Heavenly merchandize : how religion shaped commerce in Puritan America / Mark Valeri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valeri, Mark R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Puritans--Doctrines--History--17th century.

Puritans.

Puritans--Doctrines--History--18th century.

Puritans--Influence.

Business--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Business.

United States--Religion--To 1800.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (354 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Heavenly Merchandize offers a critical reexamination of religion's role in the creation of a market economy in early America. Focusing on the economic culture of New England, it views commerce through the eyes of four generations of Boston merchants, drawing upon their personal letters, diaries, business records, and sermon notes to reveal how merchants built a modern form of exchange out of profound transitions in the puritan understanding of discipline, providence, and the meaning of New England. 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction. Heavenly Merchandize

CHAPTER ONE. Robert Keayne's Gift

CHAPTER TWO. Robert Keayne's Trials

CHAPTER THREE. John Hull's Accounts

CHAPTER FOUR. Samuel Sewall's Windows

CHAPTER FIVE. Hugh Hall's Scheme

EPILOGUE. Religious Revival

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cited in:

Wing (2nd ed.) W2279

ISBN:

9786612569203

9781282569201

1282569201

9781400834990

1400834996

OCLC:

297426207