Colonial Boston was part of a vast Atlantic trading network that stretched from the Caribbean to Canada. New Englanders cultivated few valuable natural resources of their own, but they mastered the merchant economy and established Boston as a central shipping and exchange hub. The city became what geographers call an entrepôt—a place where goods are imported, traded, repackaged, and exported again.
Published on the eve of the Seven Years’ War, Thomas Jefferys’s map includes detailed annotations highlighting territorial disputes, particularly around the Mississippi River and Nova Scotia. After the war, when France was expelled from North America, Boston’s position within the Atlantic trade network grew more complicated as Britain imposed new taxes and deployed troops to secure its hard-won territories.