The development of commercial institutions was another important connection between Atlantic trade and eighteenth-century British economic development. Although these aspects of trade are not always quantifiable, they contributed much to the commercial dynamism of Britain. Capitalism and Slavery drew attention to the links between slave trading and the worlds of insurance and banking by pointing to the participation of the Liverpool slave trading families such as Heywood and Leyland in local banks, the recruitment of tobacco lords into the ranks of bankers in Glasgow and the emergence of the fire insurance companies from the ranks of London sugar refiners (E. Williams, 1944: 98–102, 104–5). More recent research has enabled us to identify more fully the connections between Atlantic trade and business developments, indicating the level of interpenetration between international trade, business institutions and the domestic economy; and it has provided enough material to emphasise the long-term benefits that this ‘mix’ of economic factors gave to British capitalism.

The financing of commerce

Several institutional improvements deserve mention. First of all, increased sophistication in the finance of commerce accompanied the growing scale and intricacy of Atlantic trade. An international payments mechanism involving bills of exchange enabled transfers to be made on either a bilateral or a multilateral basis between British, North American, West Indian and European port cities.