Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

Religion and Trade
mer chants ranked immediately after Britain and the Dutch Republic
in the Archangel trade throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, it is not unlikely that the route Archangel–Amsterdam was
introduced as a result of the van der Smissens’ relations with Men -
nonite merchants in Amsterdam. Dutch trade with Russian Arch -
angel was almost exclusively in the hands of Amsterdam’s Men non -
ite and Lutheran merchants. 69
From the start, business relations with the ports on the Frisian and
Dutch North Sea coast, such as Emden, Harlingen, Hoorn, Amster -
dam, and Rotterdam, understandably played a significant part. In the
diary Jacob Gysbert van der Smissen kept while travelling with his
cousin in 1766–8, he recorded everyone he met, everyone with whom
he had a cup of tea (mostly women), smoked a pipe (only men), and
shared a glass of wine. In fact, the two cousins spent most of their
time networking. They saw people whom Jacob Gysbert had met on
previous trips; relatives or friends functioned as intermediaries generating
new contacts; they paid visits to their fathers’ and grandfathers’
old friends (and business partners); and they were introduced
to friends of friends. These people can be grouped into three cat -
egories: relatives (mostly referred to as neef or nigt); Mennonites (un -
less referred to by their position as a minister, deacon, or elder, they
were given the attribute vrind, ‘friend’, or respectfully ‘a god-fearing
person’); and trade agents (correspondenten). These relations displayed
a great deal of stability. In Almelo the two cousins met
Johannes ten Caten and on this occasion it was remembered that their
grandfather, Hinrich I van der Smissen had stayed with ten Caten’s
grandfather some fifty years before. 70
Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Lon -
don was among the most important merchant cities in the van der
Smissen network. It is not known exactly when business relations
with English partners were established, but this might be connected
with the fact that Jacobus van der Smissen, a member of the Am ster -
edn. Altona, 1835; 2nd edn. Hamburg, 2006), esp. 356–8. From 1780 to 1806
Eschels was captain of the van der Smissens’ ship Henricus de Vierde.
69 J. M. Welcker, ‘Het dagelijks brood: De doopsgezinden, de economie en de
demografie’, in Groenveld, Jacopszoon, and Verheus (eds.), Wederdopers,
Menisten, 195–218, esp. 207–8.
70 ‘Reisetagebuch Jacob Gysbert van der Smissen’, 4 May 1766, cf. 6–7 May
1766.
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