ABSTRACT
Customs figures recorded direct trade, and they provided only limited indication about its indirect counterpart. This was particularly important in the case of trade with the Portuguese and Spanish empires. Russian trade statistics are made problematic not only by smuggling, but also by the practice of recording goods by the nationality of the merchant handling them, a system made more troublesome for scholars by the extent to which British merchants took out Russian citizenship. Trade was assisted by the degree to which the British Atlantic ‘shrank’, as a result of improvements such as the development of postal services and the invention of the helm wheel which dramatically increased rudder control on large ships. The acceptability of trade was also seen in the extent to which ‘new men’ from trade and industry entered the elite. The British government, however, tended to counter foreign complaints by reference to privileges, particularly those gained to trade direct with the Spanish empire.
