Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

8
Religion and Trade: The Van der Smissen Networks
from the Late Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth
Century
FRANK HATJE
Networks: Religious, Commercial, Cosmopolitan
‘The Bearers Mess. Henry & Jacob Gilbert van der Smissen Persons of
great Reputation at Altona who are travelling in order to see their
Correspondents, in the Way of Trade, I earnestly recommand [sic] as
Fellow travellers & Pilgrims towards the heavenly Zion to all my
Christian friends, Every Favour and Civility shewn or done to them,
I shall look upon as done for the sake of our common Lord.’ 1 This letter
of recommendation was signed by George Whitefield, one of the
pivotal figures in English evangelicalism and, alongside John
Wesley, a prominent Methodist. Hinrich III and Jacob Gysbert van
This essay has grown out of a larger research project on the networks of what
Hartmut Lehmann once called ‘the Pietist international’, created between the
late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries by migration and transfers,
in which Protestant minorities and their networks played a predominant
part. Neither the project as a whole nor the case study of the van der Smissen
family on which it is based are yet complete. This may account for any shortcomings.
However, I am indebted to numerous scholars for their practical
sup port and many stimulating conversations. In particular, I should like ex -
press my gratitude to Margrit Schulte Beerbühl, Andreas Gestrich, Klaus
Weber, Stefan Manz, Ulrike Kirchberger, and John R. Davis.
1 Staatsarchiv Hamburg (hereafer StAHH), 424–88/50, no. 4, ‘Reisetagebuch
Hinrich van der Smissen’, 5 July 1767. The letter is dated 15 Apr. 1767.
Extracts from the diaries have been translated from the original Dutch into
German and published in Matthias H. Rauert and Annelie Kümpers-Greve,
Van der Smissen: Eine mennonitische Familie vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte
Altonas und Schleswig-Holsteins, Texte und Dokumente (Hamburg, 1992), 207.
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