British commercial interests on the French Atlantic coast, c.1560-1713

This article explores British commercial interests on the French Atlantic coast in the long seventeenth century.This is a period characterized by conflict, when trade between Britain and France was at times prohibited due to war or restricted because of political or economic policy. Despite prohibitions, however, commercial agents continued to facilitate exchanges along these routes, in some cases with the assistance of authorities. Here, specific Franco-Scottish trading links are explored and the experiences of Scottish commercial agents in the French Atlantic coast ports are compared with those of English and Irish, particularly during the Nine Years' War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13). © 2011 Institute of Historical Research.