Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York

Excellent! In a brisk, suspenseful narrative, Truxes (of Trinity College, with whom I took a Modern Irish History course) illuminates a little-known aspect of the seminal conflict in early American history- the Seven Years' War. New York City's merchant elite (assisted by co-conspirators in Connecticut & Rhode Island, primarily) developed elaborate schemes to circumvent British Navigation acts and carry on a lucrative trade with the French enemy. (Including instances where merchants hired privateers to seize their own ships!) Fortunes were made (and sometimes lost) as ship owners and merchants supplied vital military stores to the French with impunity. This, of course, incensed the British military, whose efforts to stop the trade were hampered by collusion and corruption in the criminal and civil justice establishment. The eventual crackdown on this activity- then end of "salutary neglect"- sowed the seeds of the American Revolution. It's an original piece of research that reads like a novel. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in early American or maritime history, or in the history of New York City.