Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

History

Advisor

Timothy Alborn

Committee Members

Francesca Bregoli

John Dixon

Amy Froide

Subject Categories

Cultural History | Dutch Studies | European History | Social History

Keywords

early modern Europe, financial markets, financial developments, Anglo-Dutch networks, brokers, loan contract

Abstract

Over the course of the eighteenth century, British financial markets developed remarkably and London established itself as the financial center of Europe, replacing Amsterdam. Scholarship on Britain’s financial developments in the eighteenth century has largely understood it as the result of British efforts and innovation. This dissertation complicates that understanding by investigating the Anglo-Dutch merchants in eighteenth-century London and their contributions to the development of British financial markets. In particular, their support was essential for the British government’s war finances, because Britain’s continuous wars against France demanded an immense amount of money and credit while its financial markets were still in a formative stage. The Anglo-Dutch merchants consisted of diverse groups, including the Dutch and British Christians, Huguenots and Jews, and acted as prominent brokers in supplying and circulating the capital and credit with their family, social and business connections, as well as their expertise. Their good connections in the Continent, especially in the Netherlands, and within Britain were crucial in the eighteenth-century market, at a time when a relatively smaller number of debtors and creditors interacted with each other and the social relations and business activities were inevitably interwoven. The first half of the dissertation focuses on three families that were active in the mid-eighteenth century: Gerard and Joshua van Neck, Charles and Peter van Notten, and Henry and Peter Muilman. The second half focuses on Benjamin and Abraham Goldsmid, who were active from the 1780s until 1810. The stability and confidence in the financial markets acquired with the contributions of the Anglo-Dutch merchants fueled Britain’s financial strength in the following century to function as the center of European finance.

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