Through a study of the archives of Nicolaus Gottlieb Luetkens, a young merchant from Hamburg who traveled along the French Atlantic coast, Lucas Haasis’s book seeks to analyze “the Atlantic business community and the Atlantic world of trade” (p. 62). To achieve this, the author focuses on “the establishment phase of 18th century wholesale merchants” (p. 62). This transitional stage, between apprenticeship and the moment when entrepreneurs set up their own businesses, played a crucial role in the careers of European merchants, for at least three reasons. First, it allowed young merchants to prove themselves in business, to “demonstrate their skills and their suitability” (p. 25). Second, settlement often coincided with business travels, through which actors strengthened their networks and reputations. Third, it was an opportunity to learn the intricacies of business correspondence.
In many ways, this study is reminiscent of the work on merchant formations done in the 1990s (Franco Angiolini and Daniel Roche, eds., Cultures et formations négociantes dans l’Europe moderne [Paris, 1995]). However, the author advocates an approach inspired by both Italian microstoria and historical praxeology. From this angle, Lucas Haasis gives a central place to epistolary writing, seen as “one of the most popular and widespread practices during the 18th century,” in which material, linguistic, textual, and discursive practices are simultaneously expressed (p. 66). This bias is reinforced by the nature of the archive, which consists primarily of letters, both incoming and outgoing. The analysis of Nicolaus Gottlieb Luetkens’s business practices is thus based on “letter episodes” (p. 53). The author’s approach is to deal successively with a series of missives from different actors, all relating to the same subject, usually the same business. This method encourages a sequential case study approach, which dominates the second part of the book (Chapters 3–7), after a first part (Chapters 1 and 2) that is mainly introductory. Haasis examines in turn the nature of Luetkens’s business (Chapters 3 and 4), the strategies used in the face of the uncertainties inherent in the shipping trade (Chapter 5), the building of partnerships (Chapter 6), and the merchant’s matrimonial strategies (Chapter 7).
Haasis’s research has produced several important results. First, the book appropriately highlights the role of Hamburg merchants in the Atlantic trade, particularly in France, where it has sometimes been underestimated and generally understudied. Luetkens’s trajectory shows how Hamburg merchants were able to exploit both their neutral status and their integration into French Atlantic markets in ways that were relatively common in the eighteenth century (consider, for example, the strategies of US merchants at the end of the century).
Another important contribution is the detailed analysis of the merchants’ letters. The author argues that epistolary and commercial practices are closely intertwined. From this perspective, the merchant’s letter emerges as an important tool of persuasion and reputation building. This “power of persuasion”—central to the book’s argument and title—rests on several “practical principles,” as the author outlines (p. 76). Some of these explanations will come as no surprise to specialists in the field. It is obvious that eighteenth-century merchants sought to demonstrate efficiency, establish relationships of trust with their partners, and flatter their correspondents “by creating the feeling of exclusivity” (p. 76). More original is the author’s observation of the egalitarian tone that merchants adopted in their correspondence, a pattern evident throughout the letters of the period. As Stendhal, himself a connoisseur of French business circles, explained, merchants generally considered themselves “equals,” regardless of their rank. Haasis also rightly emphasizes the sometimes confrontational nature of epistolary exchanges. He notes that Luetkens could, under certain circumstances, reprimand his correspondents, using what he calls the “sledgehammer method” (p. 76).
It is unfortunate, however, that Luetkens’s stay in France and his strategies are not further contextualized. Are these practices emblematic of the behavior of merchants in the Atlantic world as a whole? Or are they conditioned by Luetkens’s geographical and social origins (he did not originally belong to the business elite)? While the literature devoted to Hamburg merchants is perfectly mastered, comparisons with other communities of foreign merchants settled on either side of the Atlantic could have enriched the survey’s conclusions (think, among others, of Ana Crespo Solana’s work on Dutch merchants or Arnaud Bartoloméi’s on the French of Cadiz).
Similarly, it would have been appropriate to question the representativeness of Luetkens’s archives. From the outset, the author presents them as a veritable “time capsule” (p. 29). The epistolary documentation appears to be well preserved. However, the accounting records appear to be much more incomplete, which may have led the author to somewhat underestimate the importance of accounting practices in relation to epistolary practices.
Despite these remarks, Lucas Haasis’s work is of undeniable historiographical interest. Looking beyond Luetkens’s career, it offers a genuine method for interpreting mercantile practices in early modernity. In this respect, the ambitions set out in the introduction are fully realized. This book offers a replicable model for analyzing mercantile practices in the Atlantic world, making it a valuable resource for future studies in business history.
Professor Deschanel is the author of Commerce et Révolution. Les négociants dauphinois entre l’Europe et les Antilles (années 1780-années 1820) (2018). He is presently working on the evolution of French corporate taxation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
