4 - British Catholic Merchants in London and their Trading Strategies before and during the First Years of the War of the Spanish Succession, 1698–1705

Summary

The plan is layd by others, I know not why you may not do it as well.

Early eighteenth-century London was the place to be for doing business. With its busy counting-houses, hectic docks, and bustling streets it had become one of the largest cities in Europe, where the majority of the British population lived and thrived. The city and the opportunities it had to offer attracted people – especially tradesmen – from all over the world, and merchants were drawn to the lure of high profits and the chance to be a crucial part of the Atlantic trade. At this time, almost all commodities being traded around the world touched the city. From there they were either re-exported or distributed in the internal market meaning that on the streets of London it was possible to find all sorts of goods, from West Indian products to Persian silks. Moreover, the city was becoming the financial heart of Europe with its legal institutions offering the best trading opportunities. It was a thriving environment in which to develop commercial skills and professional training and, most of all, to tap into widely established networks. In London at this time, and among the mercantile community especially, the Catholic presence was significant. The Aylward Papers have helped shed light on a varied group of Anglo-Irish merchants who were associated with merchant-houses operating in West Indian and European markets at this time. This was a community bound by ties of marriage and ethnicity, and whose trading networks connected them with the wider mercantile world.

In this decade the British Catholics of London began working with many firms, not only those run by Catholics, having no religious discrimination in business. Indeed, the Aylwards’ correspondence shows evidence of constant collaboration between these Catholic dynasties and prominent non-Catholics, including, among many others, the Londoner Charles Peers. Inter-faith relations were now common among the upper echelons of commerce and finance. For instance, as previously discussed, a man who financed many of the Aylwards’ deals, Daniel Arthur, was a prominent banker and the first Catholic in the Directory of the London merchants in 1677. Daniel Arthur was from a family of famous money-lenders which signed loans to various European governments, including the British.