Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

MARGRIT SCHULTE BEERBÜHL and KLAUS WEBER
notary archives has shown that at least 239 German traders had settled
there between 1680 and 1830. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that the
group was larger than around 80 to 100 at any time during the 1780s
and 1790s, when it was at its demographic peak. 58 This estimate
includes only the shareholding partners of trading companies. If
employees such as bookkeepers, other related professionals, and
family members are also included, that figure might easily be doubled.
The nature of the sources used here, mostly wills from notary
archives, allows the places of origin of almost all of this group
totalling 239 to be identified, revealing some parallels with the
German community in London. In Cadiz as in London, merchants
from Hanseatic cities do not clearly dominate the German community.
Of the 227 individuals whose German home we know, 88 came
from Hamburg, while only 6 were from Bremen and 3 from Lübeck.
Surprisingly, a dense and discrete cluster of origin occurs in one of
the seemingly most remot areas of the Holy Empire, in Bohemia, separated
by a mountain range from the northern German lowlands and
the North Sea coast. Some 50 Bohemian traders (all German-speaking)
were established in Cadiz, the first having arrived during the
1720s. Most came from the village of Haida (today Nový Bor) and its
surroundings in the district of Leitmeritz (today Litoměřice), which
was famous for glass manufacturing. Another region of origin was
the vast proto-industrial area in north-western Germany that was
also well represented in London, including the territories of northern
Westphalia, the Duchy of Berg, the County of Mark, and the lower
Rhineland. This more dispersed cluster consisted of 26 textile and
metalware traders. Half of them came from the northern Westphalian
linen-producing region around Osnabrück and Bielefeld. The more
eastern territories of southern Saxony, Lusatia, and Silesia, which
were also well-known textile regions, sent only a few traders to Spain
(see Figure 3.3).
A good example of merchants linking the textile manufactures of
north-western Germany with Atlantic markets is provided by the
Ellermann family. In the literature on the merchants in Hamburg and
in Cadiz, traders of that name were assumed to be from Hanseatic
cities, but in fact they originated from two villages near Osnabrück,
58 Weber, Deutsche Kaufleute, 352–161.
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