Auctioning settler colonialism (mobilising preaccumulation): Reinoud Vermoesen, ‘A world without stuff? Public auctions in a colonial setting: Kingston (New York) in the seventeenth century’, in Bruno Blondé, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Jon Stobart (eds), Auctions and Households in the Eighteenth-Century World: Comparative Perspectives from Across the Globe, 1700-1850, Routledge, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Auctioning settler colonialism (mobilising preaccumulation): Reinoud Vermoesen, ‘A world without stuff? Public auctions in a colonial setting: Kingston (New York) in the seventeenth century’, in Bruno Blondé, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Jon Stobart (eds), Auctions and Households in the Eighteenth-Century World: Comparative Perspectives from Across the Globe, 1700-1850, Routledge, 2026

10Apr26

Abstract: This chapter explores what the second-hand market looked like in a setting characterised by a constant scarcity of consumer goods. It focuses on an early modern colonial context: the Hudson Valley in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. This was a period when small settlements fought against the elements, against hostile natives, against other settlers, and sometimes even against each other. It examines how auctions were organised, who participated in them, and what was ultimately sold. The analysis centres on 21 auctions which took place in Esopus–Wiltwijck–Kingston between 1664 and 1667. The auctions comprised 330 different lots―including real estate, agricultural output and implements, farm animals, transport items, textiles, furniture, kitchen utensils, luxury items and arms―and involved all strata of colonial society. In a society where goods were scarce and where life was characterised by high mobility, auctions were the perfect medium for colonists who wanted to settle down, but also for those who only briefly lived in a colonial settlement. It was the circuit par excellence for a commodity market that lacked a developed retail sector. Backed by well-developed institutions, such as the local aldermen’s courts, it allowed settlers to easily sell and purchase goods. This contribution shows how auctions contributed to the construction of a colonial society.

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