The Irish in Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux: Contexts, Relations, and Commodities

By: Charles C. Ludington

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Synopsis: The Irish in Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux is a collection of ten essays by internationally known scholars of Irish, British, French, and Atlantic History that covers the entire period in which there was a substantial Irish colony in Bordeaux (1689–1815). Among the topics discussed are the growth and decline of the community and the reasons for both, the daily lives and assimilation of the Irish in Bordeaux, the numerous activities and institutions in which the Irish were involved, and the patterns of trade and the major commodities that were traded. This volume argues that the Irish community in Bordeaux was a product of contingent factors including religious bigotry and war, but mostly because of commercial and educational opportunities that were not available in Ireland itself. This confessionally mixed Irish community made remarkable contributions to Atlantic, European, and global production, consumption, and trade, especially in Bordeaux wine. The book will enlarge, complicate, and challenge our understanding of the eighteenth-century European and Atlantic worlds. Students and scholars who are interested in early modern immigrant and trading communities, the impact of religious tolerance and intolerance, the development of international trade networks, and the production and meaning of commodities will find it invaluable.