Dear Anatol Scott: I am pleased to see that there is no problem with the "Triangular Trade" being a misnomer. On the second point, my inclusion of the Caribbean with the Americas, the issue can be viewed as a methological problem. But only, it seems to me, if you look at the islands in isolation. Was the Caribbean not part and parcel of the Atlantic economy that emerged after 1492? The importance of how the "New England traders, the Caribbean rum traders, and the Brazilian rum-tobacco traders in the Atlantic slave trade" fit together is not just limited to the historiography of the U.S., but to that of the Atlantic as a whole. These folks, by drawing upon a low cost, colonial product (as opposed to Euro-Asian trade goods, that became valued in West, and especially West Central, Africa, were able to break the monopoly which merchant capitalists in Europe had enjoyed prior to the mid-1600s in the Atlantic slave trade. This because, colonial rum was much cheaper and cost less to transport to Africa, amongst other advantages, than any of the alcoholic beverages Europeans had to offer: and here colonial traders in Brazil were quite effective. Viewing this process in its totality does not necessarily suggest, as you do, that "their [people who inhabited the Caribbean] flourishing trade [was] subordinate to that of North or South America." One more thing and do correct me if I am wrong. You ask "Will answers to such questions help to explain anything about the two solitudes which developed in the United States?" Which two: the Euro-Americans and the Amerindians, or the Euro-Americans and the African-Americans? In either case, one group is missing here: the African-Americans (in terms of the broad Americas), who produced most of the rum and were led to consume not small quantities of it; and the Amerindians who were also turned to this intoxicant. As for the other point you raise, I shall leave it to specialists of the Caribbean and North America to comment on. Cheers, Jose Jose C. Curto Co-editor, Newsletter of CAAS Center for Society, Technology and Development McGill University 2020 University, suite 2400 Montreal, Qc. CANADA H3A 2A5 Phone: (514) 398-3070 Fax: (514) 398-4619 Email: [log in to unmask]