"The satisfaction of arriving to a good market": Richard Vaux and the eighteenth-century world of trade

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the life and business organization of a merchant involved in the selection, transportation and sale of English goods during the turbulent period of the American Revolution. As a component of the eighteenth-century English economy, the export of manufactured goods and farm produce to the Americas is a subject worthy of historical inquiry. This thesis is an examination of Richard Vaux's business papers and personal correspondence at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These primary documents provide an opportunity to analyze the mechanics of trade during the 1770s and 1780s, explore the social and material history of an important segment of the transatlantic mercantile community, provide additional information on period names, and speculate about the importance of goods during this period.