"These documents illuminate the conduct of British trade in the Caribbean when slavery was at its height and Jamaica was the wealthiest territory in Britain's Atlantic empire. Pertaining to the commercial and plantation interests of two Bristol families connected through marriage and business, the volume sheds light on how fortunes were created by merchants striving for improvement, independence, and social mobility. The documents include correspondence, wills and inventories, partnership agreements, insurance policies and property deeds. The introduction addresses issues of the slave trade and sugar cultivation, capital accumulation, the ways in which a West India fortune was created, the risk environment of the Caribbean, and social, economic and demographic conditions in 18th-century Bristol and Jamaica."--Provided by the publisher.