politics and strategies in eighteenth-century Canton, Hong Kong: HKU Press, 2011, pp. 7–8 Google Scholar, 14–16; Blussé, Strange company, pp. 74, 83; Jean Gelman Taylor, The social world of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia, 2nd edn, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, p. 11. On their centrality to East Indies commerce c.1680–1750, see Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 251–2; Souza, Survival of empire, pp. 63–86; Atsushi, Ota, Changes of regime and social dynamics in West Java: society, state and the outer world of Banten, 1750–1830, Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 117–124 Google Scholar.

26 Frederic Delano Grant, ‘The Chinese cornerstone of modern banking: the Canton guaranty system and origins of bank deposit insurance, 1780–1933’, PhD thesis, University of Leiden, 2012, pp. 26–30; van Dyke, Canton trade, pp. 150–1.

27 Blussé, Strange company, p. 83.

28 For general remarks on key dynamics, see Hellyer, Robert I., Defining engagement: Japan and global contexts, 1640–1868, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 79–83 Google Scholar; Flynn and Giráldez, ‘Cycles’, pp. 396–420.

29 Paul Hallberg and Christian Koninckx, eds., A passage to China: Colin Campbell’s diary of the first Swedish East India Company expedition to Canton, 1732–33, Gothenburg: Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, 1996, pp. xxi–xxii.

30 Ibid., pp. 99–102, 107–9, 111–15, 123–4, 129–30, 133–4, 141.

31 Ibid., pp. 99, 110.

32 Gill, Conrad, Merchants and mariners of the 18th century, London: Edward Arnold, 1961, pp. 111–114 Google Scholar.

33 Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 98–102. See also Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 246–8, 251–7, 261–2, who argues that Canton needed better auditing and securitizing of debts.

34 Commodity leveraging occurs where market actors cannot adequately securitize debt. Key commodities then become the trust-building medium attracting the capital and credit needed for transactions. In the South China Sea metropolitan locale, the relative value of East Indies trade goods and lack of public credit and capital markets created this situation, but commodity leveraging arose in other cases. For example, in the credit system of the fur-trading companies, furs became the trust-building medium. See Morantz, Toby, ‘“So evil a practice”: a look at the debt system in the James Bay fur trade’, in Rosemary E. Ommer, ed., Merchant credit and labour strategies in historical perspective, Fredericton, New Brunswick: Acadiensis Press, 1990, pp. 205–209 Google Scholar.

35 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 16–21, 38–44, 57–61. Van Dyke does not refer to commodity leveraging, but he acknowledges its legitimacy, as did the hong merchants he studies.

36 Grant, ‘Chinese cornerstone’, pp. 26–30; Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 26–37, 128–31; van Dyke, Canton trade, pp. 150–1; van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 7–10.

37 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 31–3.

38 In discussing these findings in this and the next paragraph, I rely chiefly on Cheong, Hong merchants; van Dyke, Merchants; van Dyke, Canton trade; and Souza, Survival of empire.

39 Van Dyke, Merchants, p. 80; van Dyke, Canton trade, p. 150; Karel Degryse and Jan Parmentier, ‘Kooplieden en kapiteins: een prosopografische studie van de kooplieden, supercargo’s en scheepsofficieren van de Oostendse handel op Oost-Indië en Guinea (1716–1732) (Merchants and captains: a prosopographical study of the merchants, supercargoes and ships’ officers of the Ostend trade to the East Indies and Guinea (1716–1732))’, in Christian Koninckx, Vlamingen oversee/Flamands en outré-mer/Flemings overseas, Brussels: Wetenschappelijk Comité voor Maritieme Geschiedenis/Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, 1995, p. 186; Gill, Merchants, pp. 111–16.

40 Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 254–5; van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 16–21, 50–1; van Dyke, Canton trade, pp. 154–9; Souza, Survival of empire, pp. 128–32, 172–3, 184–6, 194–5, 197–8, 200, 205–6.

41 Van Dyke, Canton trade, pp. 151–4; Souza, Survival of empire, pp. 20–2, 25–9, 173, 184–93.

42 My characterization of Batavia as a dual enclave relies on Blussé, Strange company, pp. 74, 80–4; Taylor, Social world, pp. 4–11; Antunes and Polónia, ‘Introduction’, p. 1.

43 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 73–4.

44 Alexander Hamilton, A new account of the East Indies, vol. 2, Edinburgh: John Mosman, 1727, pp. 77–82, 89–93, 119–22, 128–44, 149–50, 158–9, 208–11, 296–7, 302–5, 308–9.

45 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 74, 83; Taylor, Social world, pp. 6, 9–11.

46 Blussé, Strange company, p. 83; Taylor, Social world, pp. 5, 9–11.

47 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 80, 125–7; Cheng, War, pp. 24, 33–4, 45–6, 57–8, 66–71, 76, 80–100; Nierstrasz., Rivalry, pp. 74–81; Souza, Survival of empire, pp. 128–56. Based on their role, I describe the Chinese as country traders, enabling a comparison of Batavia with Canton and Macau and other parts of Asia involved with East India companies. See, e.g., South Asian traders’ interactions with British country traders, as described in Mentz, English gentleman merchant, pp. 33–8.

48 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 80, 129–30; Souza, Survival of empire, pp. 128–56; Cheng, War, pp. 51–5, 57–8, 71, 91–5, 105.

49 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 83, 126, 136–7; Taylor, Social world, p. 11.

50 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 94–96, 140–53; Leonard Blussé, ‘One hundred weddings and many more funerals a year: Chinese civil society in Batavia at the end of the eighteenth century’, in Leonard Blussé and Chen Menghong, eds., The archives of the Kong koan of Batavia, Leiden: Brill, 2003, pp. 14–16; Nierstrasz., In the shadow, pp. 79–87.

51 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 24–8; Blussé, Strange company, pp. 140–51.

52 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 83, 105; Taylor, Social world, p. 10.

53 Blussé, Strange company, pp. 123–6, 141–2.

54 Ibid., pp. 81–3, 125; Taylor, Social world, p. 10; Realia: register op de generale resolutiën van het kasteel Batavia. 1632–1805 (Realia: register to the general resolutions of Batavia Castle. 1632–1805), vol. 1, Aanbestedingen tot en met hijpothequen (‘aanbestedingen [tenders put out]’ to ‘hijpothequen [mortgages]’), Leiden: G. Kolff, 1882, p. 306.

55 Nieuhof, Johan, Joan Nieuhofs Zee en Lant-Reize door verscheide Gewesten van OOSTINDIEN… (Joan Nieuhof’s sea and land journey through several regions of the East Indies…), Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1682, p. 219 Google Scholar; Blussé, Strange company, p. 81, states that Chinese representation on the College van Schepenen ended in 1666.

56 Grant, ‘Chinese cornerstone’, pp. 30–4.

57 Van Dyke, Canton trade, p. 11; thanks to my colleague Wensheng Wang for help with the term baoshangren.

58 Van Dyke, Canton trade, pp. 10–13; van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 81–2, 525–6; ; Grant, ‘Chinese cornerstone’, p. 28; Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, p. 110; Hosea Ballou Morse, The chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635–1834, vol. 1, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929, pp. 154–9, 175, 177, 181–2, 189–92, 194–7.

59 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 177–8.

60 Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 110, 117–22, 136–41, 144–6.

61 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 32–4.

62 Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 109, 1245, 156–9; van Dyke, Merchants, p. 81.

63 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 54–5, 529.

64 Realia, pp. 157–67.

65 Van Dyke, Merchants, p. 538.

66 Cf. van Dyke, p. 114.

67 Fazakerly is listed as such in The National Archives, Kew, UK (henceforth TNA), IOR/G/12/28, Diary and consultations of the Council in China for 1729 (n.d.), 6 Dec 1728–17 May 1730, at Canton June 1729–January 1730. Tan Suqua and his Chinese names are in van Dyke, Merchants, p. 79.

68 British Library (henceforth BL), IOR/B/61, court minutes of the East India Company 1730–32, Tan Hunqua and Tan Chinqua, memorial to the Court of Directors of the BEIC, 31 December 1729, as quoted in van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 105–6. I use the term ‘memorial’ to capture the communication’s formality.

69 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 111–12, 113–14. Cf. Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 137–8.

70 Van Dyke, Merchants, p. 105; Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, p. 142.

71 For Tan Hunqua’s first memorial, see BL, IOR/B/61, court minutes of the East India Company 1730–32, Tan Hunqua and Chinqua, memorial to the Court of Directors of the BEIC, 22 November 1729, as quoted in van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 106–7. For Campbell, see Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, p. 142.

72 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 111–12.

73 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 188–91, 205. Tan Hunqua’s release date of 5 October is based on his later claim of being under arrest for twelve days.

74 Ibid., p. 189.

75 Van Dyke, Merchants, p. 105; Morse, Chronicles, p. 202.

76 Tan Hunqua and Tan Chinqua, memorial, 22 November 1729. For the BEIC ranks of those involved, see TNA, IOR/E/3/104, letter book 21, fols. 142v–149, orders and instructions to William Fazakerley, Henry Talbot, Waldo Dubois, John Tucker, Samuel Skinner, Abraham Wessell, and Manning Lethieullier, Council for China [for 1729]; TNA, IOR/E/3/104, letter book 21, fol. 159v.

77 Tan Hunqua and Tan Chinqua, memorial, 31 December 1729.

78 For the quote, see Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, p. 142. For van Dyke’s account, see van Dyke, Merchants, p. 105.

79 Morse, Chronicles, p. 195; the quote is from the 1729 BEIC supercargoes’ letter to the Court of Directors.

80 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 191–2, 197–8, 209. The new, then still temporary, fuyuan appointed Zu Binggui as Hoppo late in the 1728 season.

81 Van Dyke, Merchants, p. 108. On the Hoppo’s knowledge of the 1729 letters to the BEIC directorate, see van Dyke, Merchants, p. 84; Morse, Chronicles, pp. 198, 202–5; Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, p. 142.

82 Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 98 (and n. 185), 101, 104, 108, 123, 126, 154, 156–7, 173; van Dyke, Merchants, p. 113.

83 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 108–12; Morse, Chronicles, p. 211; Cheong, Hong merchants, p. 137.

84 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 108–9, 111, 114.

85 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 202–3, 209–10, 217, 235–6; Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 141–3. TNA, C 11/82/9, The United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies v. William Fazakerley esq., Henry Talbot esq, Waldo Dubois, John Tucker, Samuel Skinner, Manning Lethieullier, Abraham Wessell, 1730; TNA, C 11/257/1, East India Company v. Naish, 1734.

86 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 235–6; Cheong, Hong merchants, pp. 35, 137. The petition’s outcome is unknown.

87 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 211, 217; Hallberg and Koninckx, Passage to China, pp. 109–11, 141–3; van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 112–13.

88 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 217, 232–3, 255, 257–9, 270–1; van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 86–7.

89 Morse, Chronicles, pp. 247–53, 259–60; cf. van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 89–90, 113–16, 120, who sees Tan Hunqua as having failed completely and leaving the trade unwillingly.

90 Van Dyke, Merchants, pp. 29–30. Based on a tax on a shifting basket of commodities in which merchants dealt that included tea known as the consoo, the consoo fund, held in a coffer in the merchants’ guild hall, provided monies to cover the costs of hong merchant bankruptcies, as well as certain fees and charges that merchants had to pay.

91 Furber, Rival empires, pp. 186–7, 195, 221–6, 211–16, 218–26; Barrie Crosbie, Irish imperial networks: migration, social communication and exchange in nineteenth-century India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 34–63; Wilbert Harold Dalgliesh, ‘The Perpetual Company of the Indies in the days of Dupleix: its administration and organization for the handling of Indian commerce, 1722–1754’, PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1933, p. 167.

92 Nierstrasz., In the shadow, pp. 73–88; Anthony Webster, Gentlemen capitalists: British imperialism in Southeast Asia, 1770–1890, London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1998, pp. 40–2.

93 Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm (henceforth KB), D.903, Stråles avskrift samling, 1, bd. 4o, ‘Ostindiska kompaniet. Handlingar rörande det Ostindiska Compagniet 1730–1738. Avskr. I: historiska och politiska handlingar huvudsakligen från förra hälften av Frihetstiden (The East India Company. Acts touching the East India Company 1730–1738. MS Copy I: historical and political acts chiefly from the first half of the Age of Freedom)’ (henceforth D.903), ‘Cancellie-Collegii Utlåtande till Kongl. Majt in Ostindiska Compagniet (Board of Chancery statement to the Royal Majesty on the East India Company)’, 3 July 1730. Cf. Koninckx, First and second charters, pp. 39–43.

94 KB, D.903, ‘Commercie Collegium, Stockholm (Board of Trade, Stockholm)’, 29 May 1730.

95 Magnusson, Lars, An economic history of Sweden, London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 61–69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Müller, Leos, ‘“Merchants” and “gentlemen” in eighteenth-century Sweden’, in Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan, eds., Self-perception of early modern capitalists, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 125–129 Google Scholar. The Hat Party was Sweden’s pro-trade party in this era.

96 KB, D.903, ‘Commercie Collegium, Stockholm’, 29 May 1730. The original reads: ‘inlockas att sig här i Riket nedsättia sådant främmande folk, som stor förmögenhet äga’.

97 Ibid.

98 Magnusson, Economic history, pp. 57–9.

99 KB, D.903, ‘Secrete Handels och Manufactur Deputionens Memorial, angående den Ostindiske Handeln (Secret trade and manufactures deputation’s memorial concerning the East Indies trade)’, 30 April 1731.

100 I exclude the Compagnie perpétuelle des Indes (1719–69) here. Solely state-controlled through competing French ministries, its investors had a modest role. See Weber, ‘Compagnie’, pp. 426–51.

101 Furber, Rival empires, pp. 213–14 and 365, n. 73; van Bochove, Christiaan, Economic consequences of the Dutch: economic integration around the North Sea 1500–1800 (close encounters with the Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008, pp. 98–101 Google Scholar, 137–8; Feldbæk, ‘Danish trading companies’, pp. 207–9.

102 Ring, Viktor, Asiatische Handlungscompagnien Friedrichs des Grossen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des preussischen Seehandels und Aktiewesens, Berlin: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 1890, p. 113 Google Scholar. This calculation counts two of the company’s Emden-based but recently immigrated directors as foreign.

103 Ibid., pp. 79–93.

104 Weber, ‘Compagnie’, pp. 240–4.

105 KB, D.903, ‘Secrete Handels och Manufactur Deputionens Memorial’.

106 Furber, Rival empires, pp. 189–90; Walsh, Patrick, The South Sea Bubble and Ireland: money, banking, and investment, 1690–1720, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2014, pp. 60–63 Google Scholar; Neal, Larry, ‘The Dutch and the English East India Companies compared: evidence from the stock and foreign exchange markets’, in James D. Tracy, ed., The rise of merchant empires: long-distance trade in the early modern world, 1350–1750, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 213 Google Scholar.

107 On this, see the introduction.

108 Swedish- and Danish-imported teas comprised 25–35% of teas reaching European markets via Guangzhou through 1780. Dermigny, La Chine et l’occident, Paris: SEVPEN, 1964, vol. 2, p. 539, as cited in Leos Müller, ‘The Swedish East India trade and international markets, 1731–1813’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, 51, 3, 2003, p. 35.

109 Jacks, David S., ‘Market integration in the North and Baltic Seas, 1500–1800’, Journal of Economic History, 33, 3, 2004, pp. 301–313 Google Scholar, 329; Lindemann, Mary, The merchant republics: Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, 1648–1790, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 277, 287–309CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spooner, Frank C., Risks at sea: Amsterdam insurance and maritime Europe, 1766–1780, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 42–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 50–86.

110 Koninckx, First and second charters, pp. 35–6; Adams, Julia, The familial state: ruling families and merchant capitalism in early modern Europe, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005, pp. 49–63 Google Scholar; Stern, Company-state, pp. 3–60; Feldbæk, ‘Danish trading companies’, pp. 206–9.

111 Barton, Hildor Arnold, Scandinavia in the revolutionary era: 1760–1815, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986, p. 13 Google Scholar; Brenner, Robert, Merchants and revolution: commercial change, political conflict, and London’s overseas traders, 1550–1653, London: Verso, 2003, pp. 3–4 Google Scholar, 51, 61–79, 82–9; Carruthers, City of capital, pp. 137–9, 146–151; Ring, Asiatische Handlungscompagnien, pp. 71–80; Serruys, ‘Oostende’, pp. 45–9; Johan Matthijs de Jonge, ‘Shareholder activists avant la lettre: the “complaining participants” in the Dutch East India Company, 1622–1625’, in Jonathan G. S. Koppell, ed., Origins of shareholder advocacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 63–5, 77–81; Stern, Company-state, pp. 3–10.

112 Koninckx, First and second charters, pp. 38–40, 43–7, 56–7. Marstrand, Helsinki, and Strömstad also became SOIC staple ports.

113 See, for example, Ring, Asiatische Handlungscompagnien, pp. 79–80, 84–5, 87–8, 91, 102, 111–27; Serruys, ‘Oostende’, pp. 45–9, 52–3.

114 Reid, W. Stanford, ‘The Scots and the Staple Ordinance of 1313’, Speculum, 34, 4, 1959, pp. 598–610 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hanno Brand, ‘Habsburg and Hanseatic diplomacy during the Sound controversy of 1532’, in Hanno Brand and Leos Müller, eds., The dynamics of economic culture in the North Sea and Baltic region in the late middle ages and early modern period, Hilversum: Verloren, 2007, pp. 104–20; Erik Lindberg, ‘Merchant guilds and urban growth in the Baltic Sea area, 1650–1850’, in ibid., pp. 50–61; Müller, Leos, The merchant houses of Stockholm, c.1640–1800: a comparative study of early modern entrepreneurial behaviour, Uppsala: Uppsala University Library, 1998, pp. 43–48 Google Scholar.

115 Lindberg, ‘Merchant guilds’, pp. 47–9.

116 Conspicuously, though understandably, absent were subjects of nearby Denmark-Norway, Sweden’s regional rival.

117 Murdoch, Steve and Grosjean, Alexia, ‘The Scottish community in seventeenth-century Gothenburg’, in Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch, eds., Scottish communities abroad in the early modern period, Leiden: Brill, 2005, pp. 191–192 Google Scholar.

118 Catterall, Douglas, ‘At home abroad: ethnicity and enclave in the world of Scots traders in northern Europe, c.1600–1800’, Journal of Early Modern History, 8, 3–4, 2005, p. 332 Google Scholar.

119 Lindberg, ‘Merchant guilds’, pp. 52–60; Hugo Fröding, Handelsföreningen i Göteborg, 1661–1911, Gothenburg: W. Zachrissons boktryckeri, 1911, pp. 206–24. Fröding’s list of members includes many known migrants to Gothenburg.

120 Catterall, ‘At home abroad’, pp. 328–36; Koninckx, First and second charters, pp. 307–8, 314, 335–41, 406–9; Magnusson, Economic history, p. 61.

121 Degryse and Parmentier, ‘Kooplieden en kapiteins’, pp. 122–32, 236–9; Gill, Merchants, pp. 101–9, 120–1; Koninckx, First and second charters, 51–3, 77–8, 287–90, 335–40; Parmentier, Jan, ‘The sweets of commerce: the Hennesys of Ostend and their network in the eighteenth century’, in David Dickson, Jan Parmentier, and Jane Ohlmeyer, eds., Irish and Scottish mercantile networks in Europe and overseas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ghent: Academia Press, 2007, pp. 70–74 Google Scholar and 86, n. 39.

122 Degryse and Parmentier, ‘Kooplieden en kapiteins’, pp. 122–32, 236–9; Jan Parmentier, Tea time in Flanders: the maritime trade between the Southern Netherlands and China in the 18th century, Ghent: Ludion, 1996, pp. 31–2; Jan Parmentier, De holle compagnie. smokkel en legale handel onder zuidnederlandse vlag in Bengalen, ca. 1720–1744 (The hollow company: smuggling and legal trade under the South Netherlands flag in Bengal, ca. 1720–1744), Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 1992, pp. 9–11; Jan Parmentier, ‘Irish mercantile empire builders in Ostend, 1690–1790’, in Thomas O’Connor and Mary Ann Lyons, eds., Irish communities in early modern Europe, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006, pp. 362–82, esp. 378 for company founder information; Berger, H., Überseeische Handelsbestrebungen und koloniale Pläne unter Friedrich dem Grosse, Leipzig: Buchhandlung Gustav Fock, 1899, pp. 106–107 Google Scholar; Ring, Asiatische Handlungscompagnien, pp. 79–80, 90–3, 97, 99–102, 104, 112, 115–16.

123 Kroes, Jochem, Chinese armorial porcelain for the Dutch market, Zwolle: Waanders, 2007, pp. 121–122 Google Scholar; Joor, Johan, ‘Consequences of the continental system for Amsterdam’, in Katherine B. Aaslestad and Johan Joor, eds., Revisiting Napoleon’s continental system: local, regional and European experiences (war, culture and society, 1750–1850), New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, p. 271 Google Scholar; Nierstrasz., In the shadow, pp. 172–3 and 252, n. 33.

124 David Hancock, Citizens of the world: London migrants and the integration of the British Atlantic community, 1735–1785, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 46–8, 218.

125 Carruthers, City of capital, pp. 146–51; Edda Frankot, ‘The practice of maritime law in the town courts of fifteenth-century northern Europe: a comparison’, in Brand and Müller, Dynamics, pp. 136–52; Mentz, English gentleman merchant, pp. 49–63; James Oldham, English common law in the age of Mansfield, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, pp. 93–105; Phillips, East India Company, pp. 23–4; Pierrick Pourchasse, ‘Dynamism and integration of the north European merchant communities in French ports in the eighteenth century,’ in Victor N. Zakharov, Gelina Harlaftis and Olga Katsiardi-Hering, eds., Merchant colonies in the early modern period, London: Routledge, 2015, pp. 45–60.

126 See, e.g., Spruyt, Hendrik, The sovereign state and its competitors, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 120–129 Google Scholar, although I eschew the construct of law merchant in what follows.

127 Wasastjerna, Oskar, ed., Ättar-taflor öfver den på Finlands riddarhus introducerade adeln (Genealogical tables of nobility introduced at Finland’s House of Nobility), Borgå: Utgifvarens förlag, 1879–83, vol. 2, p. 181 Google Scholar; Biografiskt lexikon öfver namnkunnige svenske män (Biographical dictionary of notable Swedish men), vol. 5, Stockholm: F & G. Beijers Förlag, 1875, pp. 146–7; Mauritz Hallberg, Minnespenningar öfver Enskilda Personer födda eller verksamma i Finland (Medals commemorative of singular individuals born or active in Finland), Helsingfors: utgifna af Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland, 1906, p. 65; Müller, Merchant houses, pp. 241–2; Müller, ‘Merchants’, pp. 125–46; Bedoire, Frederic and Tanner, Robert, The Jewish contribution to modern architecture, 1830–1990, Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, 2004, pp. 16–20 Google Scholar.

128 Riksarkivet, Stockholm, Diplomatica Hollandica (henceforth RA, DH), 1015, Consul Pierre Balguerie to the Kanslikollegium, 6/17 October 1752; Müller, Merchant houses, p. 285.

129 Müller, ‘Swedish East India trade’, p. 36. SOIC historiography actually describes these tea exports as re-exports.

130 James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Charles Irvine Correspondence (henceforth JFB, CIC), 1752a/57a, Pye & Cruikshank to Charles Irvine, 30 September 1752.

131 National Register of Archives Scotland, Edinburgh (henceforth NRAS), 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Pye & Cruikshank, 9 September 1752. Campbell and Sahlgren were the SOIC directors Colin Campbell and Niklas Sahlgren. The other two names are of substantial Gothenburg merchant houses.

132 Koninckx, First and second charters, pp. 272–4, 283–5.

133 Ibid., pp. 283–5, 543–4; Müller, ‘Swedish East India trade’, p. 36.

134 NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Pye & Cruikshank, 9 September 1752; Müller, Merchant houses, p. 242.

135 NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Pye & Cruikshank, 16 September 1752.

136 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to Chancery President Anders Johan von Höpken, 17/28 October 1752; Müller, Merchant houses, p. 242.

137 Müller, Merchant houses, p. 242.

138 NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Pye and Cruikshank, 9 September 1752; JFB, CIC, 1752b/81a, Arthur Abercromby to Irvine, 10 November 1752.

139 JFB, CIC, 1752b/60a, Abercromby to Irvine, 3 October 1752; NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Abercromby, 14 October 1752.

140 JFB, CIC, 1752b/61a, John Forbes to Irvine, 4 October 1752; NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Forbes, 14 October 1752.

141 NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Pye & Cruikshank, 9 September 1752; NRAS, 1500, Irvine of Drum, XXIII, Irvine to Charles Metcalfe, 10 October 1752.

142 RA, Diplomatica Germanica (henceforth DG), 876, Mikael Hising jnr to Consul J. F. König, 28 September 1752; RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to the Kanslikollegium, 22 September/3 October 1752; RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to [von Höpken], 20 January 1753.

143 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to the Kanslikollegium, 6/17 October 1752.

144 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to von Höpken, 17/28 October 1752.

145 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to the Kanslikollegium, 6/17 October 1752.

146 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to von Höpken, 17/28 October 1752.

147 RA, DG, Hising to König, 1 October 1752; RA, DG, Hising to König, 7 October 1752; RA, DG, Hising to König, 10 October 1752; RA, DG, Hising to König, 2 November 1752.

148 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to [von Höpken], 10/21 October 1752; RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to von Höpken, 17/28 October 1752; RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to [von Höpken], 20/31 October 1752; RA, DH, C Pierre Balguerie’s petition to the schout and schepenen of Amsterdam, 1 November 1752.

149 RA, DH, 1015, Balguerie to von Höpken, 17/28 October 1752; RA, DG, Hising to König, 2 November 1752.

150 Müller, Merchant houses, p. 242; Stig Jagersköld, ‘Gustaf III och bergsrådet Johan Hisinger: några dokument till belysning av krisen 1788–89 och Anjalaförbundet (Gustav III and Councillor of Mines Johan Hisinger: documents illuminating the crisis of 1788–89 and the Anjala League)’, Historisk Tidskrift för Finland (Historical Journal of Finland), 48, 1964, p. 140. A konkursakt or bankruptcy act in the Stockholm stadsarkiv contains details on the unwinding of Hising’s ‘position’ in teas.

151 Stig Jägerskiöld, ‘Mikael Hising’, in Svenskt biografiskt lexicon (Swedish biographical dictionary), vol. 19, s.v., as cited in Müller, Merchant houses, p. 242.; Stig Jägerskiöld, Från jaktslotten till landsflykten: nytt ljus över Carl Jonas Love Almqvists värld och diktning (From hunting estate to exile: new light on Carl Jonas Love Almqvist’s world and poetry), Stockholm: Bonniers, 1970, pp. 22, 120–1; Jagersköld, ‘Gustaf III’, pp. 140–56; ‘Hisinger, släkt (Hisinger, family)’, Svenskt biografiskt lexicon, http://www.nad.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/13612, (consulted 23 February 2013); RA, 721157, Mikael Hisings arkiv angående yllemanufakturen i Cahors 1771–1781 (Mikael Hising’s archive concerning wool manufacture in Cahors, 1771–1781).

152 Cf. Catterall, ‘At home abroad’; Müller, Merchant houses, pp. 241–5; Steve

Murdoch, Network north: Scottish kin, commercial, and covert associations in northern Europe, 1603–1746, Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 161–8, 193–202.