View source for Discussion: Anglo/Dutch collaboration and conflict in 1H C17th Caribbean and Atlantic coast plantations

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==Discussion==

'''Colin Greenstreet'''

One topic which has surfaced from the material around the ship the ''Abraham'' (which provides two of the three account books we are looking at) is the nature of English plantation relations with the United Provinces. In the case of the ''Abraham'', this is specifically the nature of the Barbados/Middleburg trade in tobacco. But, generalising, we have the question of the nature of the tobacco trade involving Barbados, Saint Christophers and Virginia with the United Provinces.

I have made a start by documenting one case involving a ship named the ''Truelove'' of London, which in 1638 diverted Virginia tobacco to Rotterdam from its planned destination in London. Click [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tobacco_market_in_1H_C17th_London,_Middleburg_and_Rotterdam here] to see extracts from relevant depositions.

'''Michael Bennett'''

You're absolutely right to flag this as a key theme that emerges from the ''Abraham'' account books and correspondence, and I think it speaks more broadly to the depth of Anglo-Dutch collaboration in plantation enterprise in the early seventeenth century. Figures like Sir William Courteen typify this. 

But I'd encourage us not just to think about the imports of plantation commodities on English ships into the Low Countries, but also to think about how in this period English merchants used the Low Countries for sourcing provisions and manufactured goods to be exported to the plantation colonies for a profit. The importance of the plantation colonies as export markets for English merchants in the early seventeenth century - and the role of port towns in the Low Countries (and indeed the entire North Sea region) in the supply chain associated with this provisioning trade - needs much greater exploration I think. The HCA records can really help us understand this better.

'''Richard Blakemore'''

I do think this is a really interesting topic and one worth developing further, especially if it can link with the PP developments.

'''Lou Roper'''

This, to my mind, is an essential topic (at least, I hope it is 😬). The Zeelanders are particularly important and they 'pop up' everywhere (they also tended to be Orangist which adds another 'layer'). Tom Weterings, who works at Brill and with whom I have worked in a couple of 'scenarios', knows the Zeeland stuff pretty well and I would be glad to tap that knowledge.

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==Bibliography==

[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h3c9.9.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aef10caf49499aab7cfedd05db53e84f0 Christian J. Koot, 'Ch.3: Anglo-Dutch trade in the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, 1621-1733'], in Jessica V. Roitman (ed.), Dutch Atlantic Connections, 1680-1800: Linking Empires, Bridging Borders (Brill, 2014), pp.72-100

[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h3c9.20.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A7c1b43a98a2e9eb17c326b49e1ccf20c Alison Games, 'Ch.14: A Dutch moment in Atlantic historiography'], in Jessica V. Roitman (ed.), Dutch Atlantic Connections, 1680-1800: Linking Empires, Bridging Borders (Brill, 2014), pp.357-374