The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century

“In the past, the social history of seventeenth-century New England has been written in terms of the Puritan Zion, not of the marketplace. The interaction of these two forces—meetinghouse and counting-house—is the basic problem to which Mr. Bailyn has devoted this excellent book… It is social history as it has seldom been written and business history as it should be written—a story of people, not of prices and trends; of merchants, not mercantile houses.”—American Historical Review

“This study should be of great interest to sociologists interested in social stratification, religion, and political behavior. The author has analyzed in detail the way in which the growth of trade in seventeenth century New England led to the emergence of an upper class based on mercantile wealth, and the gradual disintegration of the Puritan Commonwealth.”—American Sociological Review