"Shipping and Trade between Bordeaux and the..." Topic

…United States, 1793-1815.

"Historians generally assume that the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars radically disrupted
the trade of French ports and put an end to the prosperity of maritime cities such as Bordeaux,
which built their fortune in the 18th century on colonial trade. The loss of French Saint-Domingue,
which became independent Haiti in 1804, as well as the emergence of new industrial regions in
Northern Europe led to the relative decline of Atlantic cities on the Western coast of France.
Focusing on macro-economic developments and on structural changes within Atlantic and
European economies on the eve of the 19th century, this assumption widely ignores the action of
merchants on a local level and their remarkable capacity to create alternative commercial webs in
wartime. In fact, the relative decline of a port over the long run did not imply that its merchants
were incapable of finding new ways to carry on lucrative trades.
This essay focuses on one city, Bordeaux. As a case study, it analyses the organisation of a
new trade network across the Atlantic, linking this port to the United States from the beginning of
the war between France and Great Britain in 1793 to the end of the conflict in 1815. Thanks to their
new commercial links with overseas firms, Bordeaux merchants were able to circumvent both
British maritime blockades and French prohibitions, and to sustain transatlantic exchanges in their
port throughout the major part of this period. In organising this commercial network, they
contributed to the adjustment of the 18th-century Atlantic system to new market and political
conditions. Their achievements are impressive, if one considers that their trade with the United
States before 1793 was scarce.
Such a change in maritime trade and routes deserves our attention, as the establishment of
commercial links is a time and energy consuming task. That is, it requires merchants to set up an
effective system to circulate payment as well as information that will enable them to make
decisions; to organise transport, that is, to dispose of ships carrying goods efficiently across the
Oceans; to import and export products according to demand and availability on the new markets;
and to find reliable partners in cities to which they had no previous connexion…"
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Amicalement
Armand