Building wealth and trade relationships requires at least two parties and a common currency and exchange. Once found, it is usually beneficial to at least one party to keep the relationship exclusive. This can be tricky. It can take discipline and a strategy to keep the primary goal or focus in sight. What happens when another party threatens to disrupt the arrangement? In this episode we examine the cause of English involvement in the Wampum trade. How they got involved. What they did. How the Dutch inadvertently handed them their golden ticket. We will see the shrewdness of the Dutch. After identifying the English threat and assessing the fortifications of Plymouth they employed a strategy of providing the English with wampum and pointing them away from the Dutch interests. We'll see the beginning of true English dominance and how they quickly targeted the heart of the Dutch enterprise. The Dutchmen; Jaques Elekes, Peter Minuit, and Isaak de Raisiers were shrewd and capable. Quick to capitalize on opportunities others may have missed. In the end they would be victims of the English population explosion for more than their own negligence. We won't finish the narrative today, but we'll introduce it.

Audio Production by Podsworth Media.