Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

CAROLYN DOWNS
teen letters that were sent directly to his brother Isaac in Antigua had
to go in the charge of the captain of a vessel sailing to the West Indies,
for the packet boat only called at Barbados and Jamaica. 31 Ships’ captains
carried letters for a fee, and there was legislation in place that
made it a duty in law for a captain to take all such correspondence to
the local Post Office (or other trustworthy local mail delivery service)
immediately upon his arrival in the port. As letters destined for the
West Indies were reliant on the availability of shipping, Eccleston
wrote batches of correspondence to those islands, with copies of letters
always sent on separate vessels in case of mishap. The voyage
could last between 70 and 121 days, depending on the winds, so in -
for mation on the progress of the war, on prices, and news of family
and friends after natural disaster were all slow to arrive in Britain.
Once news from the West Indies arrived here it was copied and
shared amongst any other interested parties. The importance of communication
to the maintenance of a business network is clear from
the contents of Eccleston’s letters and the significance placed upon
sharing information amongst his network.
Written communications were the main means by which a network
that spanned the Atlantic could share information, including
on the reliability and integrity of new trading contacts. The ability to
trade successfully relied heavily on knowing where it was safe to
place trust, and levels of trust may have been a recognized commodity,
implicitly included in negotiations of contracts. Partha Dasgupta
noted that the existence of trust implies a belief based upon firm
foundations, or at least on the knowledge that if the trust is misplaced
then there is a means of enforcement that can be trusted. 32 In
the late eighteenth century means of enforcement were not well
developed or especially effective, so that trust-building was a central
part of the purpose of a network, providing confirmation of trust
plus an informal mechanism for enforcement by the intervention of
friends-in-common where disputes or problems arose. Trust-building
may require incentives, either tangible or intangible. A networking
relationship is reciprocal and may be so in several directions,
31 It seems that few ships sailed directly to Antigua, as letters to Isaac were
often included in letters to Tobago, Jamaica, or Barbados, with a request that
they be forwarded to Isaac Eccleston of Antigua.
32 Partha Dasgupta, ‘Trust as a Commodity’, in Diego Gambetta (ed.), Trust:
Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations (Oxford, 2000), 49–72.
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