Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

Pirates, Death, and Disaster
was the solution to many of the problems of trade caused by social
and political factors: ‘Specifically, the cognitive limits and contractual
hazards to which human actors are subject are relieved by specialization
and governance, respectively.’ 84
Eccleston’s networks were informal, and not therefore subject to
any official type of governance. However, unwritten contractual obligations
were honoured, and this was part of the trust-building and
maintenance that allowed successful networks to be established and
developed even at times of political and social upheaval. The trade
that Eccleston engaged in, using a diverse network of contacts, allow -
ed him and his network to benefit from a very loose form of organization,
built on trust, without bureaucracy. Using a network method
of organization has advantages over more formalized structures in
allowing different parts of the network to be accessed for different
purposes, which helps the development of rapid responses to problems.
Networks and Profitability
Despite the troubles in Barbados and his anxiety about the considerable
sums due to him from that island, Eccleston was again in good
spirits on 27 January 1781, when the Brayton arrived, carrying a cargo
of cotton sent by Isaac Eccleston from Antigua:
I rejoice with you—the fine rains you have had lately, and your
escaping the late, dreadful hurricane, which has made such
destruction of most of the West Indies Islands. Suppose you
will now have a prospect of a fine crop, and I wish I cou’d send
you a small vessel and cargoe to bring part of it home, but
since the commencement of the war, the demand for Vessels
has been so great for privateers and they have sold so high that
there is no meddling with them . . . every little sloop or even
fishing smack that has the least appearance for sailing, is now
eagerly purchased at 500 p cent more than the intrinsick value
& converted to that use. 85
84 Id., ‘Human Actors and Economic Organization’, Quaderni, 247 (Mar.
1999), 1.
85 LSF, TEMP MSS 145/1, Eccleston to Isaac Eccleston, Antigua, 31 Jan. 1781.
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