Matthew Mitchell
Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)
mdm@sas.upenn.edu
Education
Dual B.A. in History and Business Admin. (Phi Beta Kappa), University of Washington, 2003
M.Litt in Reformation Studies, University of St Andrews, 2005
Dissertation Title
Joint-stock capitalism & the Atlantic commercial network: The Royal African Company, 1672-1752
Dissertation Committee
Publication
• “The fetish and intercultural commerce in seventeenth-century West Africa," Itinerario, forthcoming.
Conference Papers
• “The Royal African Company and the West African competitive environment, 1681-1688,” Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, Richmond , VA , April 25, 2009.
• “The English body politic and the ‘ extravagant humour of stock-jobbing,' 1690-1720,” Economic and Business Historical Society annual meeting, Braga , Portugal , May 27, 2010.
• "Kidderminster Textiles and the Royal African Company, 1680-1725,” Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies , Seattle , WA , March 12, 2011.
Research interests
I am broadly interested in the commercial engagement of early modern England with the rest of the Atlantic World and especially with Africa . Much of my recent work focuses more specifically on the Royal African Company as one of the chief vehicles for that engagement. The RAC purchased African gold for the Royal Mint and enslaved African laborers for the American plantations, offering in exchange a great volume and variety of European and Asian goods into West Africa. By doing so the RAC helped to create a system of trade and a shared Atlantic commercial culture that (often uncomfortably) embraced four continents. Within England, the RAC and other joint-stock companies also boosted the rise of the nascent financial markets, lobbied Parliament for the preservation of their special privileges, and, I argue, catalyzed the re-organization of English productive industries upon a more capitalistic basis.
Teaching interests
In the past I have either led or assisted in classes on a wide range of historical topics, including early modern Britain , African history in all periods, the history of the modern world, the development of capitalism in the United States , and all phases of general U.S. history. I enjoy the intellectual rewards of introducing students to facets of history that they had not previously considered and of challenging them to let their new knowledge reshape their ideas about history and what it means.
