Globalization in the early 18th century

Uh oh, sounds boring.

But from my eyrie I can almost see the hundreds of masted boats that left New York for the West Indies on a regular basis during the early 18th century (1700-1730). I am reading about how New York thrived by globalized trading (sound familiar) during the early 18th century in the wonderful Pulitzer Prize winning history book Gotham.

By the luck of climate and tradewinds, New York was better situated (than Boston for example) to trade directly with the Caribbean Islands that were furnishing sugar to England. Sugar had become so highly valued it was known as "white gold" and plantation owners preferred to use all their island land to grow sugar cane and get the commodities from the colonies. I remember when Beth and I went to Barbados and stayed in a room built in 1867 for sugar plantation owners. We would look out our window high on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic and know that Africa was directly across the water. Reading Gotham I was able to imagine the boats that came to Barbados for commerce, not for tourism.

So how does globalization fit in? New York benefitted from economic triangulation: New Yorkers made their living by feeding the slaves who made the sugar (in the Carribean) that fed the workers who made the clothes and other finished wares (in England) that New Yorkers didn't make for themselves. Now we don't have slaves, just people paid like slaves. And traders don't actually make or ship the products, they just process everything electronically and pretend there is some value to their economic transactions.

For now I can look at the masted boats at the South Sea Seaport and pretend that they are about to leave for Barbados on the prevailing west winds.