Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

Pirates, Death, and Disaster
sale, as well as the inclusion in each of his letters of a request to be
recommended as a trustworthy and reliable agent for planters in the
West Indies: ‘If any of your friends are inclinable to ship Cotton or
any other produce, I flatter myself I can execute a commission of that
kind as much to their advantage as most houses [in Liverpool], and
will be obliged to you for anything you may recommend in that
line.’ 39
This letter ended with a request that a remittance be sent for
Eccleston’s desk (which he sold to Mr Pearson) and ‘the few doz.
Claret’ that Mr Pearson took from Barbados to Tobago. 40 The detail
in the letters also show that, whilst in Barbados between 1776 and
1779, and despite the economic decline of the islands, Eccleston had
accumulated considerable profits, and was certainly in possession of
a very handsome competence even if he was not, strictly speaking,
wealthy. Eccleston’s decision to concentrate on the export of semiluxury
goods based upon the use of his extensive network of contacts
in the West Indies was, in terms of modern business analysis, wellfounded.
Rauch proposed that colonial ties remained important in
the development and maintenance of business networks, along with
a common language. Indeed, he suggests that a network view of
international trade is particularly important in differentiated (manufactured)
products that do not have an international reference price. 41
Rauch also noted that the role of relationship building (networks)
and personal contacts in determining the spread and distribution of
trade is an important area for future research. 42 Given the similarity
of Eccleston’s pattern of business networks, it may be that Rauch’s
analysis has noted the continuation of a centuries-long pattern of
trade rather than a product of post-colonialism.
39 LLLSC, MS 3734, Eccleston to Thomas Pearson and Company, Tobago, 3
Jan. 1780.
40 Ibid.
41 James E. Rauch, ‘Networks Versus Markets in International Trade’, Journal
of International Economics, 48 (1999), 7–35, at 7.
42 Ibid. 33.
357