The 14 essays, revised and integrated for this volume, share as their common theme the development of the Atlantic economy, especially British America and the Caribbean. They first establish the strengths and weaknesses of the sources available for understanding that economy and then exhibit by example how such materials can be put to use to analyze some of its key elements. Topics treated range form early attempts in medieval England to measure the carrying capacity of ships, through the advent in Renaissance Italy and England of business newspapers that reported on the traffic of ships, cargoes and market prices, to the state of the economy of France over the two hundred years before the French Revolution and of the British West Indies between 1760 and 1790. Included is the story of the man who first tried to stop the American Revolution form happening and then tried to keep it from suceeeding - using as his weapon trade statistics. The text tells how, without their even knowing his name, Thomas Irving challenged and thwarted the likes of John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Alexander Hamilton.