Legal History Commons^™

A Monetary Misunderstanding: Smith V. Gilmore And Baltimore's Place In Turn Of The 19th Century Globalization, John P. Gates

Student Articles and Papers

As the young United States entered the 19^th century, the City of Baltimore had become a major center of America’s international commerce. Baltimore had quickly risen from a relatively small town on the Chesapeake Bay to the home of the country's third busiest trading port and one of its fastest growing cities in less than two decades.

The case of Smith v. Gilmor (M.D. 1816), a lawsuit between two prominent Baltimore merchants, was emblematic of the early days of globalization and the confusion this clash of cultures caused in the world of international trade. The controversy in this case …