A Historical Social Network Analysis of John Pinney’s Nevis–Bristol Network: Change over Time, the “Network Memory,” and Reading Against the Grain of Historical Sources
本文通过分析18世纪末约翰·平尼的跨大西洋商业网络，提出用两年移动总和模型捕捉网络记忆的短暂互动，并探讨该网络对奴隶和女性家庭成员的意义，为早期现代商业网络研究提供新方法。
Social network analysis is an increasingly common tool for historians seeking to understand the interrelations between individuals. A significant concern, however, is how we might measure changes within networks over time and between periods. Historians have favored examining the network as it stands at particular points in time. However, this approach fails to capture the instability within networks and does not incorporate the perceptions of contemporaries. One solution is to integrate network data into a time series that is built around conceptualizations of the “network memory.” In a case study on John Pinney’s late eighteenth-century Nevis–Bristol network, I use a two-year moving total to model the lingering nature of ephemeral interactions on the memories of those involved in the plantation trade. Using this historical social network analysis as the basis for an iterative approach to the primary material, I explore what being a part of this network meant for the enslaved people on Pinney’s plantation and for the women in his family. This article demonstrates the value of the approach and highlights the ways in which historians can use it to contribute to the historiography of early modern business networks.