Editing Daniel Defoe (section)

== Business career ==
Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods, and wine. His ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country estate and a ship (as well as [[civet]]s to make perfume), though he was rarely out of debt. On 1 January 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley at [[St Botolph's Aldgate]].<ref name="Novak 2001">{{Cite book |last=Novak |first=Maximillian |url=https://archive.org/details/danieldefoemaste00maxi |title=Daniel Defoe : master of fictions : his life and ideas |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-926154-3 |location=Oxford; New York |oclc=51963527 |url-access=registration}}</ref> She was the daughter of a London merchant, and brought with her a [[dowry]] of £3,700—a huge amount by the standards of the day. Given his debts and political difficulties, the marriage may have been troubled, but it lasted 47 years and produced eight children.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/>

In 1685, Defoe joined the ill-fated [[Monmouth Rebellion]] but gained a pardon, by which he escaped the [[Bloody Assizes]] of Judge [[George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|George Jeffreys]]. Queen [[Mary II of England|Mary]] and her husband [[William III of England|William III]] were jointly crowned in 1689, and Defoe became one of William's close allies and a secret agent.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> Some of the new policies led to conflict with France, thus damaging prosperous trade relationships for Defoe.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> In 1692, he was arrested for debts of £700 and, in the face of total debts that may have amounted to £17,000, was forced to declare bankruptcy. He died with little wealth and evidently embroiled in lawsuits with the royal treasury.<ref name=":0"/>

Following his release from [[debtors' prison]], he probably travelled in Europe and Scotland,<ref name="Backscheider 1989">{{Cite book |last=Backscheider |first=Paula |title=Daniel Defoe : his life |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8018-4512-3 |location=Baltimore |pages= |oclc=59911734}}</ref> and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to [[Cadiz]], [[Porto]] and [[Lisbon]]. By 1695, he was back in England, now formally using the name "Defoe" and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting taxes on bottles. In 1696, he ran a tile and brick factory in what is now [[Tilbury]] in [[History of Essex|Essex]] and lived in the parish of [[Chadwell St Mary]] nearby.