1 . German Immigration to Colonial America : Prototype of a Transatlantic Mass Migration

Wokeck, Marianne S.; Trommler, Frank; McVeigh, Joseph

doi:10.9783/9781512808261-004

Cited by 2 publications

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“…140 In terms of colonial migration, where trans-Atlantic passage was to be paid in advance, the role of merchants as providers of credit was crucial. 141 It is important to remember that in colonies like South Carolina, the shift to exchanging goods on an open market only occurred after 1720; before then, trade was centralized in certain towns (for example Charles Town in the case of South Carolina) and managed by local merchants who acted as agents for British colleagues. 142 In this way, sellers in both the colonies and London relied heavily on merchants to broker their goods, to take on any risk, and to deliver fair prices and profits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working for the Crown: German Migrants and Britain's Commercial Success in the Early Eighteenth-Century American Colonies

O’Reilly¹

2017

J Mod Eur Hist

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Relaxation in the movement of foreigners into Britain and the origins of the Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act of 1708 (7 Ann c 5) have been seen to lie in the arrival of religious refugees in England and the unsuitability of existing legislation to accommodate large numbers of foreigners. This paper proposes that trade and commercial interests in the American Colonies promoted the cause of Naturalisation by inciting German migration, causing Parliament to relax access to the domestic labour market, and crucially allow German labour to be trafficked to the Colonies. Reform was dictated by the needs of commerce and colonial enterprise, not just by politicians, courtiers and bureaucrats in London. The passing of the Naturalisation Act (1708) and subsequent General Naturalisation Act (1709) both took advantage of Europan warfare and economic disruction and was a direct response to colonial needs to source continental labour. The Act owed much to colonial Americans like Carolina Governor John Archdale who, like his co-religionist neighbour William Penn, acted in the interest of commerce and the colonial classes, broadening the base of non-Anglican access to the Colonies. Opportunities afforded German migrants in the American Colonies, in particular, grew from this signal legislative change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%