Migration and Communication: Relations between Inhabitants of English and Dutch Colonies in the New World, 1648-1713

Claudia Schnurmann

This paper is a summary of one chapter in a more detailed study of English-Dutch relations in early modern America. An examination of the official as well as the private contacts between Nieuw Nederland and New England on the one hand, and between Nieuw Nederland and the Chesapeake Bay colonies on the other before 1674 demonstrates the existence of a far-reaching intercolonial network, independent of national boundaries. Moreover, it can be seen that the several proprietary changes of Nieuw Nederland/New York from 1664 to 1674 did not change the colonists' economic behavior. Migration and business relations between the colonies, as well as between Europe and America, formed an international network able to ignore European attempts at legal restriction well into the eighteenth century.

[WP #96003]