So Great a Proffi t So Great a Proffi t HOW THE EAST INDIES TRADE TRANSFORMED ANGLO- AMERICAN CAPITALISM JAMES R. FICHTER HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, Eng land 2010 Copyright © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Fichter, James R. So great a proffi t : how the East Indies trade transformed Anglo- American capitalism / James R. Fichter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 05057- 0 (alk. paper) 1. United States— Commerce—Asia. 2. Asia—Commerce—United States. 3. United States— Foreign economic relations— Great Britain. 4. Great Britain—F oreign economic relations— United States. 5. Capitalism—United States— History. I. Title. HF3118.F53 2010 382.0973'05—dc22 2009050549 Dedicated to my father, the wisest man I know The American commerce to the East, will ere long rival En gland. —Independent Chronicle, Boston, MA, 1796 Contents Introduction 1 1 Revolution 7 2 America Sails East 31 3 Commerce in a World at War 56 4 America’s Re- export Boom 82 5 Merchant Millionaires 111 6 Beyond the British Empire 149 7 The India Trade 173 8 America’s China and Pacifi c Trade 205 9 Death of the India Monopoly 232 10 American Capital and Corporations 252 Conclusion 278 Archival Sources 291 Abbreviations 293 Notes 295 Acknowledgments 373 Index 375