This book uses the case studies of Liverpool and Philadelphia to investigate the nature of the British-Atlantic trading community between 1760 and 1810. By using a wide definition of the term 'trader', this work stresses the role of lesser traders, including women, in the distribution of goods around the Atlantic. Through comparing and contrasting these trading communities, it highlights the different structures of the economies of these cities during this period of conflict and change. However, by using the concepts of networks of people, credit and goods, this book also demonstrates how a common business mentalite inextricably bound these trading communities together, even as Philadelphia struggled to free itself from the legacy of its colonial past.