Swedish Copper, Spanish Hulls: Hans Jacob Gahn, a Global Arms Race, and Consuls’ Economic Impact (1780–1784)

Interregional and global economic connections continued to grow in the eighteenth century, but we know less about consuls’ impact on commodity chains that were stretched thin across large distances. Using a microhistorical approach, we look at the activities of a Swedish consul in Cadiz, Hans Jacob Gahn, who supplied large amounts of copper sheets to the Spanish navy. It was Gahn’s position as an official representative, not merely his networks in Spain and Sweden, that was crucial for winning and executing the contract: his consular post enabled him to leverage his social, political, and financial capital to drastically alter trade flows for the years he held the contract. As contractors, consuls had a significant economic function for both their sending and receiving states.