American merchants prior to independence from Britain in 1776 were notorious for engaging in illegal trade, so much so that the British efforts to reinforce mercantilist rules and regulations in 1760s were in response to complaints from both officials and British-based merchants to crack down on American smuggling. This paper explores the legacy of this reliance on illicit trade as the new American nation navigated its first few decades on the global political and economic stage. Using a long-run perspective, the paper will describe how merchants transitioned from imperial rules and restrictions to a republican government which depended on mainly income from duties on trade. Some discussion will be devoted to the difficulties of the early nation to track trade, which included many of the same problems the British Empire struggled to overcome. However, the same illicit networks of trade were essential in expanding American commerce, especially during the Napoleonic period of nearly constant warfare between France, England, and their allies. The American policy of neutrality was in no small way influenced by the colonial reliance on smuggling and ever present efforts to expand access to global markets.

This paper explores the interconnectivity of illegal trade in the North Atlantic through the rise and fall of a Faroese contraband entrepôt between 1767 and 1787. This trade was the result of an increasing globalization of trade and international trade competition, but over time it also transformed in response to war and peace. This paper follows these shifts, linking them to changing political, economic, and social conditions. Situated on an insular Danish dependency along the main highways of global trade, the entrepôt became a meeting place for numerous types of trade –e.g., neutral, monopoly, and illegal –blurring the boundaries between them in the process. This paper explores the varied trade anatomy needed to sustain this trade, paying particular attention to the illicit leg of the journey. Illegal trade was often acutely local, and this was perhaps particularly true in the High North Atlantic, where trade was enabled by local knowledge, skills, and resources. At the same time, this paper also aims to draw attention to the role of the contraband entrepôt within the larger Danish trade strategy, viewing it as an intricate part of the Danish commercial strategy.

The expansion of Swedish trade and shipping in the second half of the 18th century is strongly correlated with the Anglo-French wars at sea. Swedish merchants and shipowners capitalized on the country’s neutrality during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars. This boom, driven by neutrality, can be traced across three economic sectors: the growth in foreign trade (primarily exports of Swedish products), the increase in re-exports (from China and the West Indies), and expanded shipping services (tramp shipping).Geographically, the expansion predominantly occurred in Europe, focusing on trade with other European countries, and shipping in the Mediterranean and the North Sea. However, the wartime decades from 1780 to 1800 also saw much more active Swedish trade in the West Indies, as well as in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The belligerent powers challenged Sweden’s neutrality. Notably, Britain, as the dominant naval power, contested Sweden’s neutral rights and seized many Swedish ships as prizes. These prize cases were adjudicated in the High Court of Admiralty (HCA) in London, and the HCA’s Prize Papers are an indispensable source for studying Swedish shipping and trade under a neutral flag. This paper will provide an overview of the Swedish prizes documented in the Prize Papers for the period 1778-1801, focusing on quantitative data related to shipping and the scope of trade in various regions (the North Sea, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean). Additionally, it will examine how the arguments of the HCA and the parties involved (captors and defendants) evolved regarding neutral rights.

This paper explores what the careers of ‘Flag captains’ and other neutral seafarers can tell us about late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century global shipping and trade. During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, neutral officers and common sailors were often placed on commercial vessels to disguise the ship or cargo as belonging to a neutral nation. This practice was especially common on Scandinavian ships involved in colonial shipping, frequently serving European and non-European merchants seeking to protect their goods from privateers, escape high freight rates, and break down market barriers. Drawing on documents from the ‘Prize Paper’ collection of the High Court of Admiralty, housed at The National Archives in Kew, this paper reveals the lives and careers of these seafarers—both those who benefited from this strategy and those exploited by it. Ultimately, it argues that these mariners illustrate how neutrality blurred the lines between foreignness and subjecthood, turning national identity into a valuable commercial asset for merchant networks engaged in global trade.