Staying Afloat Risk And Uncertainty In Spanish Atlantic World Trade 17601820

Early modern, long-distance trade was fraught with risk and uncertainty, driving merchants to seek means to reduce them. In the traditional historiography on Spanish colonial trade, the role of risk is largely ignored. Instead, the guild (consulado) merchants are depicted as anti-competitive monopolists who manipulated markets and exploited colonial consumers. This book argues that much of the commercial behaviour interpreted by modern historians as predatory was instead designed to reduce the uncertainty and risk of Atlantic world trade.