EN
This research article will examine merchant families and their businesses involving shipments between England and the Netherlands during the late seventeenth century. Despite the fact that historians have paid sufficient attention to merchant families during the pre-industrial period, these studies are still very important. This paper raises, illustrates and discusses the following questions: What role did merchant families play in early modern merchant settlements in England and the Netherlands in this period? Which goods were exchanged through export/import? The questions and answers in the paper are built on a detailed analysis of published primary sources: a select set of 74 personal business letters sent to the Marescoe-David Company of London (an inter-related London-based merchants family) from prominent Dutch merchants between 1668 and 1680.