TY - BOOK AU - Finucane,Adrian TI - The Temptations of Trade: Britain, Spain, and the Struggle for Empire T2 - The Early Modern Americas SN - 9780812248128 AV - HF3505.6 .F56 2016 U1 - 382.0941 23 PY - 2016///] CY - Philadelphia : PB - University of Pennsylvania Press, KW - Imperialism KW - Slave trade KW - Great Britain KW - HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) KW - bisacsh KW - American History KW - American Studies N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Prologue: Before the Asiento --; Chapter 1. Britain Hopes for the "Riches of America," 1713-1716 --; Chapter 2. The Stuttering Success of the Early Trade, 1717-1728 --; Chapter 3. "Unjust Depredations" and Growing Tensions, 1729-1738 --; Chapter 4. The End of the British Asiento, 1739-1748 --; Epilogue: Beyond the Asiento --; List of Abbreviations --; Notes --; Index --; Acknowledgments; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - The British and the Spanish had long been in conflict, often clashing over politics, trade, and religion. But in the early decades of the eighteenth century, these empires signed an asiento agreement granting the British South Sea Company a monopoly on the slave trade in the Spanish Atlantic, opening up a world of uneasy collaboration. British agents of the Company moved to cities in the Caribbean and West Indies, where they braved the unforgiving tropical climate and hostile religious environment in order to trade slaves, manufactured goods, and contraband with Spanish colonists. In the process, British merchants developed relationships with the Spanish-both professional and, at times, personal.The Temptations of Trade traces the development of these complicated relationships in the context of the centuries-long imperial rivalry between Spain and Britain. Many British Merchants, in developing personal ties to the Spanish, were able to collect potentially damaging information about Spanish imperial trade, military defenses, and internal conflict. British agents juggled personal friendships with national affiliation-and, at the same time, developed a network of illicit trade, contraband, and piracy extending beyond the legal reach of the British South Sea Company and often at the Company's direct expense.Ultimately, the very smuggling through which these empires unwittingly supported each other led to the resumption of Anglo-Spanish conflict, as both empires cracked down on the actions of traders within the colonies. The Temptations of Trade reveals the difficulties of colonizing regions far from strict imperial control, where the actions of individuals could both connect empires and drive them to war UR - https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812292756 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812292756 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780812292756.jpg ER -