Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America available in Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America
- ISBN-10:
- 0691143595
- ISBN-13:
- 9780691143590
- Pub. Date:
- 07/21/2010
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- ISBN-10:
- 0691143595
- ISBN-13:
- 9780691143590
- Pub. Date:
- 07/21/2010
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America
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Overview
Mark Valeri traces the careers of men like Robert Keayne, a London immigrant punished by his church for aggressive business practices; John Hull, a silversmith-turned-trader who helped to establish commercial networks in the West Indies; and Hugh Hall, one of New England's first slave traders. He explores how Boston ministers reconstituted their moral languages over the course of a century, from a scriptural discourse against many market practices to a providential worldview that justified England's commercial hegemony and legitimated the market as a divine construct. Valeri moves beyond simplistic readings that reduce commercial activity to secular mind-sets, and refutes the popular notion of an inherent affinity between puritanism and capitalism. He shows how changing ideas about what it meant to be pious and puritan informed the business practices of Boston's merchants, who filled their private notebooks with meditations on scripture and the natural order, founded and led churches, and inscribed spiritual reflections in their letters and diaries.
Unprecedented in scope and rich with insights, Heavenly Merchandize illuminates the history behind the continuing American dilemma over morality and the marketplace.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691143590 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 07/21/2010 |
| Pages: | 360 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
INTRODUCTION: Heavenly Merchandize 1
CHAPTER ONE: Robert Keayne's Gift 11
Keayne, the Merchant Taylors' Company, and Civic Humanism 14
Keayne and the Godly Community in England 26
CHAPTER TWO: Robert Keayne's Trials 37
Boston's First Merchants 39
Puritan Discipline in England 50
Discipline and Trade in Early Boston 57
CHAPTER THREE: John Hull's Accounts 74
Hull and the Expansion of New England's Market 76
Hull's Piety and Changes in Church Discipline 83
Jeremiads, Providence, and New England's Civic Order 96
CHAPTER FOUR: Samuel Sewall's Windows 111
Sewall's and Fitch's Problems with Money 114
The Politics of Empire 122
Political Economy, Monetary Policy, and the Justification of Usury 134
Merchants' Callings and the Campaign for Moral Reform 157
Religious Conviction in the Affairs of Sewall and Fitch 168
CHAPTER FIVE: Hugh Hall's Scheme 178
Hall and Boston's Provincial Merchants 181
Rational Protestantism and the Meaning of Commerce 200
Gentility, the Empire, and Piety in the Affairs of Hall 220
EPILOGUE: Religious Revival 234
Samuel Philips Savage, Isaac Smith, and Robert Treat Paine 235
Social Virtue and the Market 240
Conclusion 248
Notes 251
Index 321
What People are Saying About This
Heavenly Merchandize is a compelling original exploration of moral conviction and commercial culture in early New England. Boldly challenging the view that the demise of piety was a condition for the rise of opportunistic market behavior, Valeri finds that New England's ministers and merchants were neither traditionalists eclipsed by a secularizing Atlantic world nor easy protocapitalists rushing into modernity. He discloses a commercial community that was intent upon righteous trading and pious living.
— Cathy Matson, University of Delaware
Heavenly Merchandize is a magisterial account of the interplay of economics and religion in early America. In place of abstract theories of 'modernization' or 'the spirit of capitalism,' Valeri engages representative figures on the ground, and through their stories narrates the ways in which transformations in religious thought actually shaped a premodern market culture. Students of early American religion, economics, and imperialism will have to consult this seminal work.
— Harry S. Stout, Yale University
Heavenly Merchandize treats the interconnected transformations of theology and the market in New England from earliest settlement in the 1620s to the mid-eighteenth century. The brilliance of Valeri's presentation is that he grounds it in the biographies and extensive testimonies of Boston merchants. In thoroughness, depth, scope, and significance, I rank this among a very elite group of truly seminal books.
— Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame
An important and powerfully argued narrative. This work is large in scope and ambition. It assesses more than a century of change in the complex relationship between religious beliefs, practices, and disciplinary standards and the evolution of commercial and market behavior in colonial New England. Valeri takes his subject head-on and in full, knowing the pitfalls and the controversies that lie along the path.
— Mark Peterson, University of California, Berkeley
"Heavenly Merchandize is a compelling original exploration of moral conviction and commercial culture in early New England. Boldly challenging the view that the demise of piety was a condition for the rise of opportunistic market behavior, Valeri finds that New England's ministers and merchants were neither traditionalists eclipsed by a secularizing Atlantic world nor easy protocapitalists rushing into modernity. He discloses a commercial community that was intent upon righteous trading and pious living."—Cathy Matson, University of Delaware"Heavenly Merchandize is a magisterial account of the interplay of economics and religion in early America. In place of abstract theories of 'modernization' or 'the spirit of capitalism,' Valeri engages representative figures on the ground, and through their stories narrates the ways in which transformations in religious thought actually shaped a premodern market culture. Students of early American religion, economics, and imperialism will have to consult this seminal work."—Harry S. Stout, Yale University"Heavenly Merchandize treats the interconnected transformations of theology and the market in New England from earliest settlement in the 1620s to the mid-eighteenth century. The brilliance of Valeri's presentation is that he grounds it in the biographies and extensive testimonies of Boston merchants. In thoroughness, depth, scope, and significance, I rank this among a very elite group of truly seminal books."—Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame"An important and powerfully argued narrative. This work is large in scope and ambition. It assesses more than a century of change in the complex relationship between religious beliefs, practices, and disciplinary standards and the evolution of commercial and market behavior in colonial New England. Valeri takes his subject head-on and in full, knowing the pitfalls and the controversies that lie along the path."—Mark Peterson, University of California, Berkeley