Replication Data for: Elite Persistence in the Era of England's Expanding Overseas Trade

This paper considers the consequences of England’s 17th-century dramatic expansion of overseas trade for the persistence and turnover of political elites. I study the extent to which “new” commercial economic interests—individuals involved in expanding trade—obtained Parliamentary representation, as well as the extent to which those individuals were connected to members of the incumbent parliamentary elite or hereditary aristocracy. I do so using an original dataset on Members of Parliament (MPs) spanning more than two centuries (∼1550-1750). Despite the dramatic expansion of trade during the period, I find that only a modest share of Parliament represented the commercial sector, and overseas traders never constituted a majority of commercial representatives. The parliamentary entré of trading interests manifested most acutely via investors in trade rather than active participants. Moreover, the growing Atlantic economy was associated with little turnover in MPs’ social and family backgrounds. Broadly, I find that elites persisted across the economic changes of the long 17th century and were well-positioned to capture many of the early gains for themselves.

本文探讨了17世纪英格兰海外贸易的急剧扩张对政治精英持续性与更替的影响。笔者研究了“新兴”商业经济利益群体——即参与贸易扩张的个体——获得议会代表权的程度，以及这些个体与现任议会精英或世袭贵族成员之间的关联程度。为此，笔者使用了一个覆盖两个多世纪（约1550-1750年）的英国议会成员（Members of Parliament, MPs）原始数据集。尽管该时期贸易扩张显著，但笔者发现，议会中仅小部分席位代表商业领域，且海外贸易商从未构成商业代表群体的多数。贸易利益群体进入议会的现象，最显著地体现为贸易投资者的参与，而非实际贸易从业者。此外，大西洋经济的增长与议会成员社会及家庭背景的低更替率关联甚微。总体而言，笔者发现，精英群体在漫长的17世纪经济变革中持续存在，并占据有利地位，得以攫取早期的诸多收益。