The Republic                                          Ulster                                                  Oliver Cromwell
Navigation Act                                       Jamaica                                               Charles II
Indian Cotton                                         Moghul Empire                                   Bengal Textiles
Re-export Trade                                    Opium                                                  "Country Trade"
"Lay it on Luxury"                               Golden China                                       Powder, Musket, & Shot
Beaver Fur                                            Hudson's Bay Co.                                New Amsterdam
Berkeleys & Carterets                           Pennsylvania                                       John Locke
Treaty of Madrid                                  "Lords of Trade"                                  Nee Pluribus Impar
"We First for Trade                              "Acts of Trade"                                    Enumerated Articles
Staple Act of 1663                               Dominion of New England                   Greenwich Observatory
William & Mary                                  King William's War                             Lord Bellomont
National Debt                                       Bank of England                                  Board of Trade & Plantations
New East India Co.                              United East India Co.                           Little Ice Age
Darien                                                  War of Spanish Succession                  Treaty of Utrecht
Acadia & Newfoundland                     Virginals                                               "blacke stinking fume"
Burgundy Wine                                    Overseas Trade                                    Slaves

"All accounts emphasize that nothing was done at the Mogul's court without an inducement, the difficulty being to provide any sort of present which would take the fancy of the richest ruler in the world.  To compete with rajahs who brought their lord trains of elephants harnessed with gold was difficult for the factors of a London company.  Jewels were out of the question; the Mogul appeared in a new outfit of them every day in the year.  Broad-cloth, though unrivalled in its own market, was not much in demand in the hot weather.  The Englishmen racked their brains to think of ingenious 'toys'.  Whereas a set of virginals was a total failure, a cornet proved such a success with Jahangir, who blew through it for an hour on end, that the cornet-player was persuaded to stay at court and turn Mohammedan.  English mastiffs, fierce enough for baiting tigers found favour, but Sir Thomas Roe concluded that nothing went down so well with the Emperor as a few cases of Burgundy wine."

Early in the 17^th century, King James I described smoking: "A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse."

Prior to the 1760s and 1770s, the only avenue to quick fortune was overseas trade.  This was especially the case for the slave trade, in which profits from a single cargo could be 75,000 eighteenth-century American dollars.  Toward the end of the century, a second and potentially even more profitable source of wealth loomed in the form of manufacturing.  Investment in the process of mass production, particularly textiles though the domestic system, could bring windfall profits. . . . Most of the goods moving into the European market from abroad were luxury items.  This was especially true at the beginning of the eighteenth century, for the vast majority of workers in the cities and the peasants in the countryside lacked purchasing power.  The great overseas adventure of the 1700s was accomplished primarily in the name of the great purchasers, the higher reaches of the aristocracy and the upper middle class.  One could also list as consumer the gentry, master artisans, and peasant proprietors, but always to a lesser degree.  Trade therefore was concentrated on commodities for the wealthy.  Spices, such as peppers, nutmegs, cloves, and cinnamon were in great demand, as were furs, rugs, silks, tobacco, sugar, coffee and tea, the last two quickly becoming upper class drinks.  Slaves were treated as a staple, but rarely appeared on the European continent.  Many of the great fortunes of London, Amsterdam, and Lisbon were initially made in the slave trade, the Dutch introducing the first slaves to the colony of Virginia in 1619.  They were the first of some of 450,000 to be transported to the United States up to 1808.  Toward the end of the century, the movement of staple items, especially indigo and cotton from overseas, indicated that commerce would eventually serve the interests of industry.