Day 4/28 — Operating the Empire (Charles Town → Liverpool, 10 Apr 1756)

[Amadu Massally]

Hello all,

Today’s primary-source artifact (Day 4/28) is a letter from Charles Town to John Knight in Liverpool, dated 10 April 1756. Treat this document as an operations memo, focusing on information lag, war-risk assessment, insurance procedures, and credit posture.

Facsimile (attached): Charles Town → John Knight (Liverpool), 10 Apr 1756.

From Evidence to Mechanism

• Evidence includes delayed correspondence, such as references to “ships not arriving at this season,” decisions based on “flying reports,” and explicit instructions to insure and divide cargo among multiple vessels.

• Mechanism: The empire functions as a commercial system in which credit, shipping, and insurance collectively absorb disruptions to information flow and transport caused by war.

• Significance: This administrative logic underpins the “founding era” narrative, highlighting how risk management and routing decisions governed movement across the Atlantic.

Discussion Question: How does your interpretation of 1756 shift when “silence” (such as late mail or missing ships) is considered a factor influencing market behavior?

Source: The Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 2 (USC Press, 1970), “To John Knight,” 10 Apr 1756 (facsimile attached).

Amadu Massally

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