Joshua Gee

Joshua Gee (1667–1730) was a British merchant, publicist and a writer in economics who mainly focused on matters regarding trade in the early 18th century. He is best known for his book called The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Consider'd which was first published in London, 1729, and had 20 editions which were widely spread around the world.

Joshua Gee was born in 1667 probably in London and died on 3 November 1730.His father, John Gee (1635–1704) of Moyvoughley, co. Westmeath, was a Quaker and originally from Yorkshire. There is no information regarding his education.

In London, by the age of 27, Gee became a master of the Grocers' Company by purchase (without serving an apprenticeship) and hence a freeman of the City of London. By the year 1700 he was already trading with the American colonies and had built up a flourishing mercantile business. In 1715, Gee, together with Augustine Washington, father of George Washington, were one of the owners and founders of The Principio Company. It was founded by an association of British iron-masters, merchants, and capitalists, and conducted in manufacturing pig- and bar-iron in the Colonies of Maryland and Virginia for sale in England. By 1723 he was part of the leading force which owned or controlled more than 12,000 acres of land in North America containing iron ore deposits. He may have had other commercial interest in America and the West Indies as well. Gee was one of the first mortgagees, one of the nine men to whom in 1708 William Penn mortgaged his Pennsylvania estate in order to raise money to satisfy the debt he owed the heirs of his steward, Philip Ford. In addition, he was a frequent advisor of the Board of Trade and Plantations.

Gee was married twice during his lifetime. In 1697, he married Sarah Hart (1673/4–1704), daughter of a tailor at the Peel Quaker meeting. They had five children, William (b. and d. 1696), Joshua (1697–1777), John (1699–1719?), Mary (1701–1702), and Sarah (1703–1740). In 1706, two years after his first wife died, Gee married Anna Osgood (d. 1730), widow of Salem Osgood and daughter-in-law of John Osgood, a Quaker silk and linen merchant. Anna had two daughters from her previous marriage, Rebecca (1695–1783) and Anne (b. 1699). They had a further four children; Samuel (1707–1746), Elizabeth (b. 1708), Osgood (b. 1710), and Mary (b. 1713).

Gee died in 1730 at the baths in Hampstead. There are mixed sources and confusion regarding him being the real author of his two further works: An Impartial Enquiry into the Importance and Present State of the Woollen Manufacturers of Great Britain and The Grazier's Advocate, or, Free Thoughts of Wool and the Woollen Trade, which were published twelve years after his death in 1742.

The British Merchant (1713-1714)

The journal was created by Charles King to oppose Viscount Bolingbroke who attempted to establish commercial treaty, free trade, with France. Gee is believed to be a contributor to the twice-weekly issues of the journal from 1713-1714, where he postulated a mercantile system that emphasized the necessity of governmental direction and encouragement of the nation's commerce.

The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Consider’d (1729)

In 1729, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Consider’d, was published in London, which made Gee famous. This book gives an overview of British trade both historically and by national areas, and also comments on distinct problems of trade (for example devoting chapter 12 to “French fashions pernicious to England”). Nevertheless, the great extent of his work focused on resolving the problems regarding the colonial labour. One solution he offered was the transport of domestic convicts, the poor and unemployed, also creating free ports at Gibraltar and Port Mahon. In addition, he encouraged foreign import-replacing production in the plantations. Between 1729 and 1780 at least 20 editions were published all over the world. There are English editions published in London, Glasgow, and Dublin, French translations (the firstin 1749), published in London, Amsterdam and Geneva, Dutch (1750), Spanish (1753), and German (in Copenhagen, 1757)The main reason behind his worldwide success is considered to be the honesty regarding explaining the policies which were actually carried out by the English.