The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky

they could buy more British products. New York products were sold down the Atlantic coast, in the West Indies, and in Southern Europe, and very little in England itself. New York, like Boston, provided the food of the British West Indies, allowing the slave islands to use all their cultivable land for sugarcane. They provided not only pickled oysters but wheat, rye, corn, salted pork and beef, apples, peas, and onions. The New York ships returned with molasses for rum and, more important, credits for New York merchants to buy manufactured goods in England. Eventually, they sailed to Africa and traded rum and manufactured goods for slaves, and traded the slaves along with pickled oysters and other food in the West Indies. The British ignored this illegal trade because it was earning New York merchants the money and credits to buy British manufacturing goods. New York’s imports of British goods grew every year, whereas its exports to Britain remained steady. In 1715, £54,600 worth of British goods entered New York and £21,300 worth were exported from New York to Britain. In 1740, the exports to Britain were about the same, but the value of British goods entering New York had more than doubled to £118,800. It seemed that Britain was steadily increasing its balance of trade with its colony, which was what was supposed to happen with colonies. But this ignored the growing trade that the colony was having with everyone else. In truth, Britain had an ever shrinking participation in the economy of such colonies as New York and Massachusetts. In time, this led to greater economic independence, making political independence a potent concept.
    Like Boston salt cod, New York pickled oysters were a by-product of the ports’ involvement in the slave trade. Salt cod had a considerable commercial edge, since far more could be caught and the product yielded far more protein both per pound and per dollar and that was what slave owners were looking for in food. But still, New Yorkers had a profitable pickled-oysters trade with British West Indies slave plantations. New York merchants were paid for the pickled oysters six times or more what they had paid local harvesters for the fresh ones.
    In the fall, the oysters would be pickled and shipped out. Although New Yorkers ate oysters all year long, it was believed that the oysters in the months without
R
s—May, June, July, and August—were of inferior quality and so they waited for the better oysters to come in the fall. This is an ancient and somewhat mythological belief. In 1599, William Butler, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote, “It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not R in their name to eat oysters.” The myth has an element of truth in the case of New York. Oysters take their cue to begin spawning when the water warms up, which is in May, and it is true that spawning oysters tend to be thin, translucent, and generally less appealing. Some argued that letting the beds rest during spawning season was a good conservation measure. Summer oysters are, however, perfectly healthy unless spoiled in the market by summer heat.

    Between eating oysters
and pickling them for trade, Manhattan had more oyster shells than ever. Kalm wrote:
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    On our journey to New York we saw high heaps of oyster shells near farmhouses upon the seashore, and about New York we observed the people had scattered them upon the fields which were sown with wheat, noted with surprise that rather than grinding them up for fertilizer the local farms would simply plough into the soil whole shells.
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    The European botanist did not think much of this practice, believing that limestone worked better. But New Yorkers needed to find a use for their growing heaps of oyster shells. Since New York City’s oyster trade grew up side by side with the larger New York State wheat trade, the two always had connections, often sharing markets and even