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Getting the Goods, Ruling a Province, Keeping the Peace: Restoration-Era Merchant-Planter Elites in Maryland, 1661-1679

Weeks, James H

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
From 1661-1676, a new merchant-planter elite emerged in Maryland. Like any successful merchants in the seventeenth century, they built and maintained extensive networks within the Province and throughout the Atlantic World. Faced with dramatically different conditions in the Chesapeake, they adapted their practices in innovative ways that foreshadowed developments that would not take firm hold until after the 1720s. As they confronted the economic uncertainty inherent in reliance upon a single, marginally profitable cash crop, they moved to diversify their economic endeavors not only within their trade but also in their agricultural endeavors, and into other fields as well, such as the Indian trade and into careers at law. As the leading members of the community, they came to enter and dominate politics, where the Calverts cultivated their loyalty with patronage appointments. And in the crisis months of the late summer and autumn of 1676, the leading men of this new elite were in charge. Half of the Delegates to the Assembly were merchant-planters, as were two-thirds of the Council. And one of their own, Thomas Notley, sat as Governor. In the face of the crisis Governor Notley, with a secure power-base, was swift and decisive in his actions to protect both Marylanders and the Calvert Government. After the immediate crisis had passed, Notley pursued a pragmatic and thoughtful policy of addressing the concerns and passing reforms that had long been desired by opponents to the Calverts’ rule. Thomas Notley was a most unusual leader in 1676, bridging both the proprietary and anti-proprietary parties in Maryland. Maryland did not implode in 1676 as Virginia did because a deeply interconnected merchant-planter community that had built strong ties among the poorer Marylanders through their trade had come to dominate the government just at that critical moment. Those connections enabled them to maintain the trust of most Marylanders in the face of the crisis.
Margaret Newell, Dr. (Advisor)
John Brooke, Dr. (Committee Member)
Richard Shiels, Dr. (Committee Member)
345 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Weeks, J. H. (2014). Getting the Goods, Ruling a Province, Keeping the Peace: Restoration-Era Merchant-Planter Elites in Maryland, 1661-1679 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386772556

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Weeks, James. Getting the Goods, Ruling a Province, Keeping the Peace: Restoration-Era Merchant-Planter Elites in Maryland, 1661-1679. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386772556.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Weeks, James. "Getting the Goods, Ruling a Province, Keeping the Peace: Restoration-Era Merchant-Planter Elites in Maryland, 1661-1679." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386772556

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)