Maritime History as Global History [Illustrated] 0986497339, 9780986497339

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SERIES EDITOR Lewis R. FISCHER (Canada) MANAGING EDITOR Maggie M. HENNESSEY (Canada) EDITORIAL BOARD Lars U. SCHOLL (Germany, Chair) M. Elisabetta TONIZZI (Italy. Vice-Chair) Stig TENOLD (Norway, Secretary)

Catia ANTUNES (Netherlands) John BARZMAN (France) Tapio BERGHOLM (Finland) Hubert BONIN (France) Huw V. BOWEN (Wales) Gordon H. BOYCE (Australia) Jaap R. BRUUN (Netherlands) James E. CANDOW (Canada) Maria FUSARO (England) Ruthi GERTWAGEN (Israel) Graydon R. HENNING (Australia) Gordon JACKSON (Scotland) Adrian JARVIS (England) Jan Tore KLOVLAND (Norway)

Silvia MARZAGALLI (France) Kenneth MCPHERSON (Australia) Michael B. MILLER (USA) Graeme MILNE (England) Kenneth MORGAN (England) Jari OJALA (Finland) Sarah PALMER (England) Chris REID (England) M. Stephen SALMON (Canada) Morten K. S0NDERGAARD (Denmark) Carl E. SWANSON (USA) Carmel VASSALLO (Malta) William D. WRAY (Canada)

INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION

Jesus M. VALDALISO (President) Amelia POLONIA (Vice-President) Malcolm TULL (Vice-President) Berit E. JOHNSEN (Secretary) Ayodeji OLUKOJU (Treasurer)

MAILING ADDRESS Maritime Studies Research Unit Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Newfoundland AlC 5S7, Canada

RESEARCH IN MARITIME HISTORY NO. 43

MARITIME HISTORY AS GLOBAL HISTORY

Edited by Maria Fusaro and Amélia Polonia

International Maritime Economic History Association St. John's, Newfoundland 2010 ISSN 1188-3928 ISBN 978-0-9864973-3-9

Research in Maritime History would like to thank the Escuela de Administración Maritima, Departmento de Transportes, Vivienda y Obras del Gobierno Vasco (School of Maritime Administration, Department of Transport, Housing and Public Works of the Basque Government) and Memorial University of Newfoundland for generous financial assistance in the publication of this volume. Research in Maritime History is published semi-annually, in June and December. The contents are copyrighted by the International Maritime Economic History Association and all rights are reserved under Canadian and international law. Copying without the written permission of the International Maritime Economic History Association is prohibited. Research in Maritime History is available free of charge to members of the International Maritime Economic History Association. The price to others is US $25 per copy, plus US $5 postage and handling. Back issues of Research in Maritime History are available: No. 1 (1991)

David M. Williams and Andrew P. White (comps.), A Select Bibliography of British and Irish University Theses about Maritime History, 1792-1990

No. 2 (1992)

Lewis R. Fischer (ed. ), From Wheel House to Counting House: Essays in Maritime Business History in Honour of Professor Peter Neville Davies

No. 3 (1992)

Lewis R. Fischer and Walter Minchinton (eds.), People of the Northern Seas

No. 4 (1993)

Simon Ville (ed.), Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century: A Regional Approach

No. 5 (1993)

Peter N. Davies (ed.), The Diary of John Holt

No. 6 (1994)

Simon P. Ville and David M. Williams (eds.), Management, Finance and Industrial Relations in Maritime Industries: Essays in International Maritime and Business History

No. 7 (1994)

Lewis R. Fischer (ed.), The Market for Seamen in the Age of Sail

No. 8 (1995)

Gordon Read and Michael Stammers (comps.), Guide to the Records ofMerseyside Maritime Museum, Volume 1

No. 9 (1995)

Frank Broeze (ed.), Maritime History at the Crossroads: A Critical Review of Recent Historiography

No. 10 (1996)

Nancy Redmayne Ross (ed.), The Diary of a Maritimer, 1816-1901: The Life and Times of Joseph Salter

No. 11 (1997)

Fay e Margaret Kert, Prize and Prejudice: Privateering and Naval Prize in Atlantic Canada in the War of 1812

No. 12 (1997)

Malcolm Tuli, A Community Enterprise: The History of the Port of Fremantle, 1897 to 1997

No. 13 (1997)

Paul C. van Royen, Jaap R. Bruijn and Jan Lucassen (eds.), "Those Emblems of Hell '? European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570-1870

No. 14 (1998)

David J. Starkey and Gelina Harlaftis (eds.), Global Markets: The Internationalization of The Sea Transport Industries Since 1850

No. 15 (1998)

Olaf Uwe Janzen (ed.), Merchant Organization and Maritime Trade in the North Atlantic, 1660-1815

No. 16 (1999)

Lewis R. Fischer and Adrian Jarvis (eds.), Harbours and Havens: Essays in Port History in Honour of Gordon Jackson

No. 17 (1999)

Dawn Littler, Guide to the Records ofMerseyside Maritime Museum, Volume 2

No. 18 (2000)

Lars U. Scholl (comp.), Merchants and Mariners: Selected Maritime Writings of David M. Williams

No. 19 (2000)

Peter N. Davies, The Trade Makers: Elder Dempster in West Africa, 1852-1972, 1973-1989

No. 20 (2001)

Anthony B. Dickinson and Chesley W. Sanger, Norwegian Whaling in Newfoundland: The Aquaforte Station and the Ellefsen Family, 19021908

No. 21 (2001)

Poul Holm, Tim D. Smith and David J. Starkey (eds.), The Exploited Seas: New Directions for Marine Environmental History

No. 22 (2002)

Gordon Boyce and Richard Gorski (eds.), Resources and Infrastructures in the Maritime Economy, 1500-2000

No. 23 (2002)

Frank Broeze, The Globalisation of the Oceans: Containerisation from the 1950s to the Present

No. 24 (2003)

Robin Craig, British Tramp Shipping, 1750-1914

No. 25 (2003)

James Reveley, Registering Interest: Waterfront Labour Relations in New Zealand, 1953 to 2000

No. 26 (2003)

Adrian Jarvis, In Troubled Times: The Port of Liverpool, 1905-1938

No. 27 (2004)

Lars U. Scholl and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen (comps.), Sail and Steam: Selected Maritime Writings of Yrjö Kaukiainen

No. 28 (2004)

Geiina Harlaftis and Carmel Vassallo (eds.), New Directions in Mediterranean Maritime History

No. 29 (2005)

Gordon Jackson, The British Whaling Trade

No. 30 (2005)

Lewis Johnman and Hugh Murphy, Scott Lithgow: Déjà vu All Over Again! The Rise and Fall of a Shipbuilding Company

No. 31 (2006)

David Gleicher, The Rescue of the Third Class on the Titanic: A Revisionist History

No. 32 (2006)

Stig Tenold, Tankers in Trouble: Norwegian Shipping and the Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s

No. 33 (2007)

Torsten Feys, Lewis R. Fischer, Stéphane Hoste and Stephan Vanfraechem (eds.), Maritime Transport and Migration: The Connections between Maritime and Migration Networks

No. 34 (2007)

A.B. Dickinson, Seal Fisheries of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies: An Historical Review

No. 35 (2007)

Tapio Bergholm, Lewis R. Fischer and M. Elisabetta Tonizzi (eds.), Making Global and Local Connections: Historical Perspectives on Ports

No. 36 (2008)

Mark C. Hunter, Policing the Seas: Anglo-American Relations and the Equatorial Atlantic, 1819-1865

No. 37 (2008)

Lewis R. Fischer and Even Lange (eds.), International Merchant Shipping in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Comparative Dimension

No. 38 (2008)

Adrian Jarvis and Robert Lee (eds.), Trade, Migration and Urban Networks in Port Cities, c. 1640-1940

No. 39 (2009)

Henry T. Chen, Taiwanese Distant-Water Fisheries in Southeast Asia, 1936-1977

No. 40 (2009)

John Armstrong, The Vital Spark: The British Coastal Trade, 17001930

No. 41 (2009)

Carina E. Ray and Jeremy Rich (eds.), Navigating African Maritime History

No. 42 (2010)

S.G. Sturmey, British Shipping and World Competition

Table of Contents

About the Editors / iii Contributors' Notes / ν

Amélia Polonia, "Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?" / 1 Eberhard Crailsheim, "Behind the Atlantic Expansion: Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620" / 21 Matthias van Rossum, Lex Heerma van Voss, Jelle van Lottum and Jan Lucassen, "National and International Labour Markets for Sailors in European, Atlantic and Asian Waters, 1600-1850" / 47 Jagjeet Lally, "Maritime Expansion and (De)globalization? An Examination of the Land and Sea Trade in Seventeenth-Century Mughal India" / 73 Anna Winterbottom, "From Hold to Foredeck: Slave Professions in the Maritime World of the East India Company, c. 1660-1720" / 95 Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, "Small Town Merchants, Global Ventures: The Maritime Trade of the New Julfan Armenians in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries" / 125 David Haines, "Lighting up the World? Empires and Islanders in the Pacific Whaling Industry, 1790-1860" / 159 David M. Williams and John Armstrong, "Technological Advances in the Maritime Sector: Some Implications for Trade, Modernization and the Process of Globalization in the Nineteenth Century" / 177

i

Camilla Brautaset and Stig Tenold, "Lost in Calculation? Norwegian Merchant Shipping in Asia, 1870-1914" / 203 Benoît Doessant and Samir Saul, "Why Are the Major Oil Companies Selling Off their Fleets? The Case of Total" / 223 Regina Gräfe, "Turning Maritime History into Global History: Some Conclusions from the Impact of Globalization in Early Modern Spain" / 249 Maria Fusaro, "Maritime History as Global History? The Methodological Challenges and a Future Research Agenda" / 267

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ABOUT THE EDITORS MARIA FUSARO < [email protected] > graduated from the Università di Venezia Ca' Foscari, and then moved to Cambridge where she completed her PhD in 2002. After a Junior Research Fellowship at St. Hugh's College at Oxford, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. At the University of Exeter since 2006, she is presently Senior Lecturer in early modern European history and directs the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies (http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/cmhs/). Her research interests lie in the social and economic history of early modern Europe. Her major area of expertise is the history of Italy (especially the Venetian Republic) and the Mediterranean between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Her research has focused mostly on trade between the Mediterranean and the north of Europe, on mercantile networks and on the history of the Venetian dominions in Greece. She has recently begun to investigate issues related to the presence of commercial litigation in medieval and early modern courts of justice. She is the author of Reti commerciali e traffici globali in età ' moderna (Rome, 2008); L'uva passa: Una guerra commerciale tra Venezia e l'Inghilterra, 1540-1640 (Venice, 1997); and has co-edited (with Colin Heywood and Mohamed-Salah Omri), Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Braudel's Maritime Legacy (London, 2010). Her articles include "Les Anglais et les Grecs: Un Réseau de coopération commerciale en Méditerranée vénitienne," Annales Histoire, Sciences Sociales, LVIII, No. 3 (2003), 605-625; "Representation in Practice: The Myth of Venice and the British Protectorate in the Ionian Islands (1801-1864)," in Filippo de Vivo, Melissa Calaresu and Joan-Pau Rubies (eds.), Exploring Cultural History: Essays in Honour of Peter Burke (London, 2010), 327-344; "After Braudel: A Reassessment of Mediterranean History between the Northern Invasion and the Caravane Maritime," in Fusaro, Heywood and Omri (eds.), Trade and Cultural Exchange, 1-22; "Mercanti stranieri nell'economia italiana," in Franco Franceschi, Richard Goldthwaite and Reinhold Mueller (eds.), Il Rinascimento Italiano e l'Europa. Voi. 4: L'Italia e l'economia europea nel Rinascimento (Treviso, 2007), 369-395; and "Coping with Transition: Greek Merchants and Shipowners between Venice and England in the Late Sixteenth Century," in Gelina Harlaftis, Ina Baghdiantz McCabe and Ioanna Pepelasis-Minoglou (eds.), Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History (London, 2005), 95-123. AMELIA POLÒNIA < [email protected]> is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Political and International Studies at the iii

University of Porto and a researcher with CITCEM (Transdisciplinary Research Centre on Culture, Space and Memory). Dr. Polònia has been a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Maritime History and currently serves on the boards of História - Revista da FLUP and Locus. She is also a vice-president of the International Maritime Economic History Association. A principal investigator on DynCoopNet (Dynamic Complexity of Cooperation-Based SelfOrganizing Commercial Networks in the First Global Age), an international project of the European Science Foundation (ESF), she was project leader of Hisportos, a major collaborative research project on the history of northwestern Portuguese seaports in the early modern period. She has organized several international conferences, workshops and thematic panels in scientific meetings and is currently a member of the organizing committees of several international conferences, including the Sixth International Congress of Maritime History (Ghent, 2012).Her main research and teaching subjects range from Portuguese overseas expansion and European colonization to seaport and harbour studies, maritime communities, gender and social and trade networks. She is the author of Expansâo e Descobrimentos mima perspectiva local (2 vols., Lisbon, 2007); and D. Henrique, o Cardeal Rei (Lisbon, 2009), and is co-editor of European Seaports in the Early Modern Age: A Comparative Approach (Porto, 2007). Among her contributions in books and articles in scholarly journals are "European Seaports as Centres of Economic Growth from the Sixteenth through the Eighteenth Century," in Richard Unger (ed.), Shipping Efficiency and Economic Growth, 1350-1800 (Leiden, forthcoming); "Global Interactions: Representations of the East and the Far East in Portugal (Sixteenth Century)," in Rila Mukherjee (ed.), Cultures, Commodities and Cultures in the First Global Age (Delhi, forthcoming); "The Northwestern Portuguese Seaport System in the Early Modern Age," in Tapio Bergholm, Lewis R. Fischer and M. Elisabetta Tonizzi (eds.), Making Global and Local Connections: Historical Perspectives on Ports (St. John's, 2008), 113-136; "European Seaports in the Early Modern Age: Concepts, Methodology and Models of Analysis," Cahiers de la Méditerranée, LXXX (2010), 17-39; and "'Now and Then, Here and There...on Business:' Mapping Social/Trade Networks in the First Global Age," in Karel Kriz, et al. (eds.), Mapping Different Geographies (Heidelberg, 2010), 106-128 (with Miguel Nogueira and Amândio Barros). She has also published in the field of gender studies, including "Women's Contributions to Family, Economy and Social Range in Maritime Societies: Portugal, 16th Century," Portuguese Studies Review, ΧΙΠ, No. 1 (2006), 269-285; and "Women's Participation in Labour and Business in European Maritime Societies in the Early Modern Period," Il ruolo economico dellafamiglia: Secs. XIIIXVIII. Atti delle 'Settimane di studio' (Prato, 2009), 705-720. iv

CONTRIBUTORS JOHN ARMSTRONG recently retired from Thames Valley University where he was professor of business history. He is interested in all aspects of transport history, especially the British coastal trade, and also the early history of steam navigation. On the former he has recently published The Vital Spark: The British Coastal Trade, 1700-1930 (St. John's, Research in Maritime History No. 40, 2009); on the latter, in cooperation with David M. Williams, he has published a number of articles in a wide range of journals. CAMILLA BRAUTASET < [email protected] > is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen and a Visiting Research Associate in the Business History Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her main research interests are fish and ships. During 2011-2014 she will be heading the project "Merchants and Missionaries: Norwegian Encounters with China in a Transnational Perspective, 1890-1937," which is funded by a major grant from the Norwegian Research Council. EBERHARD CRAILSHEIM < [email protected] > is an historian from Austria who is currently working as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Hamburg. Since 2009 he has been a member of the project "Text, Bild, Performanz," studying forms of representation and power in the colonial Philippines. His publications include "Central Europe and the Atlantic World: The Mines of Idria and the American Demand for Mercury (1556-1646)," in Renate Pieper and Peer Schmidt (eds.), Latin America and the Atlantic World/El mundo atlántico y América Latina (1500-1850): Essays in Honor of Horst Pietschmann (Köln, 2005), 297318 (with Eva-Maria Wiedenbauer); "Commerce et société des marchands français à Séville (1580-1650): Les exemples de Pedro de la Farxa, Lanfran David et Pedro de Alogue," in Guy Saupin and JeanPhilippe Priotti (eds.), Le commerce atlantique franco-espagnol: Acteurs, négoces et ports (XVe-XVIIIe siècle) (Rennes, 2008), 233-248; and "Extranjeros entre dos mundos: Una aproximación proporcional a las colonias de mercaderes extranjeros en Sevilla (1570-1650)," Jahrbuch für Geschichte Latin-amerikas, XLVIII (2011) (forthcoming). BENOÎT DOESSANT is in charge of the historical archives of Total. He recently completed a master's thesis at the Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne on the maritime transportation of oil as a sector of the French economy. ν

REGINA GRÄFE < [email protected] > is an assistant professor of European history at Northwestern University. Her research interests include early modern Spanish history in its Atlantic context and the history of commercial institutions in Europe and Latin America. Her third monograph on Spanish economic history, Distant Tyranny. Markets, Power and Backwardness in Spain 1650-1800, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press in 2011. DAVID HAINES < [email protected] > is a Masters candidate at the University of Otago, where his thesis research focuses on cultural contact between Maori and shore whalers on the Banks Peninsula, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, in the 1830s and 1840s. He is the author of "In Search of the 'Whaheen:' Ngai Tahu Women, Shore Whalers, and the Meaning of Sex in Early New Zealand," in Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton (eds.), Moving Subjects: Gender, Intimacy and Mobility in an Age of Global Empire (Urbana, IL, 2009), 49-66. He is currently based in Wellington, New Zealand, where he also works as a research facilitator for a trust that commissions historical research to assist Maori tribal groups in their treaty settlement negotiations with the New Zealand government. JAGJEETLALLY is currently a first-year PhD student at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, and a Prize Research Student at the Centre for History and Economics, King's and Magdalene Colleges, Cambridge, with interests in global, maritime and imperial histories and the history of material consumption and production. This paper is the product of continuing research undertaken at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2007-2008 and currently being extended for the doctoral dissertation. JAN LUCASSEN < [email protected] > is a senior research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam and professor of social history at the Free University of Amsterdam. He has published extensively on migration and labour history, including Migration History in World History: Multidisciplinary Approaches (Leiden, 2010, with Leo Lucassen and Patrick Manning). INA BAGHDIANTZ MCCABE < [email protected] > is Professor of History and the holder of the Darakjian Jafarian Chair in Armenian history at Tufts University. She is the author The Shah's Silk for Europe's Silver: The Eurasian Silk Trade of the Julfan Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1590-1750) (Philadelphia, 1999); and Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian Trade, Exoticism and vi

the Ancien Regime (Oxford, 2008). She is also the co-author of Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Seventeenth Century Safavid Isfahan (London, 2004); the editor of Du bon usage du thé et des épices en Asie ou Réponses à Monsieur Cabart de Villarmont de Jean Chardin (Paris, 2002); and a co-editor of Diaspora and Entrepreneurial Networks, 16002000 (Oxford, 2005). SAMIR SAUL is Associate Professor of modem French history at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in the international relations of France since the latter part of the nineteenth century with a focus on the economic angle. He is the author of La France et l'Égypte de 1882 à 1914. Intérêts économiques et implications politiques (Paris, 1997) and has published articles in major historical journals in France. STIG TENOLD < [email protected] > is Professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He is the author of several books and articles on Norwegian maritime history and East Asian economic development. His current research projects include postwar innovations in the maritime industries, nineteenthcentury voyage patterns and the basis for local scenes in popular music. JELLE VAN LOTTUM is a British Academy Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He has published extensively on topics dealing with maritime history, labour migration and economic development in early modern and nineteenth-century Europe. MATTHIAS VAN ROSSUM < [email protected] > is affiliated with both the International Institute of Social History and the Free University Amsterdam. He is working on a PhD project concerning intercultural relations between European and Asian sailors employed by the Dutch East India Company. His MA thesis on the dynamics of conflict and solidarity among the European and Asiatic sailors in the Dutch merchant fleet, 1890-1945 was awarded with the 2009 J.R. Bruijn Prize and published as Hand aan Hand (Blank en Bruin) (Amsterdam, 2009). LEX HEERMA VAN VOSS < [email protected] > is a research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam and holds a chair in the history of labour and labour relations at Utrecht University. He has published on the comparative history of dockworkers and on the history of the North Sea. DAVID M. WILLIAMS is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester. A past vii

president of the International Maritime Economic History Association, he has published widely on maritime, commercial and economic history. An indication of his research may be gained from Lars U. Scholl (comp.), Merchants and Mariners: Selected Maritime Writings of David M. Williams (St. John's, Research in Maritime History No. 18, 2000). ANNA WINTERBOTTOM < [email protected] > teaches history at the University of Sussex. Her research interests include global history, the history of the Indian Ocean, colonialism and development policy, and the history of science and medicine. She has published articles on all these subjects and is currently revising her PhD thesis, on scholarship and the early East India Company, for publication as a monograph.

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Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History? Amélia Polònia This volume seeks to contribute new insights to current debates about the scope of maritime history and its connections with global history. It comprises a set of studies on various themes, time periods and geographical areas, using diverse methodologies and theoretical frameworks, but with a common topic: a discussion of the global impact of maritime dynamics.1 Since maritime history in its economic, social, cultural, environmental and political dimensions contributes actively to world history, this collection intends to highlight maritime history as a major agent for broad global exchange, focusing on interdependencies which fostered connections on the local, national and global levels from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. To meet this goal, the book includes papers covering both a broad spatial and chronological scope and diverse sub-fields of maritime historical research. The intellectual conception of the volume is two-fold. On the one hand, it shows how maritime dynamics created global exchanges in the sense that they generated phenomena that had global impacts. The ultimate example might be the European maritime expansion between 1500 and 1800 which served as a catalyst for launching a world economic system which eventually led to the "First Global Age," a subject that is still under discussion and demands further research. On the other hand, we believe that maritime history in its broadest sense is global in the sense of a "total history," a hypothesis supported by a good deal of evidence. Maritime history in its widest sense is usually understood as a field of research which encompasses all the dynamics which result from, and are required by, the ways humans use the sea.2 In this sense, maritime history cannot be confined to a specific field of historical research. Rather, it often crosses the boundaries of other disciplines and fields of research, and indeed goes be'This publication stems from a session on "Maritime History as Global History" sponsored by the International Maritime Economic History Association at the Fifteenth World Economic History Conference in Utrecht, 4-7 August 2009. 2 See the generally accepted definition of maritime history in Frank Broeze, "From the Periphery to the Mainstream: The Challenge of Australia's Maritime History," The Great Circle, XI, No. 1 (1989), 1-13.

1

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Amélia Polonia

yond the limits of history. Understanding the historical development of fisheries requires the study of sea resources and an analysis of the sustainability of eco-systems, thereby involving disciplines such as biology, climatology, ecology and environmental science.3 Studies on maritime accessibility draw on insights from geography, geomorphology and engineering. Studying seafaring or fishing communities necessitates theoretical and methodological inputs from anthropology, sociology and even the behavioural sciences. Analyzing the distribution of maritime populations involves demographic studies. An analysis of labour markets, rivalry patterns or international economic supremacy at sea requires insights from economics and political science, just as the study of shipping frequently involves understanding the achievements of naval studies and underwater archaeology. Oceanography, cartography and hydrography are also important tools for maritime historians. Just within the discipline of history, maritime history involves economic, social, demographic, political, cultural and art history, including representations of the sea in art and literature. Other cultural manifestations, such as religious and devotional practices and beliefs, can also be a focus of maritime history. More recently, maritime historians have also drawn on the histories of technology and science, as well as the history of the "immaterial" (i.e., the fears, expectations and codes of inclusion and exclusion of maritime communities and groups). In fact, the broader sense suggested by Broeze's definition implies that maritime history is a heterogeneous field which encompasses a wide range of subjects. Shipping, nautical science, naval organization and warfare at sea are some of the main topics. So too are empire building, overseas trade, navigation and exploration, especially during the early modern period. Communication and transportation systems, including the study of fleets and companies, the age of sail, the steam revolution, containerization and technological advances in the maritime sector are part of the maritime historians' remit. Ports, harbour construction, coastal area management, seaside resorts and seascapes are also topics of interest, as is sea exploitation (both on the surface and under the sea), including the fisheries and studies of marine ecosystems. Issues related to social, religious and cultural studies have emerged recently as important topics in maritime history. Their inclusion reveals an understanding of the centrality of human agents to maritime dynamics. The focus tends to be not only on leaders but also on common and anonymous agents.4 Studies of seafaring communities; fishermen, seafarers and sea-related agents; seamen's professional organizations; family structures; and identity 3

As an example, see W. Jeffrey Bolster, "Opportunities in Marine Environmental History," Environmental History, XI, No. 3 (2006), 567-597. 4

Further debate on this subject occurred at the Social Science History Association in Chicago, 18-21 November 2010, in a session on "The Power of the Commoners: Informal Agent-based Networks as Source of Power in the First Global Age."

Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?

3

patterns have become acceptable subjects for maritime historians,5 as have studies of literature, iconography, architecture and urbanization related to seafaring communities. The representation of maritime space is another subject for research, while interdisciplinary analyses including geography and the study of mental spatial depictions are becoming relevant.6 Acknowledging these trends in her introduction to the American Historical Review forum on "Oceans of History," Kären Wigen has noted that "maritime scholarship seems to have burst its bounds; across the discipline, the sea is swinging into view." 7 The same perception is sustained by Glen O'Hara in a recent article.8 If this is now accepted, does it mean that maritime history is tending to become more global in its scope? Is it possible to "measure" this trend over time? Does this generalization reflect reality or are these authors mistaking the exceptions for the whole? Even approximate answers to these questions require an assessment of the publications in maritime history over the past few decades, an initiative which is both ambitious and unoriginal. Several attempts have already been made for specific subjects and geographic areas. One of these was Frank Broeze's edited 1995 collection, Maritime History at the Crossroads, which contained essays on Australian, North American, Chinese, Indian, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, Dutch and Turkish maritime historiography.9 There are also the three essays in "Oceans of History:" "The Mediterranean and the New Thalassology" by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell; "Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges, and Opportunities" by Alison 5

See the body of work by Alain Cabantous, including "Aspects des structures démographiques des populations maritimes de la France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles," in Les traditions maritimes: Actes du Colloque (Québec, 1985), 433-445; Le ciel dans la mer: Christianisme et civilisation maritime, XVI-XIX siècle (Paris, 1990); Deux mille marins face à l'océan: Les populations maritimes de Dunkerque au Havre aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (vers 1660-1794). Etude sociale (Paris, 1991); and La mer et les homes: Pêcheurs et matelots dunkerquois de Louis XIV à la Révolution (Dunkerque, 1980). See also Philip E. Steinberg, The Social Construction of the Ocean (Cambridge, 2001). 6

John R. Gillis, Islands of the Mind: How the Human Imagination Created the Atlantic World (New York, 2004). 7

Kären Wigen, "Introduction to AHR Forum on Oceans of History,'" American Historical Review, CXI, No. 3 (2006), 717-721. 8

Glen O'Hara, "The Sea is Swinging into View: Modem British Maritime History in a Globalised World," English Historical Review, CXXIV, No. 3 (2009), 1109-1134. 'Frank Broeze (ed.), Maritime History at the Crossroads: A Critical Review of Recent Historiography (St. John's, 1995).

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Amélia Polonia

Games; and "The Pacific" by Matt K. Matsuda. Unfortunately, none of these really provides exhaustive coverage since this was not their intent. Moreover, as the editor admitted, the forum also contained nothing on the Indian Ocean.10 In "The Pacific," Matsuda argues that studying and even defining that ocean historically requires the assimilation of multiple disciplines and scholarly domains. He shows convincingly that comprehending the Pacific as an entity requires the inclusion of anthropological studies of islanders, approaches to the "Pacific Rim," policy issues and economic development, side by side with navigational, immigration and diaspora studies on Oceania, East and Southeast Asia and the Americas. By concluding that contributions from ethno-botanists, musicologists, historical linguists, marine archaeologists, poets, novelists and political activists are necessary for such an endeavour, Matsuda stresses the multidisciplinary scope of maritime history. The same conclusion is sustained by Gelina Harlaftis' and Carmel Vassallo's New Directions in Mediterranean Maritime History.11 Dedicated to a single sea, and trying to discover trends in maritime historical research from Braudel to the present day, the volume focussed mostly on Europe and included contributions from Spanish, French, Italian, Maltese, Slovenian, Greek, Turkish and Israeli historians. Harlaftis' and Vassallo's introductory essay began by historicizing the institutional framework in which maritime history developed, providing a survey which ranged from the founding of the International Commission of Maritime History (ICMH)12 to the creation of the International Maritime Economic History Association (IMEHA) in order to isolate shifting trends in maritime historiography over time. Their conclusion stressed the need for more multicultural and transnational studies, emphasizing that each of the essays in the volume indicated "the extent to which the maritime history of one country is found in the history of the others, and how much research in maritime history means research across national boundaries."13 The same statement could be applied to the Atlantic, Indian or Pacific oceans. In the same spirit, the Revue d'Histoire Maritime recently dedicated an entire issue to international research in maritime history in order to discern trends in European maritime studies. The volume was centred mainly on 10

Wigen, "Introduction to AHR Forum."

"Gelina Harlafits and Carmel Vassallo (eds.), New Directions in Mediterranean Maritime History (St. John's, 2004). 12

The ICMH was founded in 1960 and is still an affiliated organization of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS). It is comprised of a variety of national associations. For more information, see http://www.icmh.org.uk/. "Gelina Harlaftis and Carmel Vassallo, "Introduction," in Harlaftis and Vassallo (eds.), New Directions in Mediterranean Maritime History, 19.

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5

French research but also included contributions from Holland, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Canada and Scandinavia (primarily Sweden and Denmark).14 It was divided into five sections15 which seem to parallel the main strands of French-oriented research in maritime history: the sea shores and their exploitation; the social history of maritime communities; connections between the sea and its hinterlands; the sea and war; and overseas trade and shipping from a local perspective. The almost two thousand monographs published in France since the 1950s included in the final bibliography underscore a clear diachronic evolution in French maritime history.16 A broader understanding of maritime history among French scholars was synthesized by Gerard Le Bouëdec in his role as a representative of the Groupement d'intérêt scientifique d'histoire maritime (GIS).17 As he noted, "Ce sont les usages de la mer et les rapports pluriels de l'homme au littoral qui constituent le socle conceptuel de l'histoire maritime."18 The focus of the GIS also expands the domains of maritime studies by including the sea's impact on politics, society and cultural practices, as well as the global impact of the sea on the origins and development of countries and continents.19 All of this suggests a related question that deserves additional scrutiny: do national tendencies exist in maritime history? Even if maritime history is becoming more global, it has never fully shed the influence of local and national biases which orient its focus and analytical domains. We can ask, for example, whether British dominance in naval and port studies is still real, or at what level Braudel's geo-economic history persists in French historiography. Does the prevalence of overseas expansion in Portuguese historiography still hold, and is the dominance of fisheries studies in the Scandinavian literature a 14

"La Recherche Internationale en Histoire Maritime - essai d'évaluation," thematic issue of Revue d'Histoire Maritime, Nos. 11-12 (2010). l5

"Les échanges: Des grands horizons au ravage;" "Les gens de mer et des sociétés littorals;" "L'exploitation de la mer et de l'estran;" "La mer et la guerre;" and "Découvertes, explorations, représentations." 16

"La Recherche Internationale en Histoire Maritime," 427-527.

"Groupement d'intérêt scientifique d'histoire maritime (GIS) was created in 2005. See http://www.univ-ubs.fr/histoire-maritime/. 18 Gérard Le Bouëdec, "Introduction" to "La Recherche Internationale en Histoire Maritime," 8. 19 The group examines coastal areas as interfaces with the sea; coastal societies and territories; local and international maritime trade; inshore and deep-sea fishing; military and seaside tourist activities; coastal planning; exploitation of the foreshores; ports; and dynamic processes on the littorals. See http://www.histoire-maritime.org/.

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reality or a myth? Only a statistical examination of the publications in maritime history in the past few decades can answer these questions. Accepting that such a study is currently impossible, we can search for alternative approaches. One would be to analyze maritime thesauri under the assumption that such an intellectual classification reflects both the knowledge actually produced and the epistemological framework within which it is organized. Using the thesaurus of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO),20 we find the expected dominance of classical indexation terms, such as shipping, cargo handling, maritime and harbour items, causalities at sea, maritime transport, maritime traffic, coastal areas and coastal management. The most striking feature, however, is the emergence of terms related to marine ecosystems, including marine pollution, biodégradation, biodiversity, biological contamination, biological control, climate change and environmental management. The presence of those related to cross-cultural environments, or to women's studies (women in maritime industries) is easily understood in the context of issues in contemporary societies and economies. The same could be said about terms related to communication at sea, containerisation, health and safety, marine engineering, marine resources, marine sciences, marine scientific research, marine technology and maritime security (including terrorism and maritime training). It is also interesting to note the inclusion of "inland" as a main topic, related to inland waterways, cross-border navigation and transboundary watercourses. The "human element" leads to topics like fatigue, health and safety and human error, as well as to seafarers' abandonment, criminalization, fair treatment, international memorials, manning, seafarers' identification, seafarers' trust and welfare. The obvious question that arises from this is whether maritime history is at a crossroads leading to a kind of total history which encompasses all domains of knowledge, including those traditionally delegated to other social sciences, cultural studies or even the biological and environmental sciences? To further pursue the goal of locating the dominant topics and trends in maritime history, we might look at the papers presented at the last two International Congresses of Maritime History in Corfu (2004) and Greenwich (2008). These can act as a check on the previous indicators, even though south European (Portuguese, Spanish and Italian) and French researchers are clearly under-represented in this sample. Although several factors tend to diminish the accuracy of such an analysis, this task might still be useful. The results of this survey are presented in table 1.

20

http : //w w w. imo.org/KnowledgeCentre/Docatnents/Thesaurus_July2010_pdf accessed 24 November 2010.

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Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?

Table 1 2004 and 2008 IMEHA Conferences: A Comparative Analysis Subject Coastal Exploitation Communication Systems Cultural Studies

Environment

Fisheries and Whaling Historiographie Analysis Labour Maritime Agents Maritime Cargo Transport Maritime Law Maritime Leisure Maritime Passenger Transport Maritime Sciences Maritime Trade

Naval History

Specific Topics Shore Resources; Shore Exploitation; Waterways Exploitation Signalling; Communication at Sea; Intercontinental Communication Cross-cultural Relations; Multilingual Crews; Religious Practices and Beliefs; Identity Studies; Representations of the Sea (art and literature); Museums Marine Ecosystem; Marine Pollution; Biodiversity; Marine Resources; Climate Change; Environmental Management Fisheries; Species; Fishing Companies; Fishing Industries Labour Force; Labour markets; Wages; Labour Conditions Seafarers; Pilots; Captains; Shipowners; Shipmasters Fleets; Agents; Flags; Companies; Freightage Costs; Transport Laws National and International Law; Regulations; Law of the Sea Tourism; Seaside Resorts; Seascapes Carriers; Companies; Life on Board; Emigration Studies; Regulations Oceanography; Hydrography; Climatology Trade Routes; Trade Companies; Products; Costs; Agents; Financial Mechanisms; Smuggling Warfare at Sea; Naval Strategy; Navies; Naval Commanders

2004 1

% 0.6

2008 1

% 0.4

2

1.2

1

0.4

9

5.6

25

10.9

3

1.9

4

1.7

16

9.9

22

9.5

2

1.2

5

2.2

11

6.8

6

2.6

4

2.5

8

3.5

0

0.0

1

0.4

2

1.2

0

0.0

6

3.7

3

1.3

0

0.0

4

1.7

1

0.6

1

0.4

22

13.7

30

13.0

12

7.5

18

7.8

8

Subject Navigation

Ports and Harbours

Risks at Sea Shipping

Ships Social Studies

State Policies Women's Studies

Total

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Specific Topics Navigation Routes; Nautical Sciences; Nautical Knowledge; Nautical Tools; Nautical Cartography; Nautical Literature Port facilities; Works in Ports; Port Management; Port Accessibility; Port Interface; Free Ports; Port Performance; Port Policing; Port Traffic Natural Disasters; Shipwrecks; Piracy; Privateering Cargo Handling; Shipbuilding Industries; Shipyards; Shipping Companies; Shipping Agents; Shipping costs Ship Design; Ship Typologies Crime; Criminalization; Welfare; Maritime Societies; Maritime Communities; Social Organization; Social Mobility; Social Discrimination; Social Representation Policy; Conflict; Diplomacy Women in Fisheries; Women in Maritime Industries; Women in Maritime Labour; Impact of Maritime Dynamics on Women; Women in Maritime Communities

2004 10

6.2

2008 15

6.5

22

13.7

14

6.1

3.7

16

6.9

12.4

37

16

20

1.2

1.7 2.2

0.6

161

5.6

10

0.0

1

100

231

4.3 0.4

100

The evidence in table 1 seems to stress both the global scope of the papers and a gradual shift between 2004 and 2008 of the dominant fields of study. Although navigation, maritime trade, naval history, shipping and fisheries and whaling remained relatively stable, the increasing number of papers on social and cultural topics stands out. These include the dissemination of maritime culture through museum projects; issues of maritime identity or representations of the sea; maritime communities; and maritime agents. While the number of papers on risks at sea increased, gender and environmental studies (both of which constituted less than two percent of the total) remain under-examined. The traditional fields of maritime history (shipping, navigation, maritime trade, naval history and fisheries) accounted for almost fifty-seven percent of the papers in 2004 but only forty percent in 2008. Maritime leisure, risks at sea, maritime passenger transport, migration and environmental studies seemed to be becoming more attractive. A decreasing emphasis on ports, harbours and

Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?

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labour studies is also apparent, although it remains to be seen whether these trends will be maintained. The difference between the topics of the papers at the 2004 and 2008 Congresses may be compared with the themes chosen by the International Commission for Maritime History in the period 1960-2000. The differences are both obvious and expected, underscoring the evolutionary trends in maritime historiography. Maritime discoveries, oceanic connections, navigation issues (mostly centred on maritime routes and scales), naval history and warfare, including piracy, prevailed at the ICMH conferences, although population mobility, coastal villages and social studies of seafarers became more appealing in the 1970s, presaging trends that became apparent in later decades. Table 2 Conferences of the ICMH, 1960-2000 Year 1960 1962 1962 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1972 1974 1975 1977 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Note·.

Place Lisbon Maputo (former Lourenço Marques) Venice Vienna Beirut Seville Brussels On board Ansonia

Main Theme International Aspects of Overseas Discoveries (15th-16th Centuries) The Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean The Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean Great Maritime Carriers Trade, Societies and Companies in the East and the Indian Ocean Atlantic Maritime Routes Great Maritime Scales Mediterranean Navigation and Continental Connections Arctic Navigation Population Mobility in the Indian Ocean The American Revolution and the Sea Piracy and Privateering Coastal Villages Seamen in Society Maritime Aspects of Migration Maritime Food Transport Ports, Port Cities and Maritime Communities Exploitation of Maritime Resources

Moscow Saint-Denis (Reunion) Greenwich San Francisco Varna Bucharest Stuttgart Madrid Montréal Oslo ICMH Congresses are held every five years as part of the ICHS Congresses; this means that the 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 meetings were official ICMH Congresses. ICMH did not specify main themes in 2005 (Sydney) and 2010 (Amsterdam). The meetings in 1962, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1977 were smaller conferences sanctioned by ICMH.

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If the analysis of the papers presented at IMEHA Congresses and the main themes at ICMH Conferences indicate evolutionary trends in maritime history, some evidence about its present state and future direction can be seen by examining a selection of significant ongoing research projects. In the area of navigation, the "Navigocorpus" project, funded by the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, 21 the "Sound Toll Registers Online" project coordinated by the University of Groningen, 22 and Greek projects coordinated by Gelina Harlaftis to create a database of Greek ships using national and international sources 23 should be mentioned. All of them are designed to make available massive amounts of data involving ships and their cargoes which will facilitate quantitative and qualitative analyses of ships, cargoes, voyage patterns and maritime personnel (captains, pilots, shipmasters, shipowners, crews, etc.). Such international, long-term, serial data will certainly create opportunities for research into broad global trends. Another example would be "Hisportos." This is a multidisciplinary project on ports and harbour construction which also charts new courses for maritime history. 24 2 'Navigocorpus was initiated by researchers from three French universities and is being carried out in cooperation with several national and international partners. Its goal is to create a fully-searchable on-line database of European maritime shipping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In order to pursue this goal, the team created a general structure for data entry, editing and analysis of historical maritime shipping records. It aims both to convert existing databases and to exploit new archival data collections. See http://navigocorpus.hypotheses.org/. For an example of some of the early output from the project, see Silvia Marzagalli, "American Shipping into the Mediterranean during the French Wars: A First Approach," in Silvia Marzagalli, James R. Sofka and John J. McCusker (eds.), Rough Waters: American Involvement in the Mediterranean in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century (St. John's, 2010), 43-62. 22

The goal of the Sound Toll Registers Online Project is to make the full collection of the thousands of registers of ships which paid fees passing through the Baltic approaches readily available. See http://www.soundtoll.nl/www/. For a full discussion of this project, see Erik Gebel, "The Sound Toll Registers Online Project, 1497-1857," International Journal of Maritime History, XXII, No. 2 (2010). "Three major databases, Amphitriti and Pontoporeia 1 and 2, make available a massive amount of data from c. 66,000 registers. The databases, which include information of the ships, shipowners, crew, masters, agents, cargoes, voyage routes, casualties and other events, are designed to promote multidisciplinary research on maritime agents, navigation and trade. See Gelina Harlaftis, "L'Histoire maritime en Grece," Revue d'Histoire Maritime, Nos. 10-11 (2010), 90-97. 24

Its research plan includes the study of the géomorphologie features of the ports and their adaption to changing circumstances; the installation and changes in seaport infrastructure; the relations between ports and their hinterlands and forelands; the

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"Dynamic Complexity of Cooperation-Based Self-Organizing Networks in the First Global Age" (DynCoopNet) is another international, multidisciplinary, collaborative research project. Attached to and funded by the European Science Foundation's TECT program, it examines the evolution of cooperation among self-organizing commercial networks during the First Global Age (1400-1800). The main topics of research include commerce, cooperation, economic history, historical anthropology, historical geography, mathematical modelling and self-organization. Its relations with maritime history are obvious, mostly in a concern for the actions of self-organized networks in shipping, international and intercontinental trade and navigation. Social network analysis underscores the social science roots of the project.25 Another maritime history research project launched recently is "Maritime Memories and Identities: Cultures, Practices and Representations of Maritime Communities" (MEMIMAR). This project examines the existence of collective features forged by the experience of the sea which serve to build maritime identities despite the horizontal and vertical differentiation of the human universe of seamen. These will be studied by a multidisciplinary team involving historians, demographers, sociologists and anthropologists.26 Interdisciplinarity is also a key feature of other research projects, both national and international, involving the analysis of maritime resource exploitation. Sal(H)INA - "The History of the Salt: Nature and Environment (15th19th Centuries)" is a Portuguese project which attempts to answer questions

application of technological innovations; and the production of scientific knowledge in cartography, topography and hydrology. Further information can be found in Amelia Polònia, "HISPORTOS - A Research Project on Portuguese Seaports in the Early Modern Age," in Amélia Polònia and Helena Osswald (eds.), European Seaport Systems in the Early Modern Age: A Comparative Approach (Porto, 2007), 28-39. Partial results are also available at http://web.letras.up.pt/hisportos/. 25

The project produces new theoretical insights about cooperation in the context of the dynamic and complex system of which these evolving networks formed a part. It employs Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a data integration engine and visualization tool to bring together the layers of information necessary to understand the high levels of cooperation. It also uses spatial statistics and mathematical modelling to discern the possible impact of layers of interaction that have left only a few traces. For further information, see http://dyncoopnet-pt.org/. 26

Starting from an inventory of social practices in maritime communities in the long run, the project intends to analyze the levels of conflict and solidarity; population mobility and demographic behaviour; family structures; material and non-material culture; beliefs, practices and religious sensibilities; and ways of representation and selfrepresentation. The project is part of CITCEM (Transdisciplinary Research Centre for Culture, Space and Memory) at the University of Porto.

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about biological diversity, the physical environment and landscape.27 Similar projects on salt exploitation, maritime techniques and culture and maritime heritage are being developed by research teams in France. One of them, "Les nouveaux patrimoines dans la région des Pays de la Loire" (NEOPAT), is dedicated to the study of maritime, ecological, rural and industrial heritage.28 In the area of fisheries and marine resources, perhaps the most important project is the "History of Marine Animal Population" (HMAP), a global initiative to study past ocean life and the effects of human interaction with the sea. Aiming to enhance knowledge and understand how the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the world's oceans have changed in the long term, the project brought together historians and marine biologists.29 Many maritime museums also engage in new areas of research in order to provide new perspectives on maritime heritage from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum (German Maritime Museum) is an example, making available databases on autobiographical documents as well as administrative and iconographie sources related to shipping between 1800 and 1939.30 The same can be said about the Maritime Museum of Ilhavo, Portugal, where two databases are available, one on the bacalhoeiros (cod fish ships) and the other on the cod fishermen; both include written documents, recorded interviews and photographs. Historians and anthropologists cooperate to reconstitute the collective memory and make documentary sources for the

27

The preservation of cultural heritage associated with the analysis of local development and industrial production is one of its aims. The project seeks as well to recognize ancestral technical expertise; promote the preservation of traditional skills; reconstruct the memory which identifies salt as a cultural heritage; and provide specialized advice to political bodies on issues concerning landscape intervention. See http://sigarra.up.pt/flup/projectos_geral.mostra_projecto?P_ID=2. "This project, funded by the Région des Pays de la Loire, groups thirty researchers from eight research labs at three different universities (Nantes, Angers and Le Mans). It is an interdisciplinary project involving history, history of art, history of techniques, physical and human geography, law and sociology. 29

In this project an interdisciplinary team of about 100 researchers has developed a program using historical and environmental archives. See http://hmapcoml.org/; and René Taudal Poulsen, "Les potentialités d'une histoire de l'environnement maritime: l'histoire des pêches et du milieu marine," Revue d'Histoire Maritime, Nos. ΙΟΙ 1 (2010), 271-272. 30 The databases include both oral testimonies and sources on crew and passengers as well as official documents. See Ursula Feldkamp, "Eine Alltagsgeschichte der Segelschiffahrt in Selbstzeugnissen," Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, XXVIII (2005), 55-74.

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history of the cod fisheries available.31 By associating museum exhibitions with documentary sources, museums seek to offer new interactive representations of maritime history. It is undeniable that new directions are being explored by maritime historians. Moreover, new methodologies are being put forward and new epistemologica! issues are arising out of interdisciplinary research, all of which contribute to a broader approach to maritime history. But does this mean that maritime history is on the path of global history? Is maritime history a gateway to global history? Indeed, is maritime history actually global history? The chronological and geographical scopes of maritime history are two more topics to be considered in order to answer these questions. We can start by contending that in general terms maritime history is as useful for studies of the twenty-first century as for examining antiquity. And it is just as pertinent when applied to the North, South and East as it is for studying Polar regions, Polynesia or the so-called "Occidental world." In other words, maritime history is useful for understanding the dynamics of the past regardless of the period or area of the globe. It can also be an excellent tool for looking at what seem to be, on the surface, continental issues. Before the age of European discoveries, America and Africa seem to have had a continental rather than a maritime profile because many of their political domains, such as China during the Ming Dynasty or the Incan Empire in the Americas, were based on territorial rather than maritime strategies. Yet even when great empires were largely land-based, local populations still used the resources of the sea, making it a part of the remit of maritime history. It is also the case that other early empires cannot be understood without a maritime approach, such as the Phoenician and Greek domination of the Mediterranean, or the Muslim control of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Similarly, although many of the global circuits of trade and the circulation of men, products and ideas in antiquity and the Middle Ages were terrestrial - such as the trans-Saharan routes, the silk routes to Asia or the European trade routes which for centuries connected southern and northern Europe through Germany and France - the emergence of a world economy was based largely on maritime patterns: the Indo-Pacific routes; North Sea routes; Hanseatic trade circuits; Mediterranean cross-cultural and cross-political routes; North-Atlantic circuits under the Vikings; transatlantic circuits; or the Cape Run from the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onwards. How is this assertion reflected in the sample under analysis? Considering the chronological scope of the papers presented at the IMEHA Conferences, the prevalence of the modern age is impressive: fifty-eight percent of the papers given in 2004 and fifty-five percent in 2008 belong to this period. Early modern history accounted for thirty-one and twenty-five percent, respec3

'http : //w w w. museumaritimo. cm-ilhavo. pt/.

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tively, while ancient and medieval studies combined were responsible for only six and eight percent of the papers. The number of long-term approaches increased from five percent in 2004 to eleven percent in 2008, a trend that seems to be related to the new focus on cultural studies. Regarding the spatial scope of the presentations, fifty-seven percent of the 2004 papers had a local or national scope focus, a figure which rose sharply to seventy-four percent in 2008, leaving international and global history with shares of forty-three and twenty-six percent, respectively. Amazingly, these figures do not confirm a tendency of increasing international or global studies in maritime history. But this trend might be both illusory and somewhat misleading, since a study focusing on the latest publications in the field would certainly yield different results. Indeed, maritime history necessarily is becoming more global, not only because of trends in the wider field of history, where studies of globalization are multiplying at a rapid rate, but also because pursuing new research themes, such as worldwide entrepreneurial initiatives, environment studies, natural resources exploitation and climate change can only be done within the framework of global studies. A local or national scope is plainly insufficient to meet the requirements of these types of analyses. In this sense, maritime history requires world history. At the same time, however, the question posed in the title of this introductory essay - "Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History? presumes that another direction is implied in this two-way relationship. It suggests that world history requires maritime history as a research field in order to understand global dynamics. Indeed, one of the most significant advantages of maritime history is its ability to connect the local and national with the global. In fact, one of the ways (frequently the only one) to place small locations, communities or peoples into the global realm is by way of the seas and oceans; the Phoenicians, Armenians32 or even the Portuguese in early modern times provide obvious support for this. Pursuing theoretical approaches which tend to disregard political and territorial frontiers and boundaries in the quest to understand global phenomena, world history depends to a large extent on the accomplishments of maritime history. "Jumping frontiers" and "crossing barriers" is in fact one of the main requirements of global dynamics, which makes cross-cultural and crosseconomic studies essential.33 Seen as highways of trade, routes of migration,

32

See Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, "Small Town Merchants, Global Ventures: The Maritime Trade of the New Julfan Armenians in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," this volume. "This is the title of a paper centred on this subject; see Amélia Polònia, "Jumping Frontiers, Crossing Barriers: Technical and Cultural Transferences between the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The Portuguese Overseas Ex-

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paths for communication flows, spawning grounds of political and economic empires, offsprings of miscegenation processes between different civilizations and cultures, venues of opportunity for pirates, smugglers and adventurers, the seas, oceans and their dynamics emerge as a crucial field of study directly connected with global history.34 Since the oceans are usually seen as levers for globalization processes and as key factors in the creation of the "First Global Age," maritime history becomes indeed a gateway to global history. On the other hand, maritime history almost unavoidably attempts to include globalization studies in its agenda. At the moment the subject of globalization can be found in almost every field of research, especially in the social sciences and humanities. Economics, sociology, anthropology, history and even philosophy or cultural studies discuss it in a significant number of publications. Even if the various approaches are far from consistent, mostly due to the lack of a clear definition of the concept when applied to historical periods other than the present, there are some parameters and conditions which seem essential to any definition of globalization or global dynamics. Communication flows, connecting systems and transfer mechanisms are some of them. All are part of maritime dynamics and hence are key topics in maritime history. Even if we refuse for the time being to enter into the debate over the definition of globalization when applied to the early modern period,35 or to establish frontiers between the twentieth century, the First and Second Ages of Globalization,36 or even to discuss the existence of a pre-globalization process in the Indian Ocean and the East long before the era of European colonial domination,37 some parameters seem to be broadly accepted when discussing the dynamics of globalization. The extension of global networks, the velocities of global flows and the transfers and the intensity (as well as the impact) of

pansion Case Study," in Oceans Connect: New Directions in Maritime Studies [Hyderabad, forthcoming). 34

See, among others, Jerry H. Bentley, Renate Bridenthal and Karen Wigen (eds.), Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures and Transoceanic Exchanges (Honolulu, 2007). 35 David Held, et al., Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (Cambridge, 2006). 36 See, among others, David Held and Anthony McGrew (eds.), The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate (Maiden, MA, 2000; 2nd rev. ed., Maiden, MA, 2003); and Terhi Rantanen, The Media and Globalization (Thousand Oaks, CA, 2005), 1-45.

"See Andre Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley, 1998).

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global interconnectedness are some of the main ones.38 Tellingly, maritime dynamics contributed extensively to all of them. This means again that maritime history is a true gateway to global history, even if it does not necessarily imply that maritime history is by nature global or the history of globalization. In fact, when discussing identities of disciplinary fields rather than territories or frontiers, at least one epistemological issue points to a decisive difference between maritime history and global history. Maritime history is defined much more by the object of its study - the sea and its dynamics, interactions and uses - than by a precise epistemological framework, theoretical focus or concrete methodology. Global history, on the other hand, is defined more by an epistemological standing than by a particular field of study. Indeed, global history addresses a multiplicity of problems and objects of study implied by global change over time. This enables it to avoid traditional regional boundaries and overcomes thematic fragmentation in the historiography. Interdisciplinary studies across a wide variety of social, political and natural sciences is one of its main features. Its spatial and chronological scope is both undetermined and preferably transversal. Yet all these features have been presented here as intrinsic elements of maritime history as well. So, could it be that maritime history is in fact global history? This discussion only acquires significance, however, for those obsessed with establishing demarcations among various fields of history or people who insist on defining points of inclusion, exclusion or intersection between fields of knowledge. This discussion, though, occurs at a time when the goal should be to cross frontiers of knowledge, a trend which implies both more global and more interdisciplinary studies. This epistemological trend does not deny the need for disciplines or sub-disciplines. Specialization remains a necessity; crossing the lines between disciplines implies the recognition of their respective identities and seeks specific contributions from each of them. This brings us to my last question: how does this book contribute to the debate over the relationship between maritime and global history? The volume includes ten papers that run the temporal gamut from the early modern to the modern and contemporary eras. The first five contributions discuss globalization and its effects in the early modern period, that is, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Taking Seville as a hub and a gateway to maritime connections between Europe and the Americas, Eberhard Crailsheim studies the commercial networks which connect foreign "nations"39 settling in Seville, namely the 38

David Held, et al., "Rethinking Globalization," in Held and McGrew (eds.), Global Transformations Reader, 67-74. 39

He used this in the medieval and early modern sense of a group of foreigners operating between them.

Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?

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French and Flemish, with a global world of business and commercial opportunities. Using the paradigm of social network analysis, the author shows how social, familial, political and economic features interacted to penetrate the American trades, a field that was forbidden by law to foreigners.40 The joint paper by Matthias van Rossum, Lex Heerma van Voss, Jelle van Lottum and Jan Lucassen deals with a mechanism which both derived from and contributed to a globalized world: the recruitment of multinational and multicultural crews as a way to conduct trade and navigation on a worldwide scale from 1600 to 1850.41 Seeing the oceans as a stage for international and intercontinental trade, the authors examine a particular kind of mobility: that of seamen of multiethnic, multinational, multiracial and multireligious backgrounds who come together in multicultural crews to serve the new "masters of the oceans: " the Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Deriving from central assertions about the role of maritime history in globalization, the paper concludes that shipping was a crucial lever in that process and a driving force in inter-regional exchange. Using concepts such as "pro-globalization" and "de-globalization" as results and processes deriving from European maritime expansion in the Indian Ocean world, Jagjeet Lally reflects on the interactions and projections of maritime dynamics in a process of continental evolution. Questioning the general assumption that maritime dynamics in the Indian Ocean triggered globalization, he explores the connections between sea and land involving agents and experiences from diverse continental economic paths.42 In her analysis of slave professions in the seventeenth-century maritime world of the English East India Company, Anna Winterbottom examines the continuing interdependence of territories through the forced migration of slaves from various provenances. By identifying some trends of this forced migration, as well as the roles played by slaves in the Indian Ocean, the author stresses its implications for the transfer and dissemination of knowledge, skills and cultural patterns. Considering the oceans as highways that facilitate global transferences and cross-cultural connections, and focussing on apparently mar-

""Eberhard Crailsheim, "Behind the Atlantic Expansion: Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620," this volume. 41 Matthias van Rossum, Lex Heerma van Voss, Jelle van Lottum and Jan Lucassen, "National and International Labour Markets for Sailors in European, Atlantic and Asian Waters, 1600-1850," this volume. 42

Jagjeet Lally, "Maritime Expansion and (De)globalization? An Examination of the Land and Sea Trade in Seventeenth-Century Mughal India," this volume.

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ginal actors (slaves) as important agents of globalization, Winterbottom gives us an unusual perspective on global history.43 Ina Baghdiantz McCabe has yet a different method of focusing on the ways of connecting various "worlds" and of becoming protagonists in global dynamics. Centred on an analysis of the Armenians as seafaring and commercial agents, and using the concept of the maritime diaspora network, the author shows the importance of those small and less recognized agents as contributors to the so-called "First Global Age." Maritime transport and transoceanic navigation emerge as privileged fields in which those actors achieved centrality and importance. Those who participated in overseas trade and navigation and the strategies they adopted are the focus of this essay.44 Moving into the modern period, David Haines examines some of the means, strategies and agents who had an impact on globalization. Departing from the debate over how nineteenth-century whaling connected Europe to the Pacific, Haines discusses how the massive, mid-nineteenth-century growth of pelagic whaling promoted contacts between Europeans and Pacific Islanders. To provide a better understanding of the relationship between empires and "contact cultures," the paper launches a discussion (and asks for more elaboration) on the impact of European expansionism on those "without history." Haines uses the image of the whale oil which fuelled the street lamps of London and Boston to appeal for a debate on how European and American understanding of the geography, resources and cultures of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans depended on pursuing maritime industries.45 A set of papers mainly centred on maritime transportation, including merchant fleets and transport companies, from the nineteenth century to the present, the next three papers devote significant attention to economic discussions arising from industrialization and the "Second Global Age." The essay by David Williams and John Armstrong examines three technological breakthroughs that affected the maritime sector: the steamship, telegraph (particularly undersea cables) and railway. From a perspective of interconnectivity, the authors place these issues in a contextual framework in order to understand better the relationship between these elements which formed the basis for growth and modernization from the nineteenth century onwards. Acknowledging the interdependence between economic progress and social changes affect-

43 Anna Winterbottom, "From Hold to Foredeck: Slave Professions in the Maritime World of the East India Company, c. 1660-1720," this volume.

"Baghdiantz McCabe, "Small Town Merchants." 45

David Haines, "Lighting up the World? Empires and Islanders in the Pacific Whaling Industry, 1790-1860," this volume.

Maritime History: A Gateway to Global History?

19

ing labour, port populations and maritime agents, it broadens our perspective on the cross-analysis of economic phenomena.46 Next Camilla Brautaset and Stig Tenold address another facet of global history in its interaction with the disciplines of economic and business history. Analyzing the engagement of the Norwegian merchant fleet in Asian maritime freight markets from 1870 to 1914 using a predominantly quantitative approach, the authors debate the global scope of the Norwegian merchant fleet, pointing out its evolution from a regional and trade-based business to a global merchant empire in which the performance of the fleet was essential. By expressly declaring that "Maritime history offers a unique prism for studying the connections between humans, culture and ideas," the authors depart from the classic approach of analyzing a national fleet and its evolution over time to offer new insights on the globalization of its itineraries and connections in Asia. In asking how its agents acted in distant places, the authors recognize the need for further studies involving both the way Norwegian shipowners positioned themselves in the rivalry among larger European powers in Asian markets and the manner in which they used, and were used by, local authorities.47 Benoît Doessant and Samir Saul go further in the discussion of the impact of global markets and entrepreneurial initiatives on the maritime transportation sector. Through a case study of Total, France's major oil company, the authors explain why it withdrew from the business of transporting its own oil and turned instead to chartering international fleets. Reflecting on the economic, financial, technological and political features which interfere with shipping and make the sector especially vulnerable to swings in the economic cycle, Doessant and Saul examine the process of investment, the opportunities derived from a global market and the solutions which allow international connections through complementary maritime businesses.48 Regina Gräfe contributes a theoretical essay on the connections between the global and maritime history, discussing what variables define the former and the extent to which maritime history also deals with them. This subject is pursued further by Maria Fusaro in her concluding remarks.49 Exam4f,

David M. Williams and John Armstrong, "Technological Advances in the Maritime Sector: Some Implications for Trade, Modernization and the Process of Globalization in the Nineteenth Century," this volume. •"Camilla Brautaset and Stig Tenold, "Lost in Calculation? Norwegian Merchant Shipping in Asia, 1870-1914," this volume. 48

Benoit Doessant and Samir Saul, "Why Are the Major Oil Companies Selling Off their Fleets? The Case of Total," this volume. 49

Fusaro, "Maritime History as Global History? The Methodological Challenges and a Future Research Agenda," this volume.

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20

ining some of the theoretical assumptions, Gräfe draws her conclusions from an analysis of the impact of globalization on early modern Spain.50 What about future disciplinary connections or reciprocal projections between maritime and global history? It is in the context of this agenda that the forthcoming Sixth International Congress of Maritime History to be held at Ghent (3-6 July 2012) gains particular relevance. The emphasis in the call for papers is the international, transnational and global character of maritime history, as well as the relation between maritime and global history.51 I expect that this major event will take us a step further in the evolution of maritime history, which needs to remain global in its scope, disciplinary articulations and goals if it is to meet the challenges in which multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and even transdisciplinarity are likely to reduce the negative impact of excessive scientific specialization. Global studies at a spatial level, comparative approaches at a worldwide level based on local, regional and/or national studies; cross-theoretical concerns and cross-methodological analyses of the same phenomena, frequently only available by means of collective teamwork, are needed to maintain maritime history as a central dominion of knowledge and a central means to understand historical dynamics in this Second (or perhaps the Third?) Global Age. Moreover, this seems to be the only feasible way to cope with the social, political and economic debates over the ecological sustainability of the planet, the uses of available resources and issues related to frontiers and boundaries (whether political, economic, ethnic, religious or cultural). The sea remains a main stage where issues of competition and cooperation at a global level are played out, and it remains the major means of global transfer. Studying its dynamics, in the past and present, as well as projecting these into the future, is still a central element on the agenda. Will maritime historians be able to cope with this challenge? The essays in this volume provide substantive evidence that they are capable of doing so.

"Regina Gräfe, "Turning Maritime History into Global History: Some Conclusions from the Impact of Globalization in Early Modern Spain," this volume. 5

'http ://www. imeha2012. ugent. be.

Behind the Atlantic Expansion: Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 16201 Eberhard Crailsheim

The entry of America into the currents of the European economy caused profound changes. American bullion accelerated and expanded Europe's commerce, and commodities, including food and dyestuffs, changed everyday life. In the other direction, European goods found their way to America as merchants responded to the emerging needs of the new territories. 2 In this essay I will examine the role of Seville as a commercial hub between Europe and America, using Flemish merchant networks of the year 1620 as an example. 3 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Seville was uniquely positioned to be a conduit between Europe and America. Soon after the first expeditions returned from America, the Spanish crown decided to channel intercontinental trade through a single port, and Seville became the sole staple town for this rich trade. 4 According to contemporary mercantile principles, it was not 'This study was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within the project "Sevilla: Zwischen Mittelmeer und Atlantik (1550-1650)" (P16748). 2

Renate Pieper, "Die Exportstruktur des spanischen Amerikahandels im 16. Jahrhundert," Scripta Mercaturae: Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, XVIII, No. 2 (1984), 61-95; and Pieper, "Raw Materials from Overseas and Their Impact on European Economies and Societies (XVI-XVIII Centuries)," in Simonetta Cavaciocchi (ed.), Prodotti e Tecniche d'Oltremare nelle Economie Europee, Secc. XIII-XVIII, Prato, 14-19 Aprile 1997 (Florence, 1998), 359-383. 3

The notary database for 1620 was analyzed with the help of Philipp Lesiak.

"•Francisco Morales Padrón, Historia de Sevilla: La Ciudad del Quinientos (Seville, 1977; 3rd rev. ed., Seville, 1989), 177-181. See also Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, Historia de Sevilla: La Sevilla del siglo XVII (Seville, 1984; reprint, Seville, 2006); and Domínguez Ortiz, Orto y ocaso de Sevilla (Seville, 1946; 4th ed., Seville, 1991). Ships to and from America had to sail up the Guadalquivir to reach Seville. See Hermann Kellenbenz, "Die Einwohnerschaft der Stadt Cádiz um 1535 und ihre Fremdenkolonie," Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, 1st ser., XX (1962), 80; and Eduardo Trueba, Sevilla maritima (siglo XVI) (Seville, 1989; 2nd ed., Seville, 1990), 19-41. See also Pablo E. Pérez-Mallaina, "Auge y decadencia del puerto de Sevilla como cabecera de las rutas indianas," Caravelle, No. 69 (1997), 15-39.

21

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unusual to grant a single port such a monopoly because it enabled the Spanish crown to control the traffic more easily.5 Seville's long-distance trade connected the most distant settlements in the Spanish colonies, such as Potosí, with some of the more remote production centres in Europe, such as the Baltic forests and Scandinavian mines. Considering the flow of African merchandise and slaves and the Asian connection through Manila,6 trade through Seville assumed global dimensions. On these international trade circuits, Seville functioned as a hub because of its monopoly. It was both an Atlantic gateway and the most central port city in what can be called a "proto-global economy." 7 The monopoly over the so-called "Indies trade" with America triggered a number of changes in the city. Although Seville had been an important regional trading centre before the sixteenth century,8 developments following the discoveries of Columbus ushered in its prosperous Siglo de Oro. The city's commercial rise can be seen in the number of merchants resident there. In 1485 a mere twenty-six people called themselves "merchants," but in 1533 their ranks had swelled to 353.9 The overall population continued to grow, and between the census of 1533 and that of 1597 Seville's populace doubled from roughly 60,000 to more than 120,000.10 'For contemporary thinking on this matter, see Tomás de Mercado, Suma de tratos y contratos (Salamanca, 1569; reprint, Madrid, 1975). On the motives of the Spanish crown, see José Luis Cornelias, Sevilla, Cádiz y América: El trasiego y el tráfico (Malaga, 1992), 49-50. 6

On the slave trade, see Herbert S. Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1999; New ed., Cambridge, 2010). On Manila, see Dennis O. Flynn, et al. (eds.), European Entry into the Pacific: Spain and the Acapulco-Manila Galleons (Aldershot, 2001). 7 Cf. Horst Pietschmann, "Introduction: Atlantic History - History between European History and Global History," in Pietschmann (ed.), Atlantic History: History of the Atlantic System, 1580-1830 (Göttingen, 2002), 11-54. 8 Enrique Otte, "El comercio exterior andaluz a fines de la edad media," in Hacienda y comercio: actas del II coloquio de Historia Medieval Andaluza (Seville, 1982), 193-240. See also Otte, Sevilla y sus mercaderes a fines de la Edad Media (Seville, 1996); and Molly Greene, "Beyond the Northern Invasion: The Mediterranean in the Seventeenth Century," Past and Present, CLXXIV, No. 1 (2002), 42-71.

'Frédéric Mauro, "Merchant Communities, 1350-1750," in James D. Tracy (ed.), The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long Distance Trade in the Early Modem World, 1350-1750 (Cambridge, 1990), 280. '"Morales Padrón, Historia de Sevilla, 65; and Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, "La población de Sevilla a mediados del siglo XVII," in León Carlos Alvarez Santaló (ed.), Los extranjeros en la vida española durante el siglo XVII y otros artículos

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

23

The Indies trade was only open to subjects of the Castilian crown and was strictly forbidden for foreigners." Nevertheless, non-Spaniards had two possibilities to access the riches of the Indies. First, they could make contact with Spanish Indies traders and obtain colonial products through them. By selling merchandise in demand in America, foreign merchants could exchange it for colonial products and American silver. Frequently, Spanish middlemen became commissioners, agents or even "straw men" on the payroll of rich foreign merchants. Several foreign merchants settled in Seville and traded directly from the city, importing goods in demand in America, like Italian silks, French linen or Flemish woollens, from their home countries.12 Moreover, they also participated in regional commerce, especially in wool,13 and maintained close contacts with their Andalusian partners. Still, direct contact with America had to be established through Spaniards. The second possibility for accessing the American market, which often followed the first, was to apply for naturalization.14 This commonly implied a license for the Indies trade and was difficult to obtain because it required a certain level of credit and residence in Spain for a specified period." The number of foreign merchants who (Seville, 1996), 253. Domínguez Ortiz, Orto y ocaso, 72, even claims that there were 150,000 inhabitants by the end of the century. "Robert Sidney Smith, The Spanish Guild Merchant: A History of the Consulado, 1250-1700 (Durham, NC, 1940; reprint, New York, 1972), 94. 12

Eufemio Lorenzo Sanz, Comercio de España con América en la época de Felipe II (2 vols., Valladolid, 1982-1986), I; José Torre Revello, "Merchandise Brought to America by the Spaniards," Hispanic American Historical Review, XXIII, No. 4 (1943), 773-781; and Pieper, "Die Exportstruktur," 61-95. "Antonio Vidal Ortega and Enriqueta Vila Vilar, "El comercio lanero y el comercio trasatlántico: Écija en la encrucijada," in Écija y el Nuevo Mundo: Actas del VI Congreso de Historia, Ayuntamiento de Écija (Écija, 2002), 57-67. "Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, "Los extranjeros en la vida española durante el siglo XVII," in Estudios de historia social de España (4 vols., Madrid, 1949-1960), IV, part 2, 291-496, reprinted in Domínguez Ortiz, Los extranjeros en la vida española durante el siglo XVII y otros artículos (Seville, 1987; reprint, Seville, 1996), 17-182; Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, "La concesión de naturaleza para comerciar con Indias durante el siglo XVII," Revista de Indias, LXXVI (1959), 227-239; and John G. Everaert, "Infraction au monopole? Cargadores-navegantes flamands sur la Carrera de Indias XVIIe siècle," in Enriqueta Vila Vilar, et al. (eds.), La Casa de la Contratación y navegación entre España y las Indias (Seville, 2003), 761-777. 1

'These conditions changed slightly in 1568, 1592, 1608 and 1616. See Archivo General de Indias (AGI), Contratación, 50A, 50B, 51A, 51B, 596A, 596B, var.; Albert Girard, Le commerce français à Séville et Cadix au temps des Habsbourg: Con-

Eberhard

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obtained this was small; indeed, between 1570 and 1650 fewer than four such naturalizations were issued per year. 16 Once a merchant was naturalized he had the advantages of both a foreigner and a native, since he could continue to procure valuable goods from his homeland while also accessing the American market directly. It is not surprising that many naturalized merchants accumulated immense wealth. 17 This paper focuses on the year 1620 when the city's commercial activities were at a peak. Moreover, the foreign presence in Seville was also very high that year. 18 Figure 1 shows the ratio of foreigners in the notarial archives of Seville. In 1620 Flemings, with a share of thirty-three percent, were the most numerous, followed by the Portuguese (twenty-seven percent) and merchants from the different regions of Italy (twenty-one percent). 19 Apart from

tribution à l'étude du commerce étranger en Espagne aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Paris, 1932), 573-574; Eddy Stols, "La colonia flamenca de Sevilla y el comercio de los Países Bajos españoles en la primera mitad del siglo XVII, " Anuario de Historia Económica y Social, II, No. 2 (1969), 373-375; and Tamar Herzog, Defining Nations: Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modem Spain and America (New Haven, CT, 2003). 16

AGI, Contratación, 50A, 50B, 5 ΙΑ, 5 IB, 596Α and 596B; Eberhard Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade: A Network Study of French and Flemish Merchant Communities in Early Modern History (1580-1640)" (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Graz, 2008), 33-34; and Domínguez Ortiz, "Los extranjeros." "Enriqueta Vila Vilar, Los Corzo y los Manara: Tipos y arquetipos del mercader con Indias (Seville, 1991); Vila Vilar and Guillermo Lohmann Villena, Familia, linajes y negocios entre Sevilla y las Indias: los Almonte (Madrid, 2003); Vila Vilar, "Los europeos en el comercio americano: Sevilla como plataforma," in Renate Pieper and Peer Schmidt (eds.), Latin America and the Atlantic World/El mundo atlántico y América Latina (1500-1850): Essays in Honor of Horst Pietschmann (Cologne, 2005), 279-296; and Jesús Aguado de los Reyes, Riqueza y sociedad en la Sevilla del siglo XVII (SevUle, 1994). "Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 35-39. Foreign activities in the notarial archives in 1580, 1600, 1620 and 1640 were compared; by far the greatest number of foreigners appeared in 1620. "In the early modern period merchants in a foreign city gathered in "nations" and assigned a consul to protect their rights. See Mauro, "Merchant Communities," 262-263; Marie-Christine Engels, Merchants, Interlopers, Seamen and Corsairs: The "Flemish " Community in Livorno and Genoa (1615-1635) (Hilversum, 1997), 126-152; Niels Steensgaard, "Consuls and Nations in the Levant from 1570 to 1650," Scandinavian Economic History Review, XV, No. 1 (1967), reprinted in Sanjay Subrahmanyam (ed.), Merchant Networks in the Early Modem World (Aldershot, 1996), 180-181.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

25

the Portuguese, who constituted a special element in Seville's society, 20 the foreign merchants can be divided into two groups: those from Mediterranean Europe, mainly Genoa and Florence, and those from Atlantic Europe, including the British Isles, the Northern and Southern Netherlands, 21 the German states, the Baltic, Scandinavia and the Atlantic coast of France. Much has been written about the merchants from the south. The Genoese and Florentine presence in Spain, and Seville in particular, has been documented by Ruth Pike, Pedro Collado and Enriqueta Vila Vilar, among others. 22 The literature is clear 20 Jesús Aguado de los Reyes, "Lisboa, Sevilla, Amberes, eje financiero y comercial en el sistema atlántico (primera mitad del siglo XVII)," in Carlos Martínez Shaw and José María Oliva Melgar (eds.), El sistema atlántico español (siglos XVIIXIX) (Madrid, 2005), 101-126; and Domínguez Ortiz, "Los extranjeros." 21

In the early modera era the Northern and Southern Netherlands were often referred to as Holland and Flanders, respectively. These terms will also be used here. ^On the Genoese, see Trevor J. Dadson, La Casa Bocangelina: Una familia hispano-genovesa en la España del Siglo de Oro (Pamplona, 1991); Felipe Ruiz Martín, "Los hombres de negocios genoveses en España durante el siglo XVI," in Hermann Kellenbenz (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbinsel (Cologne, 1970), 84-99; Federigo Melis, Mercaderes italianos en España, siglos XIV-XVI: Investigaciones sobre su correspondencia y su contabilidad (Seville, 1976); Thomas Kirk, "A Little Country in a World of Empires: Genoese Attempts to Penetrate the Maritime Trading Empires in the Seventeenth Century," Journal of European Economic History, XXV, No. 2 (1996), 407-424; and the various contributions to Hispania: Revista española de historia, LXV, No. 1 (2005), especially Kirk, "The Apogee of the Hispano-Genoese Bond, 1576-1627," 45-65. On the general Italian contribution, see Bibiano Torres Ramirez and José Hernández Palomo (eds.), Presencia italiana en Andalucía, siglos XIV-XVII: actas del I coloquio Hispano-Italiano (Seville, 1985); Ruth Pike, Aristocrats and Traders: Sevillian Society in the Sixteenth Century (Ithaca, NY, 1972); Vito Piergiovanni (ed.), Tra Siviglia e Genova: notaio, documento e commercio nell'età colombiana, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi storici (2 vols., Milan, 1994); Federigo Melis, "Il commercio transatlantico di una compagnia fiorentina stabilita a Siviglia a pochi anni dalle imprese di Cortés e Pizarro," in Alberto Boscolo, et al. (eds.), Fernando el Católico e Italia (Zaragoza, 1954), 131-206; Vila Vilar, Los Corzo y los Mañara·, Vila Vilar, "Participación de capitales italianos en las rentas de Sevilla en el siglo XVI," in Alberto Boscolo and Bibiano Torres Ramírez (eds.), Presenza italiana nell'Andalusia del basso medioevo (Bologna, 1990), 85-101; Pedro Collado Villaita, "La nación genovesa en la Sevilla de la Carrera de Indias: declive mercantil y pérdida de la autonomía consular," in Torres Ramírez and Hernández Palomo (eds.), Presencia italiana en Andalucía, 53-114; Francisco Núñez Roldán, "Tres familias florentinas en Sevilla: Federighi, Fantoni y Bucarelli (1570-1625)," in José Jesús Hernández Palomo (ed.), Presencia italiana en Andalucía, siglos XIV-XVII: actas del III coloquio Hispano-Italiano (Seville, 1989), 23-49; Antonio Collantes de Terán Sánchez, "Mercaderes genoveses, aristocracia sevillana y comercio del aceite en el seculo XV," in Piergiovanni (ed.), Tra Siviglia e Genova, II, 345-360; and Enrique

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Crailsheim

that around 1600 the Italians comprised the most important group of European merchants in Seville. Indeed, Fernand Braudel called the first decades of the seventeenth century "the time of the Genoese" and only questioned their dominance after 1627 when Philip IV went bankrupt for the first time. 23

Portugu·*· 27% Figure 1:

Share of Foreigners in the Notarial Documents of Seville in 1620

Note:

This is based upon an examination of 838 notarial documents

Sources:

Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla (APS), legajos 3607, 10,060, 16,869 and 16,870.

Comparatively little has been published, however, about the nonMediterranean colonies in Seville. Foreigners from Flanders, who have been studied by Eddy Stols, John Everaert and Enriqueta Vila Vilar, comprised the largest group. 24 There are only a few publications on the Frenchmen in Seville, Otte, "Sevilla y las ferias genovesas: Lyon y Besançon, 1593-1560," in Raffaele Belvederi (ed.), Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi storici Rapporti GenovaMediterraneo-Atlantico nell'età moderna (Genova, 1983), 247-277. ^Fernand Braudel, "Endet das 'Jahrhundert der Genuesen' im Jahre 1627," in Ingomar Bog, et al. (eds.), Wirtschaftliche und soziale Strukturen im säkularen Wandel: Festschrift für Wilhelm Abel zum 70. Geburtstag (Hannover, 1974), 455-468; and Braudel, Sozialgeschichte des 15.-18. Jahrhunderts (3 vols., Munich, 1990), especially III, 167-185. For general works, see Manuel Herrero Sánchez, "La quiebra del sistema hispano-genovés (1627-1700)," Hispania: Revista española de historia, LXV, No. 1 (2005), 115-151; and Carlos Alvarez Nogal, "Las compañías bancarias genovesas en Madrid a comienzos del siglo XVII," Hispania: Revista española de historia, LXV, No. 1 (2005), 67-90. 24

Stols, "La colonia flamenca;" Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders of de Handelsbetrekkingen der Zuidelijke Nederlanden met de Iberische Wereld, 1598-1648 (Brussels, 1971); Vidal Ortega and Vila Vilar, "El comercio lanero;" John G. Everaert, De internationale en koloniale Handel der Vlaamse Firma's te Cadiz, 1670-1700 (Bruges, 1973); and Jean-Pierre Berthe, "Les Flamands à Séville au 16e siècle," in Kellenbenz (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, 239-251. More generally, see

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

27

most of which date from the first half of the twentieth century.25 While the French colony in Seville has not attracted much attention, some works do examine their presence in Spain.26 Germans and Englishmen, who only appeared in small numbers during the seventeenth century, have scarcely been studied.27 Charles Verlinden, "Quelques types de marchands italiens et flamands dans la Péninsule et dans les premières colonies ibériques au XVe siècle," in Kellenbenz (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, 31-47; and Raymond Fagel, "En busca de fortuna: La presencia de flamencos en España 1480-1560," in María Begoña Villar García and Pilar Pezzi Cristóbal (eds.), Los extranjeros en la España Moderna: actas del 1 Coloquio Internacional, celebrado en Málaga del 28 al 30 de noviembre de 2002 (2 vols., Malaga, 2003), I, 325-335. For the time of the illustration, see Ana Crespo Solana, Entre Cádiz y los Países Bajos: Una comunidad mercantil en la ciudad de la Ilustración (Cádiz, 2001); and Crespo Solana, Mercaderes Atlánticos: Redes del comercio flamenco y holandés entre Europa y el Caribe (Córdoba, 2009). 2S The leading student of Franco-Spanish commerce is Albeit Girard; see Girard, Le commerce français à Séville et Cadiz', and Girard, "La saisie des biens des français en Espagne en 1625," Revue d'histoire économique et sociale, XIX (1931), 297-315. It is not surprising that a seminar on this commerce in 2005 focused largely on trade between France and the northern Spanish coast, almost completely neglecting the Americas. The papers were collected in Jean-Philippe Priotti and Guy Saupin (eds.), Commerce atlantique franco-espagnol: Acteurs, négoces et ports (XVe-XVIIIe siècle) (Rennes, 2008). Only Manuel Bustos Rodríguez, "Les associations de commerce autour de la 'Carrera de Indias' au XVIIIe siècle," 275-284; and Eberhard Crailsheim, "Les marchands français à Séville (1580-1650): les examples de Pedro de la Farxa, Lanfran David et Pedro de Alogue," 233-247, locus on the trade with Andalusia. 26

Some recent studies focus on more generic topics. See, for example, Frédéric Mauro, "Les marchands du Midi de la France et la Péninsule Ibérique aux XVe et XVIe siècles," in Kellenbenz (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, 100-117; Jean-Pierre Amalric, "Franceses en tierras de España: Una presencia mediadora en el Antiguo Régimen," in Villar García and Pezzi Cristóbal (eds.), Los extranjeros en la España Moderna, I, 23-37; Ángel Alloza Aparicio, "El comercio francés en España y Portugal: La represalia de 1635," in Martínez Shaw and Oliva Melgar (eds.), El Sistema Atlántico Español, 127-161; and Luis María Bilbao and Ramón Lanza García, "Entre Castilla y Francia: Comercio y Comerciantes en Bilbao a mediados del siglo XVI," Revista de Historia Económica, XXVII, No. 1 (2009), 103140. On Madrid, see María Dolores Ramos Medina, "La 'intermediación de compañías' en el comercio internacional de Madrid en el siglo XVII: El caso de las lonjas francesas (1634-1669)," Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, XV, No. 4 (2002), 65-84. "Hermann Kellenbenz and Rolf Walter, Oberdeutsche Kaufleute in Sevilla und Cadiz (1525-1560): Eine Edition von Notariatsakten aus den dortigen Archiven (Stuttgart, 2001); Harland I. Taylor, "English Merchants and Spanish Prices about 1600," in Kellenbenz (ed.), Fremde Kaufleute auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, 252-264; Carlos Gómez-Centurión Jiménez, "Las relaciones hispano-hanseáticas durante el re-

28

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Crailsheim

The basic question is how the American trade of Seville was connected to European commerce? What was the role of foreign merchants? It is well known that bullion from the American colonies played an important role in enabling the expansion of European trade. Moreover, we know that when American products arrived in Europe they caused changes in everyday life. The Indies trade has been well studied.28 There is also a literature on the impact of the American products in Europe.29 Yet the ways that American goods inado de Felipe II," Revista de historia naval, XV, No. 4 (1986), 65-83; and Magnus Möraer, "El comercio y la navegación de Suecia con la Península Ibérica desde el siglo XVI hasta comienzos del XIX," in Alberto Ramos Santana (ed.), Comercio y navegación entre España y Suecia (siglos X-XX): Encuentro Histórico España-Suecia (1998 Cádiz) (Cádiz, 2000), 105-125. For the German presence in the Mediterranean in general, see Ludwig Beutin, Der deutsche Seehandel im Mittelmeergebiet: Bis zu den Napoleonischen Kriegen. Vol. 1: Abhandlungen zur Handels- und Seegeschichte (Neumünster, 1933); this has been revisited by Julia Zunckel, "Frischer Wind in alte Segel: Neue Perspektiven zur hansischen Mittelmeerfahrt (1590-1650)," Hamburger Wirtschafts-Chronik, III (2003), 7-43. 28 Klaus-Peter Starke, Der spanisch-amerikanische Kolonialhandel: Die Entwicklung der neueren Historiographie und künftige Forschungsperspektiven (Münster, 1995). The study of the Indies trade has a long history; some publications of the last twenty-five years include Fernando Serrano Mangas, Los galeones de la Carrera de Indias, 1650-1700 (Seville, 1985); Sanz, Comercio de España; Antonio-Miguel Bernal Rodríguez, La financiación de la Carrera de Indias (1492-1824): Dinero y crédito en el comercio colonial español con América (Seville, 1992); Fernando de Bordejé Moreneos, Tráfico de Indias y política oceánica (Madrid, 1992); José Miguel Delgado Barrado, "Las relaciones comerciales entre España e Indias durante el siglo XVI: Estado de cuestión," Revista de Indias, L, No. 2 (1990), 140-150; Antonio García-Baquero González, La Carrera de Indias: Suma de la contratación y océano de negocios (Seville, 1992); Cornelias, Sevilla, Cádiz y América-, Julián B. Ruiz Rivera and Manuela Cristina García Bernal, Cargadores a Indias (Madrid, 1992); Enriqueta Vila Vilar, "Los mercaderes sevillanos y el destino de la plata de Indias," Minervae baeticae: Boletín de la Real academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras, No. 29 (2001), 85-101; Antonio Acosta Rodríguez, et al. (eds.), La Casa de la Contratación y la navegación entre España y las Indias (Seville, 2003); Everaert, "Infraction au monopole;" Carlos Alvarez Nogal, "Instituciones y desarrollo económico: la Casa de la Contratación y la Carrera de Indias (1503-1790)," in Vilar, et al. (eds.), La Casa de la Contratación, 2151; and Guiomar de Carlos Boutet (ed.), España y América: un océano de negocios. Quinto centenario de la Casa de la Contratación, 1503-2003. Real Alcázar y Casa de la Provincia, Sevilla, del 11 de diciembre de 2003 al 29 de febrero de 2004 (Madrid, 2003). 29 Raymond L. Lee, "American Cochineal in European Commerce, 15261625," Journal of Modern History, XXIII, No. 3 (1951), 205-224; Jacques Bottin, "La redistribution des produits américains par les réseaux marchands rouennais (15501620)," in Jean-Pierre Sanchez (ed.), Dans le sillage de Colomb: L'Europe de Ponant

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

29

were distributed from Seville to other European centres has been largely ignored.30 A similar gap is apparent for trade to Seville for entry into American commerce. This paper addresses these historiographical lacunae by analyzing the trade and routes behind the European Atlantic expansion. An examination of selected merchants in Seville in 1620 will enable us to observe different patterns of trade. Since Flemings comprised about one-third of all foreigners in Seville, the focus will be on them and their commercial networks. This will help us to better understand the Indies trade and situate it in a larger context. The sources used for this study came mainly from two important yet different archives: the Archivo General de Indias (AGI) and the Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla (a notarial archive). Commercial information was drawn from the APS, where obligations and invoices comprise the majority of sources.31 The AGI, on the other hand, contains the applications for naturalization from the foreign merchants in Seville, including details about family contacts and lists of merchandise and other inventories.32 Information about many of the merchants studied here appears in both archives, which makes it possible to analyze them and their commercial and private networks thoroughly. In what follows, selected cases of Flemish merchants connected to the Indies trade of Seville and to the European Atlantic trade will be scrutinized. This will enable us to reconstruct the various forms these trades adopted and to sample the many directions they took. The examples will focus largely on textiles, a central feature of the European economy at the time. In 1620 textiles

et la découverte de Nuveau Monde (1450-1650) (Rennes, 1995), 27-39; John R. Fisher, "American Products Imported into Europe," Jahrbuch ßr Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas, XXXII (1995), 17-32; Otto Carlos Stoetzer, "Der mittelamerikanische Indigo und sein Echo in Europa in der Frühen Neuzeit," Jahrbuch fir Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas, XXXII (1995), 123-146; and Pieper, "Raw Materials from Overseas," 359-383. '"Some exceptions are Eberhard Crailsheim and Eva-Maria Wiedenbauer, "Central Europe and the Atlantic World: The Mines of Idria and the American Demand for Mercury (1556-1646)," in Pieper and Schmidt (eds.), Latin America and the Atlantic World, 297-318; and Jean-Philippe Priotti, "Logiques commerciales d'une globalisation. Les toiles françaises dans l'Atlantique hispano-américain (1550-1600)," in Béatriz Perez, et al. (eds.), Des marchands entre deux mondes: Pratiques et représentations en Espagne et en Amérique (XVe-XVHle siècles) (Paris, 2007), 15-41. 3

'The notary offices analyzed for 1620 were number V (legajo 3607), XVI (,legajo 10,060) and XXIV (legajos 16,869 and 16,870). 32

For the naturalizations, see AGI, Contratación, 50A, 50B, 5ΙΑ, 596A and

596B.

Eberhard

30

Crailsheim

comprised about thirty-nine percent of all Flemish trade with Seville. 33 While all the merchants studied here belonged to one large network, there were two sub-networks as well, connected through one central merchant, Cornelio de Groote. The two sub-networks will be analyzed separately. The first illustrates the routes of various types of linens between Dunkirk, a harbour serving western Flanders, and Seville. The second shows the return voyages of European cloth from Seville to the shores of the North Sea. Finally, the results will be used to contextualize the European and American trades. The Dunkirk-Sevüle Axis Dunkirk was a major outlet for many textile-producing cities in western Flanders, including Lille, Valenciennes and Cambrai. 34 The trade connection with

"Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 295-299. M On the region and textiles in general, see Louis Lemaire, Histoire de Dunkerque: Des origines à 1900 (Dunkirk, 1927), 110-171. For textile production in Douai and Tournai, see Robert S. DuPlessis, "The Light Woollens of Tournai in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," in Erik Aerts and John H. Munro (eds.), Textiles of the Low Countries in European Economic History: Proceedings of the Tenth International Economic History Congress, Leuven (Session B-15) (Leuven, 1990), 66-75; and Martha C. Howell, "Sources for the Study of Society and Economy in Douai after the Demise of Luxury Cloth," in Aerts and Munro (eds.), Textiles of the Low Countries, 53-65. For the production of new draperies (draperies légères), see Patrick Chorley, "The 'Draperies Légères' of Lille, Arras, Tournai, Valenciennes: New Materials for New Markets?" in Marc Boone and Walter Prevenier (eds.), La draperie ancienne des Pays Bas: débouchés et stratégies de survie (14e-16e siècles) /Drapery Production in the Late Medieval Low Countries: Markets and Strategies for Survival (14th-16th Centuries): Studies in Urban Social, Economic and Political History of the Medieval and Modern Low Countries (Leuven, 1993); Peter Stabel (ed.), Les draperies urbaines en Flandre aux XlIIe-XVIe siècles: Actes de l 'Euroconference "Les industries de la laine " (2002), http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/papers/16Stabel281.pdf, accessed 1 March 2008; and Alain Lottin, "De Charles Quint à la mort de Louis XVI (1500-1715)," in Lottin and Philippe Guignet (eds.), Histoire des provinces françaises du Nord, Vol. 3: De Charles Quint à la Révolution française (1500-1789) (Arras, 2006), especially 44-52 and 143-146. On Lille, see Philippe Guignet, Vivre à Lille sous l'Ancien Régime (Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 1999); Alain Lottin and Pierre Deyon, "Évolution de la production textile à Lille aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles," Revue du Nord, XLIX (1967), 23-33; and Alain Lottin, "Textile: le conflit entre Lille et Roubaix-Tourcoing au début du XVIIe siècle," Revue du Nord, LXIX (1987), 871-894. For Valenciennes, see Philippe Guignet, Nouvelle histoire de Valenciennes (Toulouse, 2006). On Cambrai, see Louis Trénard, "La cité de Martin-Martine, 1598-1677," in Trénard (ed.), Histoire de Cambrai (Arras, 1982), 125-146, especially 136-137; Liana Vardi, The Land and the Loom: Peasants and Profit in Northern France, 1680-1800 (Durham, NC, 1993); and Hugues Neveux,

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

31

Seville was strong. In 1620 three Flemish companies in Seville imported textiles from eleven Dunkirk traders in ten vessels. The basis for the commercial axis can be seen in the various notarized declarations by the three Seville companies regarding the imports and their customs duties. Those that we will examine occurred between April and June 1620. Two witnesses had to be present for the declaration before a notary; all the witnesses were Flemish merchants living in Seville. The house of Pedro Giles and Antonio Bennet used Francisco Vanders and Luis Vanthertsberghe as witnesses; the firm of Geronimo Joansen and Niculas de Sibeert used Gil Battaille and Nicolas Fourmestranex; and the partnership of Cornelio Adriansen and Geronimo Raparte used Servas Molans and Salomon Paradis.35 The trading relationships can be seen in figure 2, which shows the direct connections between shippers and purchasers. Each purveyor of goods, with the sole exception of Paolo Mersier, supplied only one company. The transport pattern was different, however, as the cloth was transported in what seems to have been a random fashion on multiple vessels (see table 1). Two types of draperies, holandas and cambrais, were bought by the three companies. These two types dominated Flemish textile imports to Seville in 1620: holandas comprised about forty-two percent and cambrais about twenty-six percent of the total.36 Giles and Bennet only bought holandas (good quality linens).37 They purchased these from the Dunkirk traders Justo Blonne, Giles and Reynier Carlier, Bautista de Soto Velasquez, Enrique Giles and an unknown merchant. Giles and Bennet purchased 316 pieces of holandas which were loaded into twelve boxes and transported by five different ships.38 Vie et déclin d'une structure économique: Les grains du Cambrésis (fin du VIVe-début du XVIIe siècle) (Paris, 1980). 35 Salomon Paradis, who was naturalized, was born in 1567 in Antwerp; AGI, Contratación, 50B and 596A, 3 July 1607. See also Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 51; and Sanz, Comercio de España, I, 86.

^Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 298. 37

Holandas came from different locations and were frequently named after their origin, like gantes or brabantes. See Miguel Ángel Echevarría Bacigalupe, "L'industrie textile belge et le régime espagnol (1598-1648)," in Aerts and Munro (eds.), Textiles of the Low Countries, 87-95; Alfons K.L. Thijs, "Les textiles au marché anversois au XVIe siècle," in Aeerts and Munro (eds.), Textiles of the Low Countries, 76-86; Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, I, 143-148; and Valentín Vázquez de Prada, Lettres marchandes d'Anvers (4 vols., Paris, 1960-1961), I, 74-79. 38

Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla (APS), 16,869, ff. 935r-938v, 18 April 1620. For one of the ships, La Esperanza, additional information was found. The felibote of Ysbrant Adriansen (270 tons) went to Madeira in 1623.

Eberhard

32

S

E

V

I

Crailsheim

L

L

E

Figure 2:

Dunkirk-Seville Mercantile Axis

Note:

"h" denotes holandas; "e" denotes cambrais

Sources:

See figure 1. Table 1 Ships and Cargoes from Dunkirk, 1620

Ship El Bacallao La Esperanza El Galgo Santa Ana El Ave Fenis Santa Maria San Juan Baptista San Pedro San Alberto San Juan

Master Felipe Gersen Ysbrant Adriansen Carlos Reni Niculas Bordel Enrique Sehers Juan Pabilorias Juan Bannber Jacob Cornelissen Lucas Cacosen Juan de Bibien

Chests 6 holandas, 2 cambrais 5 holandas, 1 cambrais 4 holandas 4 cambrais 3 holandas 2 holandas, 1 cambrais 2 holandas 1 holandas 1 holandas 1 cambrais

Sources: APS, 3607, ff. 267r-270v, 14 AprU 1620; APS, 822v-825r, 29 May 1620; APS, 16869, ff. 935r-938v, 18 April 1620; APS, 16870, ff. 183r-185v, 2 June 1620.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

33

The house of Joansen and de Sibeert, on the other hand, bought only cambrais, a mixture of linen and cotton.39 Juan Snelling, Jaques de Bibien, Paulo Mersier and an unknown merchant provided the firm with 425 pieces of cambrais packed in nine boxes and loaded on five different ships. We know that Joansen had been involved in this trade since at least 1614 when he sent a ship from Seville to Dunkirk with merchandise worth 5000 ducats,40 One of the Dunkirk merchants who consigned textiles to Joansen and de Sibeert in 1620 was Jaques de Bibien, who shipped one of the boxes of cambrais on the nao captained by Juan de Bibien.41 Both were probably members of the eminent Flemish Bibien (Vivien) family. Another merchant named Jaques Bibien had moved to Seville in 1600 and was a prominent merchant by 1620. It is quite likely that all were affiliated with one family.42 The last company, Adriansen and Raparte, only ordered holandas. These were supplied by Juan Melinche and again by Paulo Mersier, who sent 758 pieces of holandas in thirteen boxes on eight different naos. But in this case Adriansen and Raparte did not actually own the textiles. Instead, the holandas were purchased by various merchants from Valenciennes who then sent them to Seville. Cristobal Hormeans sent 173 pieces, Elias Lemayde 208 pieces and the firm of Jaques and Roberto de Ledisme 377 pieces. While Juan Melinche forwarded the first load of 173 holandas, the remaining 585 were 39 Cambric (cambrais) was made of linen and cotton and produced in different qualities: claro and batist. It was very much in demand for export to America. Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, I, 147-148. 40

Ibid., II, 160-161.

41

APS, 3607, ff. 267r-270v, 14 April 1620.

42

Jaques Bibien was an active Seville merchant with links to Andalusia, Flanders, France, Cologne and Venice. He traded in Spanish woollens, French linen and American leather, and he was engaged in financial transactions with Antwerp. These activities put him in contact with Portuguese merchants and, more important, with compatriots whom he found in Écija and even in Venice. They maintained these business contacts for many years. See Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 105 and 226; and Vidal Ortega and Vila Vilar, "El comercio lanero," 64-67. His father was Nicolas Bibien (Vivien), the lord of Beybines and Usel and governor of the city of Valenciennes, a major centre of textile production in western Flanders; Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 69; and Guignet, Nouvelle histoire, 71-73. In 1624 Jaques Bibien died a very rich man, leaving an enormous fortune of 211,636 ducats (79,363,507 maravedís)·, Aguado de los Reyes, Riqueza y sociedad, 162. After his death, his widow, Magdalena Clut Enriquez, continued to run the business and was active at least until 1640. She even expanded the concern and began to export to America; APS, 7497, f. 933, 16 May 1640. See also Vila Vilar, "Los europeos en el comercio americano," 292-294.

34

Eberhard Crailsheim

remitted by Paolo Mersier.43 Considering that Mersier sent another sixty pieces of holandas to Joansen and de Sibeert, he clearly was the most central Dunkirk merchant in the network. Once in Andalusia, the travels of the holandas soon continued. One week after the declaration for the customs duty by Adriansen and Raparte they sold some of the linen to Bias Rodriguez de Cespedes, who frequently appeared in the records with his brother Cristobal; both were known as traders of olive oil and as Indies merchants. Rodriguez de Cespedes also did business with illustrious merchants like the German Andres Labermeyer, the Frenchman Lanfran David and the Fleming Nicolas de Clerque.44 In this case, Adriansen and Raparte sold Rodriguez de Cespedes twenty pieces of holandas claros for sixteen ducats each and ten pieces of holandas batistas for fifteen ducats apiece, together amounting to about 470 ducats (the final price was 175,780 maravedís).45 This transaction is a clear indication that the linen which Rodriguez de Cespedes bought from Adriansen and Raparte was bound for the American market. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned prices for cloth, we can assume a value of 15.5 ducats per piece of holanda in Seville in 1620. If this is true, the value of the entire 1074 pieces sent from Dunkirk can be estimated at 16,647 ducats. This is a considerable sales volume for two Flemish companies. The unit price of cambrais, on the other hand, can be estimated at 43

APS, 1607, ff. 822v-825r, 29 May 1620.

"On Labermeyr, see ibid., 3607, ff. 3r-5v, 24 March 1620, and f. 99, 31 March 1620. Labermeyr was from Berchtesgaden in Bavaria who came to Seville in 1603. In 1611 he married Ana Roca, who probably had Italian, Flemish and German (Hamburg) ancestors; Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 56. In 1627 Andres Labermeyr was treasurer of the archdiocese of Seville (Santa Cruzada) and received his letter of naturalization; AGI, Contratación, 51B, 12 October 1627; and APS, 3607, f. 811, 25 May 1620. Lanfran David came from Rouen in the first decade of the seventeenth century. In 1631 he was naturalized and gained permission to trade with America; AGI, Contratación, 50B and 596B, 8 March 1631. In 1620 David was involved in transactions ranging from real estate to the financing of trade in linen, garnets and olive oil, but French lace dominated his commercial activities in 1620. He was in close contact with a Portuguese textile merchant, a compatriot from Rouen and a large number of Flemish merchants; Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 69 ff. and 172 ff. For the connection with de Clerque, see APS, 16,869, ff. 555v-557r, 30 April 1620. 45 In the following, ducats are used to indicate values, while the currency which was mentioned in the original document (if not ducats) is displayed in parentheses; APS, 3607, f. 827, 6 June 1620. With the holandas, they likely meant cambrais because they were offered in the batist and claros categories. A batist was a mixture of linen and cotton, while the holandas usually were pure linen textiles.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

35

16.5 ducats.46 Joansen and de Sibeert imported 425 pieces of cambrais, which should have fetched 7013 ducats. The total value of the textiles from Dunkirk would thus amount to 23,660 ducats. The Dunkirk-Seville axis vividly displays the strong connections between the Flemings in Seville and their textile-producing homeland. The data suggest that the trade in textiles, which were much prized by American customers, was in the hands of Flemish merchants. We will therefore examine the three Flemish companies more closely to assess the range of their businesses. Pedro Giles and Antonio Bennet The most outstanding of the Flemish companies above is the partnership of Pedro Giles and Antonio Bennet. The wide variety of economic activities in which it engaged - and in which Giles sometimes participated on his own includes Spanish wool, bronze artillery and Flemish linen. In all these trades Giles played a central role. Pedro Giles came from Bruges and lived permanently in Seville and Sanlúcar from 1602. In about 1617 he married a woman from Cádiz, Catalina Blanco, the daughter of the Fleming Niculas Blanco.47 After her death, he married Isabel de Carrion from Bruges whose parents were from the kingdom of Navarra. In 1624 he declared that he owned a wool laundry worth 4000 ducati and a house with a garden worth 3200 ducats. Six years later he possessed 12,000 ducats in real estate and another 20,000 in merchandise, plus certain rents (derechos y rentas). In 1624 he received a license to trade with America and six years later received his letter of naturalization.49 Early in the sixteenth century, Giles was founder of the Spanish artillery (fundidor de artillería). After his bankruptcy in 1634 he lived in Seville until at least 1645.50 46 The price was calculated according to an obligation from a certain Juan Hesse in 1620; APS, 3607, ff. 68v-69r, 30 March 1620. 47

Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 9 and 31.

48

He bought the laundry in the city of Écija in 1620 along with Antonio Bennet from the Flemings Juan Bautista Sirman and Juan Hesse; APS, 16,869, ff. 489r499v, 26 March 1620. 49

AGI, Contratación, 50B and 596B, 20 March 1630. Cf. Domínguez Ortiz, "Los extranjeros," 146, who claimed that he was naturalized in 1627. "For circumstantial information about the accounts of the founders of artillery in Seville between 1609 and 1649, see AGI, Contratación, 3893-3896, var. [PARES], also available at http://pares.mcu.es. The deliveries for the respective years are listed. See Serrano Mangas, Los galeones, 187-200; and Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 212-215. See also Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 31.

Eberhard Crailsheim

36

In 1620 a great deal of Andalusia's wool trade was also in the hands of Flemish merchants.51 As laundry owners, Giles and Bennet were part of this group. Their connection with the Andalusian wool market is underscored in a document in which they gave a proxy to Marcos de Torres, an alderman from Cordoba, to purchase wool on their account (the precise amount was agreed to one year later). In addition, the alderman was to urge tardy suppliers in Cordoba to deliver their promised wool to Giles and Bennet.52 Giles and Bennet were also linked to the Dutch market. This can be seen when the partnership presented two bills of exchange drawn on Amsterdam for over 100 ducats each, both dating from 14 April 1620. The Dutch drawer both times was Cornelio Billensen, and the remitter was Juan van Peene. The first bill was presented in public because the accepter, Jaques Semin, who was possibly of French origin, could not be found.53 In the second case, the bill was presented to the Flemish accepter Isaque Fermin, who was not in a position to honour the bill.54 It is thus apparent that Giles and Bennet were eminent cloth traders in Seville. They were involved in the trade of western Flanders, as well as in the manufactories and trade of Andalusia. Moreover, they had financial connections with Holland. Having the office of founder of the artillery makes it clear that Giles in particular was a major figure in Andalusian commerce. Geronimo Joansen and Niculas de Sibeert Geronimo Joansen appeared in the records as early as 1600 when he was engaged in the grain trade of Seville, a city which frequently had a shortage of wheat. In June of that year Joansen sold 100 fanegas (about 55.5 litres each) of wheat to a local atajonero (marquetry maker) and his wife for one ducat per fanega. Two houses in Seville guaranteed the transaction. The wheat came from France ("across the sea") and was to be paid for within three months.55 "Flemish dominance of the textile business in Andalusia is outlined in Vidal Ortega and Vila Vilar, "El comercio lanero." 52

APS, 16869, f. 825, 3 April 1620.

"Ibid., f. 749, 12 May 1620. The bill was presented before the notary in Flemish, with a translation attached. The accepter possibly was the French merchant Jaques Soming. 1620.

"Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 28; and APS, 16,870, f. 484, 23 June 55

APS, 9984, ff. 409-410, 5 June 1600, and ff. 431v-432, 2 June 1600. It is uncertain where the wheat came from; it could have been from the Mediterranean or the Atlantic coast of France, or it might even have been Baltic grain which arrived via

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

37

In 1620 Joansen appeared twice together with Niculas de Sibeert. On 28 March the two sold 400 arrobas (about 12.6 litres each) of olive oil at twenty reales per arroba to Francisco de Abriego, master of the 100-ton navio San Buenaventura, a slave ship departing for Angola and Cartagena de Indias. The owner of the vessel, Erasmo de Florido, might have been of Flemish origin.56 The price of the olive oil amounted to 733 ducats (8068 reales).57 Joansen was also in direct contact with an English merchant resident in Seville, Thomas Oton, who granted him the right to collect 1075 ducats (11,822 reales) from Juan de Ocafla, an active merchant in Seville. In exchange, Joansen delivered 440 quintales (forty-six kilograms each) of palo de Campeche (dyewood) at twenty-three reales per quintale to the Englishman. The remaining 155 ducats (1702 reales) were paid in cash.58 Joansen sold a wide range of products, including cotton textiles from Flanders, olive oil from Andalusia and dyewood from America. Joansen was also involved in purely financial transactions. For example, he received 215 ducats (2366 reales) from the widow of the merchant Juan Bautista de Medinilla in settlement of the remainder of a debt of 324 ducats (3566 reales). He also had financial transactions with the naturalized Portuguese Diego Anriquez and a Fleming named Cornelio de Groote.59 In April 1620, in association with de Sibeert, Joansen received 500 ducats for a bill of exchange drawn in Antwerp in February by Cornelio Cornelisen that was paid by the naturalized Flemish merchant Enrique Peligron.60 This was thus a purely Flemish transaction.

France, which would also explain why somebody from The Netherlands sold it. Under Henry IV, grain was the second leading export to Spain, making France the most important provider for that Iberian nation. See Girard, Le commerce français, 386-388. "For Erasmo de Florido, see AGI, Contratación, 50B and 51B, 19 January 1620; and Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 17, 26 and 160-161. Florido sailed to Campeche as early as 1616 as master of the 300-ton nao La Candelaria-, Huguette and Pierre Chaunu, Séville et l'Atlantique (1504-1650) (5 vols., Paris, 1955-1960), IV, 472473 and 562-563. 57

APS, 10060, ff. 200r-201r, 28 March 1620.

5S

Ibid., ff. 107v-109r, 19 May 1620. Palo de Capeche is a red dye.

59

AGI, Contratación, 51 A, 19 December 1608; and APS, 3607, f. 243v, 11 April 1620. ^Enrique Peligron from Antwerp arrived in Seville in the early 1600s, settled there about 1610 and applied for naturalization in 1626; AGI, Contratación, 50B, 13 July 1626; and Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 98.

38

Eberhard Crailsheim

Another case concerning Joansen was much more complicated. Figure 3 shows the combination of different bills of exchange and payment orders between Seville, San Sebastián and Amsterdam. On 9 April Joansen received 1440 ducats (15,839 reales) from the Flemish merchant Juan Vermolen.61 The bill of exchange was paid because Vermolen had received the funds and two payment orders. One order came from Gaspar Grebenrat and Juan Olassen in Amsterdam, the men who had drawn the bill. The second came from the Spaniard Fernando Perez de Beyngolea. This was paid because Perez de Beyngolea had received the proper instructions from Amsterdam in addition to another payment order from an unknown merchant from San Sebastián Γ villa del pasaje") in favour of Giles Vermolen, Juan's brother. The complexity of this example illustrates the course that bills of exchange could take on their way between Amsterdam and Seville.

AMSTERDAM

8E V I L L E Figure 3: Bills of exchange between Seville, San Sebastián and Amsterdam Source:

APS, 16869, f. 304v, 9 April 1620.

61

Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 68. Vermolen was already involved in a bill of exchange from Antwerp which was paid to the Fleming Juan Bautista Sirman.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

39

In short, we can conclude that Geronimo Joansen was a major merchant who resided permanently in Seville. He was in contact not only with compatriots from his homeland but also with Englishmen and traded French wheat, Andalusian olive oil, American dyewood and Flemish textiles. The latter was clearly dominant, showing that Joansen relied on links with his origins. He also used his liquid assets to grant credit and was involved in complex international payment transactions between Amsterdam and Seville. Cornelio Adriansen and Geronimo Raparte Geronimo Raparte was born in 1582 into a family of medical doctors in Bruges. Together with his brother Felipe he moved to Seville in 1609; when his brother returned to Flanders Geronimo founded a company with Cornelio Adriansen.62 They appeared in an insurance policy in 1620 on the nao San Antonio de Padova, which sailed between Seville and Santo Domingo. Raparte and Adriansen provided a cover of 300 ducats. Other insurers were their compatriots, Cornelio de Groóte (300 ducats), Guillen Clut (300 ducats) and Jacome de Somere (200 ducats)·, the Spaniards Juan Jacome Calisano and Roque Canal (together 1000 ducats); and the Frenchman Guillermo Guillu (300 ducats). These insurers were among the richest and most active merchants in the city, as was the captain of the ship, Fernando Bueno. The ship arrived safely so the insurers did not have to pay out any claim.63 There is additional evidence about the involvement of Raparte and Adriansen in the textile trade. In 1620 they delivered two loads of tapestries for 223 ducats (83,640 maravedís).64 On another occasion Adriansen on his own paid 545 ducats (6000 reales) on behalf of the Fleming Juan Bautista Sirman to the collector of the linen tax, Juan van Hooren, who was also a Fleming.65 Further, at the end of April 1620 Adriansen sold Flemish textiles worth 766 ducats (287,272 maravedís) to the bailiff of the Real Audiencia of Seville, Francisco Diaz Fajardo. He delivered one fardo (a bale of several hundred metres) of gantes, three pieces of white anascotes (Flemish woollens) and

62

Ibid., II, 55. No personal data has been found for Cornelio Adriansen.

63 APS, 16869, f. 516, 16 May 1620; Chaunu and Chaunu, Sévìlle et l'Atlantique, IV, 584-585 and 588; and Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 190. 64

APS, 3607, f. 828, 26 May 1620.

6S

88.

Ibid., 16869, f. 206, 8 April 1620. See also Sanz, Comercio de España, I,

Eberhard Crailsheim

40

twenty-five medium-sized pieces of holandas batistas. It is likely that these goods came directly from Dunkirk.66 This discussion of the Dunkirk connection shows clearly that Flemings had an important share of the cloth trade from Flanders. Only one of the six participating Seville merchants was not definitely of Flemish origin (Antonio Bennet). Otherwise, only Flemings appear to have taken part in the trade in holandas and cambrais from Flanders to Seville. The evidence shows that the trade route began in the production centres of western Flanders and went via Dunkirk to Seville, where the goods continued on to America. Flemish linen and cotton textiles were among the most essential exports from Seville to the Indies. It is especially noteworthy that this trade was almost exclusively in the hands of Flemish companies based in Seville. The Return Voyage of the Textiles While the discussion has shown the linkages between Dunkirk and Seville, we still need to examine the reverse trade in various types of linen from Seville to ports along the North Sea coast. The central individual in this business was the Fleming Cornelio de Groote.67 We have already encountered de Groote twice above: first when with Geronimo Joansen he received thirty-five ducats (387 reales) from the widow of the merchant Juan Bautista de Medinilla to settle his account.68 The second connection was to Cornelio Adriansen when both were among the insurers of San Antonio de Padova. Another associate in this case was the Frenchman Guillermo Guillu, from whom on another occasion de Groote received 2334 ducats (25,670 reales) as a cession.69 The Fleming Jacome de Somere also participated in the insurance of San Antonio de Padova and was de Groote's link to the rest of Europe.70 De M

One fardo of gantes (a bale of 1468.5 varas, 0.84 metres each) at 140 maravedís per vara makes 548 ducats (205,590 maravedís)·, three pieces of white anascotes at sixteen ducats per piece makes forty-eight ducats·, twenty-five medium-sized pieces of holandas batistas at fourteen ducats per piece makes 350 ducats. These added to 946 ducats. Cornelio Adriansen granted a discount because some of the gantes were "blurry." APS, 3607, f. 408, 29 April 1620. 67

Cf. Roland Baetens, De nazomer van Antwerpens welvaart: De diaspora en het handelshuis De Groote tijdens de eerste helft der 17de eeuw (Brussels, 1976). 68

APS, 3607, f. 243v, 11 April 1620.

69

Ibid., f. 225v, 10 April 1620.

10

Ibid., ff. 413-445. The thirteen relevant documents consist of proxies (5, 14, 15, 18 and 19 October, and 8 November 1619) and invoices (30 April and 2 May 1620), some of them in Dutch.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

41

Groote served as a factor for foreign merchants, including Carlos de la Royda from Ghent, Jacome de Somere, Sr., from Antwerp, Samuel van Peene and his son Carlos from Amsterdam, and Ludwig Berhaudt, Daniel Sloyter and the partners Daniel Bachelar and Cornelio de Somere from Hamburg. De Groote received merchandise, mainly linen cloth, from these men, and sold it in Seville, a job that gave him a central distribution function. As the products he sold were in demand in America, it can be presumed that the buyers were Indies traders. un·»«·

Figure 4: Returns from Cornelio de Groote, 1620 Sources: APS, 3607, ff. 413-445, 30 April and 2 May 1620.

De Groote, however, was not able to sell all the cloth before the Indies fleet left Cádiz for Tierra Firme on 18 April 1620. When his partners in northwest Europe were unwilling to wait for the departure of the fleet to New Spain several weeks later,71 at the beginning of May de Groote had to return 71

The Armada de la Guardia left Sanlúcar with the Spanish fleet for Tierra Firme on 25 March and cleared Cádiz on 18 April 1620. It returned to Sanlúcar on 14 October of the same year. The navy and the fleet, sailing for New Spain, left Sanlúcar on 18 or 19 June and Cádiz on 8 July 1620. The fleet arrived again in Sanlúcar on 30 September and 1 October of the following year. See Chaunu and Chaunu, Séville et l'Atlantique, IV, 556, 558 and 586, and V, 18.

Eberhard Crailsheim

42

the merchandise he was unable to sell. The merchants from Hamburg, Antwerp, Ghent and Amsterdam assigned the Fleming, Jacome de Somere,72 to bring this cloth back. The returns included 200 pieces of estopilla and 645 pieces of mitanes,n De Somere was also charged with returning the revenues from the sale of their cloth, so de Groote handed him 9973 ducats (109,700 reales). The details can be seen in figure 4. Although Cornelio de Groote was a central figure in the commerce of Seville, in this case he was only the factor for foreigners. Two more facts can be deduced from figure 4. First, there was cooperation between the van Peenes in Amsterdam and Ludwig Behaudt in Hamburg. Such cooperation between merchants in the Northern Netherlands, Germany and Spain was not often seen in the archives in Seville. Second, the importance of families in this trade is clear. In Amsterdam, Samuel van Peene took over his father's business. Moreover, throughout this commercial network the Somere family was dominant: there were members not only in Seville but also in Antwerp and Hamburg, swapping goods and money. Since Jacome de Somere was entrusted to return the sales revenues from Seville, it seems likely that the Somere family was the driving force in this network. If we look further at Cornelio de Groote's connections, we find another link to Antwerp and America in Niculas Monel, a citizen of Seville of Flemish origin. During the 1610s and 1620s, Niculas Monel and his brothers, Pedro and Francisco, travelled a number of times between Seville and Tierra Firme,74 In 1620 Niculas Monel presented a bill of exchange to de Groote. De Groote did not pay the 450 ducats since the bill was drawn on Antwerp and the two drawers had not remitted the money owed to him.75 More important, this shows that de Groote had additional contacts in Antwerp and did business with Flemish Indies traders. It is clear that de Groote played a remarkable role in connecting Seville with cities like Ghent, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Hamburg. While there is no evidence that he conducted direct trade himself, his role as a factor was crucial. He was also very active financially. He was in contact with compatriots and a Frenchman, writing insurance policies and conducting business 72

See Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 63.

73

Estopilla of cambrais were a coarse type of the fine cambrais linen. Mitanes also were of a lower quality and were related te holandas. 74

AGI, Contratación, 5318, N.l, R.42, ff.lr-33r, 22 January 1610 [PARES]; Contratación, 5340, Ν. 13, ff.lr-3v, 22 February 1614 [PARES]; and Contratación, 5358, Ν.32, ff.lr-33r, 28 February 1617 [PARES], See also Stols, De Spaanse Brabanders, II, 2. 75

APS, 10,060, ff. 192v-193r, May 1620.

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

43

using bills of exchange, and also worked with Indies merchants, indicating again the importance of the American market for the merchants of Seville. Final Consideration and Conclusion This paper has shed some light on the European trade structures that stood behind the Atlantic expansion of the early seventeenth century. Using two business networks that operated between Seville and the cities of northwest Europe in 1620, we have seen how Flemish cloth flowed from the production centres into Seville and how a return trade operated in the other direction. Flemings were the most numerous of the foreign merchants in Seville, and textiles were the dominant product. Hence, the cases we examined can be considered representative of the trade of Seville in the early seventeenth century. In addition to the textile trade, the Flemish merchants were involved in a variety of other commercial activities, many of them related to the Indies trade. Certain characteristics stand out that are representative of the structure behind the Atlantic expansion. This is true both of the networks established by the Flemish merchants and the features of their trade. The two examples of Flemish networks included a variety of individuals, or nodes, which formed two sub-networks. Through the hub-like function of Cornelio de Groote, these sub-networks shared common connections. This illustrates the strong coherence among foreigners in Seville, especially those who shared common origins. This in turn represents one of the key patterns: Flemings were inclined to do business with compatriots. Five of the six merchants of the Dunkirk connection were Flemings, as were all their witnesses before the notaries in Seville and their partners in Dunkirk. Moreover, in the other business operations of the three Flemish companies, compatriots played important roles. In the commercial connections of Cornelio de Groote, Flemings were crucial, and two of the four important cities for his cloth business were in the Southern Netherlands. His other activities also included Flemings such as Niculas Monel. Apart from contact with compatriots at home and in Seville, the Flemings frequently had contact with foreigners from other countries. All of the four protagonists were in contact with Frenchmen through insurance, credit or bills of exchange. Moreover, Dutchmen, Portuguese and Englishmen appeared among their business partners. Their Spanish partners, like Bias Rodriguez de Cespedes, were often related to the Indies trade. Several cases also underscored the importance of family connections. The fact that both of Pedro Giles' wives were of Flemish descent can be seen as typical because about sixty percent of the wives of naturalized Flemings in Seville were descendants of compatriots.76 As the Flemings were the largest 76

Crailsheim, "Seville and the European Atlantic Trade," 285.

44

Eberhard Crailsheim

foreign group in the city, they did not have a great need to integrate into Spanish society, which likely explains the infrequency of marriage to Spanish women. Instead, they strengthened their links with compatriots with whom they often already had business contacts. Cornelio de Groote's cloth trade provides evidence of two family patterns: first, the transmission of a business from father to son by the van Peenes from Amsterdam; and second, the geographic dispersion of a family for business, as displayed by the de Someres in Hamburg, Antwerp and Seville. There were also several key findings regarding the trade between northwest Europe and Seville. One is that the Flemish cloth trade was largely in the hands of Flemings in both Seville and the Southern Netherlands. In both cases discussed here, Flemings were in charge on both ends. In the first one the Flemings of Seville were dominant, while in the second it was merchants from the north. Spaniards were hardly involved at all. In addition, as was shown by Pedro Giles' wool laundry, Flemings also dominated a large part of the wool trade of Andalusia. The wealthy merchants of Seville were also inclined to diversify their businesses. Besides the textile trade, which was probably the dominant activity for most, the Flemings performed a variety of other business activities. Pedro Giles, for example, was a founder of artillery; Geronimo Joansen traded in grain; Cornelio Adriansen underwrote insurance; and Cornelios de Groote advanced credit. None was active in only a single branch of trade, and each tried to diversify. Of course, these merchants were all rich, and poorer traders may have focused on only one business at a time. Another noteworthy feature was that many activities were performed with a partner, that is, with something very much like a company. All those in the Dunkirk trade were members of such companies. Also, several of Cornelio de Groote's partners appeared in this deal. This of course meant that it was easier to raise the required capital while also spreading the risks. A large share of the trade conducted by the Flemings in Seville was focused on the American market. Since Flemish cloth was among the most valued merchandise there, all the principal lines of commerce examined here were relevant for the Indies trade. As none of the merchants was naturalized in 1620, they had to rely on Spanish middlemen for the connection to America. The best example was Cornelio Adriansen, who sold some of the Dunkirk linen in Seville to an Indies trader. Geronimo Joansen sold olive oil to the captain of a ship on its way to America, and he also sold American dyewood in Seville. Cornelio de Groote was in contact with a notorious Indies trader from Flanders. Finally, after 1620 Pedro Giles was naturalized after he had received a license for the American trade. Naturalized or not, all the merchants we looked at were related in some way to Seville's American commerce. Besides the dominant Flemish products and the omnipresent American goods, these merchants also dealt in products from Andalusia. Pedro Giles was

Flemish Trade Connections of Seville in 1620

45

the owner of a wool laundry, and the presence of Flemings in the Andalusian wool industry was strong. Additionally, Geronimo Joansen bought Spanish olive oil from local producers and sold it to Indies traders. As a last characteristic of the Flemish trade in 1620 we can point to the fact that many of the transactions were done through bills of exchange. Both Amsterdam and Antwerp were important centres for such transactions, and most of the bills we encountered here were drawn on one of these cities. Pedro Giles, Geronimo Joansen and Cornelio de Groote were involved in such financial transfers. By examining the commercial transactions of certain Flemish merchants, this essay has contributed to our understanding of the complex trade structure that linked the Old World and the New. Reconstructing European trade to and from Seville provided insights into the nature of transcontinental trade in the early seventeenth century and gave us a glimpse into what the Indies trade meant for Europe. Focusing on the Flemish textile trade to and from Seville in 1620 has led to several key generalizations which I hope will stimulate discussion about the European side of the Indies trade.

National and International Labour Markets for Sailors in European, Atlantic and Asian Waters, 1600-1850 Matthias van Rossum, Lex Heerma van Voss, Jelle van Lottum and Jan Lucassen

The Armenian merchants Babtisto Basilion and Wandy Metree were not the luckiest of men. Residing in Manila when Spain declared war on England in 1780, they were expelled by the Spanish governor because they hailed from Madras and therefore were suspected of "attachment to the English." Despite the monsoon, which made it impossible to sail for Madras, the merchants were forced to leave Manila immediately. With few options left, they purchased a small sloop and recruited a Portuguese pilot and a mixed Macau, Chinese and Indian crew. Together with an expelled French padre, the polyglot company set sail for Macau, sent on their way with only a Spanish flag and a pass approving their journey. Before they reached Macau, however, Santa Reta was sighted by Captain John Fasker of the British vessel Hornby and seized as a prize of war. The merchants filed a complaint against the seizure of their ship, and the case went to the High Court of Admiralty for further judgement. We owe the story of their Odyssey to the documentation collected in the court file.1 The case of Santa Reta points to a number of aspects of early modern maritime labour markets. Crews were not necessarily recruited from one nationality, nor were they of the same nationality as the owners of the ship or the captain, as was the case in this example. Early modern sailing involved the mobilization of large numbers of workers, both for the merchant marine and especially during wars - for the navy. The great demand for sailors, in particular in maritime centres, necessitated recruitment from a wide catchment area. Moreover, crews continually had to be refreshed while under way, not only because of the deaths but also because part of the crew often chose to jump ship. This recruitment in "foreign" ports could involve the enrolment of large 'Great Britain, National Archives (TNA/PRO), High Court of Admiralty (HCA) 32/440. Some of the issues touched upon in the European part of this article have been treated more extensively in Lex Heerma van Voss, Jelle van Lottum and Jan Lucassen, "Sailors, National and International Labour Markets and National Identity, 1600-1850," in Richard Unger (ed.), Shipping Efficiency and Economic Growth, 13501800 (Leiden, 2011), 309-351.

47

Van Rossum, et al.

48

numbers of men. For these reasons maritime labour markets tended to be neither local nor regional but rather national, international or even intercontinental. In this essay we try to assess how crews were composed in different maritime theatres and try to explain the patterns found. To accomplish this we employ the so-called "Prize Papers." 2 In times of war, merchant vessels belonging to enemies were regarded as lawful prizes, taken and sold for profit by naval ships or privateers. The most famous collection is in the British National Archives, where documents pertaining to tens of thousands of ships, mainly Dutch and French, but also Spanish, Portuguese, Scandinavian, German, Italian and American have been preserved. These vessels and all their paperwork were taken by English privateers or men-of-war between about 1650 and 1815.3 To establish whether a ship was actually enemy property and therefore a lawful prize, over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the English developed a distinct and elaborate procedure. They would confiscate any ship's papers or other written material found on board, and a special naval court would question the master and a number of other crew members. Each had to answer a list of questions; under Charles II these were a fixed questionnaire of eighteen items which subsequently evolved until it contained thirty-four questions under George III.4

2

S.W.P.C. Braunius, "Het leven van de zeventiende-eeuwse zeeman: valse romantiek of werkelijkheid?" Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis, Nos. 40/41 (1980), 1122; and David J. Starkey, British Privateering Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century (Exeter, 1990). 3

Other similar collections, albeit more limited in scope, exist in Denmark, Sweden and France. In Denmark, prize papers for the early 1810s can be found at the Rigsarkivet in the records of the Tyske Kancelli Indenrigske Afdeling and those of the Admiralitetet. Other examples are in the archive of the Kebenhavens Soret; we thank Erik Goebel at the Riksarkivet for this information. The French Archives Nationales have prize papers in the Fonds de la Marine, serie F2 and elsewhere. The Swedish Riksarkivet holds the records of the Kommitterade till överseende av fördelningen av arméns flottas priser, Kommitterade över Prisreglementet (Priskommissionen); the Uppbringningar (SE/RA/757/42) and the Kaperiräkenskaper (SE/RA/51303) have records on ships seized. In the Swedish Krigsarkivet are the records of the Kungl. Majts till 1714 ârs prisräkningars reviderande förordnade kommission, 1726-1727, and the Amiralitetskollegium, Kommissioner, Ej inordnade handlingar, which also contain papers on ship seizures and privateering during the Great Northern War. The Landesarchiv Greifswald has reports on Prussian prize ships captured in Pomerania, 1710-1714. 4

Based on all this evidence the court decided whether the prize had been taken properly and what to do with the ship, cargo and crew. Great Britain, National Archives (TNA/PRO), High Court of Admiralty (HCA) 32/8, for example, includes the ships St. Anne of Newport and Bogen, while HCA 32/800 includes records of the ship La Pauline.

National and International Labour Markets

49

Two types of data make this time-consuming, but readily available source highly useful for research into the questions discussed here. First, it combines data for each ship about origin, route and planned destination, tonnage, freight and crew members with their origins. Second, it contains the results of the interrogations by the Prize Courts of the most important three or four men on board, mainly from the early eighteenth century onward. Part of these interrogations consists of pertinent, detailed questions about citizenship, national allegiance and personal migration history (we apply the concepts of citizenship and nationality in a very broad way, since they encompass in the early modern period membership in a variety of polities from cities to states, and not yet, as in the nineteenth century, exclusively nation-states). These especially provide insight into self-ascribed identity. As the Prize Papers are international in nature, they make comparisons possible among various maritime nations. The results here are based on a non-random sample of boxes with dossiers on prizes and their interrogations.5 Using the interrogations, we have constructed a database comprising 315 ships to provide an overview as representative as possible of ships from European maritime nations in European, intercontinental and intra-Asian shipping. Given the preliminary state of the project and the difficulties in finding a sufficient number of ships for specific routes and nations, the sample size of particular subcategories is not yet large. Further research will be necessary to find more cases for these categories.6 The present essay will discuss the recruitment patterns of leading European maritime nations in both European shipping and maritime activities elsewhere in the world. The comparison between the two leading maritime 'Boxes were selected to cover different wars and seas. By and large we made no further selection within boxes but processed all the interrogations we found to contain a useful amount of data. 'The data for the research on European shipping are derived from TNA/PRO, HCA 32/8/1-2, 32/13, 32/64/1-2, 32/76/1, 32/145, 32/208/1-2, 32/225, 32/289, 32/316/1-3, 32/332/1, 32/333/1-2, 32/335/1-2, 32/338/1-2, 32/343/1-2, 32/346, 32/356, 32/366/1-2, 32/369/1-2, 32/371/1-2, 32/372/1-2, 32/373/1-2, 32/374/1, 32/395/1-2, 32/396, 32/453/1, 32/488/1, 32/800, 32/801/1-2, 32/802, 32/1063 and 32/1068. The data for the research on intercontinental and intra-Asiatic shipping have been derived from HCA 32/97, 32/106, 32/108, 32/111, 32/112, 32/113 , 32/114, 32/118, 32/122, 32/133, 32/136, 32/145, 32/147, 32/155, 32/156, 32/157, 32/160, 32/176, 32/186, 32/190, 32/193, 32/211, 32/229, 32/233, 32/236, 32/244, 32/275, 32/287, 32/293, 32/316, 32/342, 32/343, 32/345, 32/346, 32/347, 32/356, 32/359, 32/395, 32/399, 32/410, 32/418, 32/440, 32/444, 32/465, 32/469, 32/470, 32/492, 32/507, 32/518, 32/550, 32/556, 32/712, 32/1063, 32/1367, 42/281, 42/316 and 42/363. The series HCA 49 contains documents collected from prize courts outside Europe (Cape of Good Hope, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Madras, Halifax, etc.). We consulted HCA 49/5/1-3, 49/14, 49/98, 49/99, 49/100 and 49/101. From these a small number of ships were added to the database.

50

Van Rossum, et al.

nations of northwest Europe, the Dutch Republic (or the United Provinces) and England, brings to light two different types of labour markets, one international and the other national. Within Europe the international maritime labour market of the Dutch Republic was the exception. As we will show below, an analysis of the Prize Papers shows that other European maritime nations followed the English pattern in which mainly autochthonous seafarers were employed, only incidentally complemented by small numbers of foreigners. In addition, research into the Prize Papers opens the possibility to compare recruitment patterns of the European nations worldwide. Outside Europe, the leading European maritime nations were confronted with more complex recruitment issues. Longer travel distances and a more demanding climate resulted in higher death rates, while being far from home meant less choice in recruiting European workers. This meant that existing employment strategies had to be reconsidered and adapted. The "European pattern" was to a great extent maintained in intercontinental shipping to both Asia and the Americas. Within Asia, however, this had to be abandoned in favour of international recruitment patterns that seem to have been similar to those common in non-European, intra-Asian shipping. Sailing European Waters From the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic found it difficult to allocate labour to meet growing demand in different sectors of the economy. To keep up with rapid economic growth, labour from outside the country's borders had to be attracted. It has been estimated that halfway through the seventeenth century eight percent of the population of the Netherlands consisted of foreigners.7 In the Republic's core region, the province of Holland, the share of foreigners was much larger, around fifteen percent in 1600, eighteen percent in 1650, twelve percent in 1700, fourteen percent in 1750 and again twelve percent in 1800. In individual cities this figure could be much higher. In Amsterdam, for example, the share of the population born outside the Republic for the same years were forty, thirty-eight, twenty-five, twenty-seven and twenty-three percent, respectively.8 There was much variation in the participation of foreigners in the Dutch labour market, and over time within the same sector the share of foreigners could fluctuate widely. It has been argued, however, that the participa7

Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen, "Niederlande," in Klaus J. Bade, et al. (eds.), Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa: Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (Paderborn, 2007), 95-109. 8

Jan Lucassen, Immigranten in Holland 1600-1800: Een kwantitatieve benadering (Amsterdam, 2002). This is also available online at www.iisg.nl/cgm/documents/cgm-workingpaper3 .pdf.

National and International Labour Markets

51

tion of foreigners in the Netherlands during the early modern period consisted of two distinct sub-periods. The first, which lasted from roughly 1600 to 1670, was characterized by a large influx of foreigners, mostly sedentary migrants who settled for a number of years, if not permanently.9 In the second (16701785/1790) the share of foreigners remained substantial, even if it declined somewhat. Among those foreigners, the number of temporary, non-sedentary migrants increased sharply, while that of sedentary migrants declined. 70.000 60.000

•7 "tV

•

.^Vîj'JÎ •

50.000

* 4 .! 1' . - .Γ 1 -•VW-,· -I.Vv

40.000

20.000




*

20% 10%

*

-

0% 1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

year Figure 2: Share of Foreigners in the Dutch Maritime Labour Market, 1600-1850 Source:

Jelle van Lottum, Across the North Sea: The Impact of the Dutch Republic on Labour Migration, c. 1550-1850 (Amsterdam, 2007), 136.

As was already noted, the native population was not large enough to keep up with the expansion in this sector, and immigrants were necessary to man Dutch ships. The importance of migrants in the maritime labour market, however, changed significantly over time (see figure 2). While between 1635 and 1785 the total numbers employed in the Dutch maritime sector remained relatively stable, the share of foreigners increased. In 1607 about fifteen perl0 Mathias van Rossum, Hand aan hand (Blank en Bruin): Solidariteit en de werking van globalisering, etniciteit en klasse onder zeelieden op de Nederlandse koopvaardij, 1900-1945 (Amsterdam, 2009), shows that recovery came only after World War I but that employment never reached late eighteenth-century levels.

National and International Labour Markets

53

cent of all sailors were born abroad. By 1635 this rose to slightly over twenty percent, and by the end of the century it increased to just over thirty percent. The eighteenth century, for which only one survey year is available, showed continued growth in the share of foreigners: between 1694 and 1785 their proportion rose from slightly over thirty to just over fifty percent. After the end of the eighteenth century the share of immigrants declined quickly. In 1827 less than twenty-five percent of the maritime work force consisted of foreigners, and in 1850 it was only about thirteen percent. The international character of the Dutch maritime labour market may be contrasted with England, the other leading northwest European maritime nation of the early modern era. English maritime labour research in the past few decades has focussed on the Royal Navy, for instance in the impressive body of work by N.A.M. Rodger. Whereas the Royal Navy used the notorious "press," the Dutch labour market had no institutionalized forms of coercion. The sole exception was during wartime when Dutch merchant ships were forbidden to leave port until the navy had the necessary number of men.11 A second remarkable difference was in the countries of origin of the sailors. Compared to the Dutch market, the English labour market was much less international. Whereas the Dutch relied to a great degree on immigrants, the English did not. While even the Royal Navy attracted a number of nonnatives,12 the literature generally is not very precise about numbers. Nonetheless, it is clear that these were not large. The English merchant marine was no different.13 Using the geographical origins of deponents in the High Court of Admiralty, Peter Earle showed that of a sample of about 1500 sailors, eightythree percent were born in England, twelve percent in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands, and only five percent outside the British Isles.14 The obvious question is why the English maritime labour market was so different from its Dutch counterpart. A simple geographical explanation is possible: Holland and England each had a recruitment area which was sufficient to man the ships of its fleet. They both recruited from areas at roughly the same distance, but given the larger size of the British Isles, the sailors that "Jaap R. Bruijn, The Dutch Navy of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Columbia, SC, 1993), 130. 12

N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (London, 1986), 158. 13

Ralph Davis, The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1962; reprint, Newton Abbot, 1972), 307. 14

Peter Earle, "English Sailors, 1570-1775," in Paul C. van Royen, et al. (eds.), "Those Emblems of Hell?" European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570-1870 (St. John's, 1997), 81, table 4.

54

Van Rossum, et al.

England recruited were subjects of the British crown while the Dutch had to depend more on foreigners.15 Elsewhere in Europe maritime recruitment resembled the English more than the Dutch model. A brief tour d'horizon along the European coasts indicates that, with some qualifications, in European seafaring the international recruitment typical of the Dutch Republic was the exception and that primarily national recruitment was the rule. In France, maritime recruitment was overwhelmingly national, especially along the Atlantic coast.16 Spain also manned its fleets mainly from within its borders. In a measure that resembled later English legislation, for security reasons Spain limited the number of foreigners to six per ship in 1658. In Spain, as in France, wartime naval demands on maritime labour markets could lead to somewhat higher numbers of foreigners. The main catchment areas were Portugal, Malta and Italy.17 Danish fleets usually were manned from Denmark and other possessions of the Danish crown.18 In Norway, some immigrant Dutchmen held positions in the fleet, but crews consisted mainly of Norwegians, supplemented by Danes and Swedes depending on which country Norway was subject to politically.19 If the larger maritime nations thus resembled England more than the Dutch Republic, some smaller maritime nations shared the latter's difficulty of a small homeland combined with large maritime ambitions. The city-republics in northern Germany, like Hamburg and Bremen, had such small hinterlands that they often had to rely on what were technically foreign crews. These were found nearby, however, and the majority were both culturally and linguistically German.20

"For further details, see van Lottum, Across the North Sea. "T.J.A. Le Goff, "The Labour Market for Sailors in France," in van Royen, et al. (eds.), "Those Emblems of Hell?" 300-311. "Carla Rahn Phillips, "The Labour Market for Sailors in Spain, 1570-1870," in ibid., 337-339; and Pablo E. Pérez-Mallaína, Spain's Men of the Sea: Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century (Baltimore, 1998), 54-55. l8

Hans Chr. Johansen, "Danish Sailors, 1570-1870," in: Van Royen, et al. (eds.), "Those Emblems of Hell?" 244-246. "Gustav Saetra, "The International Labour Market for Seamen, 1600-1900: Norway and Norwegian Participation," in ibid., 173-210. ^Michael North, "German Sailors, 1650-1900," in ibid., 256-258; and Heide Gerstenberger, "Ganze Dörfer widmeten sich vorwiegend dem seemännischen Beruf?" in Gerstenberger and Ulrich Welke (eds.), Zur See? Maritime Gewerbe an den Küsten von Nord- und Ostsee (Münster, 1999), 107-137.

National and International Labour Markets

55

Another solution was found by Venice and Portugal, maritime nations which in terms of population size and maritime importance were not unlike the United Provinces. Yet they relied not only on free recruitment like the Dutch but also on the recruitment of forced labour, slaves and other unfree sailors provided by their colonial empires.21 In this sense the Spanish and French navies had two faces; a Mediterranean one with unfree labour on their galleys and an Atlantic one with free workers.22 At the other end of the continent in the Baltic, there were also unfree sailors and galleys. The Swedish state, which had little private maritime interest upon which to rely, manned its fleet (and its army for that matter) through conscription, including in dependent Finland. In coastal areas, sets of four farms had to supply one sailor and to house and feed him outside of the campaign season.23 The European maritime labour market of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was thus tripartite: a central zone, including the Dutch Republic, with free labour markets which dealt routinely with crews which consisted of about half foreign nationals; an intermediate zone, comprising Denmark, England, the German city-states, the Austrian Netherlands, France and Spain, with labour markets which were mainly free and generally consisted of its own nationals, usually supplemented by not more than ten percent of foreigners; and an outer zone in the Baltic and Mediterranean, where recruitment involved both free and unfree sailors (conscripts, convicts, prisoners of war and slaves) from among its own population, dependent states and slave-selling areas.24 Data from the Prize Papers confirm these patterns. Ships from the Mediterranean or the Baltic which did not leave those inland seas were not included in the sample. It is important to note here that there was a slight bias 21

Jan Lucassen, "Labour and Early Modern Economic Development," in Karel Davids and Jan Lucassen (eds.), A Miracle Mirrored: The Dutch Republic in European Perspective (Cambridge, 1995), 376-378; Geoffrey V. Scartimeli, The World Encompassed: The First European Maritime Empires, c. 800-1650 (London, 1987), 106108, 173-176 and 268-269; and Pierre Cabanes, Histoire de l'Adriatique (Paris, 2001), 249-251. 22

André Zysberg, Les galériens: Vies et destins de 60,000 forçats sur les galères de France, 1680-1748 (Paris, 1987); and Jan Glete, Warfare at sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe (London, 2000), 54-59. 23

Jan Glete, War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States, 1500-1600 (London, 2002); and Yrjö Kaukiainen, "Finnish Sailors, 1750-1870," in van Royen, et al. (eds.), "Those Emblems of Hell?" 211-232. 24

In the case of unions of the crown in the second group, fellow subjects of the prince (e.g., Scots and Irish on the English fleet or Norwegians and citizens of the Duchies on the Danish fleet) are not counted as foreigners.

Van Rossum, et al.

56

in the data. Some of the interrogations gave figures for different nationalities among the crew, while others mentioned that all belonged to a certain nation, or that the crew was "from diverse nations" or consisted of "Swedes and Danes" or other nationalities. Among this group, only those that mention that all crew belonged to one nation can be quantified. Table 1 therefore somewhat under-represents mixed crews.25 With the limitations mentioned above, the sample confirms the impression in literature that crews on Dutch ships were much more international than those from the intermediate zone. Table 1 Crews and Nationality in European Shipping, 1664-1803

Dutch Republic Scandinavia and Germany France (Atlantic)

No. Ships

No. Crew

Nationals

Foreigners

Total

71

551