The Importance Of The Occasional

Established merchants in Amsterdam, recent immigrants from Antwerp and the southern Netherlands, and Sephardic merchants in Amsterdam ran into one another quite easily. This chapter analyzes the ways in which Rodrigues Vega, Carvalho, and Osorio and their minor Dutch associates acted on each other's behalf, shared ownership of goods, insured cargoes, and extended credit to one another in greater depth. Though these occasional associations were perhaps less important for the merchants than were the long-lasting, these occasional associations illustrates that merchants were utilizing loose or weak ties with other merchants so as to spread the risks inherent in relying too heavily upon a few tightlyknit collaborators. Finally, the chapter shows that Rodrigues Vega, Carvalho, and Osorio had multiple interactions with numerous merchants from myriad backgrounds, and these interactions spanned all sorts of mercantile behavior.Keywords: Amsterdam; Carvalho; Dutch associates; mercantile behavior; merchants; Osorio; Rodrigues Vega; ties