In a pre-industrial economy dominated by small family firms, economic growth could not have occurred without the skill, persistence, and initiative of individual businessmen like Sir Dudley North. North was not only a celebrated merchant and economist, but an important and controversial servant of Charles II and James II. Richard Grassby exploits the extraordinary wealth of documentation available to establish how North made a fortune in the Levant commodity trade and through usury. He explores his character, beliefs, and intentions, and the diverse technical and personal reasons for his success. As the younger son of a peer, his domestic life and his relationships with his family and the world of business demonstrate both the mobility of English society and the close integration of town and country. His works, which are here published in full for the first time, reveal the breadth of his intellectual interests.
Although a man of exceptional personality, North confronted the same obstacles and opportunities as other merchants of his day, and this study of his life offers us unique and valuable insights into the seventeenth-century business world.