PhD Forum briefing note: Geography and trade; Commerce and law
PhD Forum briefing note: Geography and trade; Commerce and law
Editorial history
04/12/12: CSG, created page
Purpose of page
This draft page is a briefing note for the planned PhD Forum online discussion of geography and trade, and commerce and law
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Suggested links
Introduction
Purpose and process of the forum session
The purpose of the forum on geography and trade, and commerce and the law, is for PhD Forum members to explore the potential of HCA materials, as exemplified by HCA 13/71.
Forum members are asked to think how HCA materials might assist them directly in their studies, and more generally how they might assist scholars in exploring issues related to these topics.
The online session, which will take place on XXXX, will be facilitated by XXXXX. The role of the facilitator is to structure the session, and to pose a series of questions to forum members. All participating members are encouraged to speak, and at the end of the forum the facilitator will ask each member to make some summary remarks.
Notes will be taken of the meeting and posted to the PhD Forum page after the session. Forum members are encouraged to expand and and correct these notes as they see fit.
The questions: Geography and trade
(1) What types of geographical knowledge are contained in HCA materials?
(2) What can be learned about trade in and with specific regions?
(3) What data in HCA materials might contribute to a micro-model of English trade in the 1650s?
The questions: Commercial and legal practice
(1) What can be learned about commercial practices and behaviours from HCA materials?
(2) What can be learned about legal practices and behaviours from HCA materials?
Geography and trade
Types of geographical knowledge
- Different commercial practices of merchants of different nations?
- Those deposed are largely English merchants and mariners
- The best represented non-English deponents in HCA 13/71 are Dutch and French mariners and merchants, though the balance is likely to vary between HCA volumes, partly driven by which nations were at war with whom
- Some impression can be formed of foreign merchant practices in London, especially those of Portuguese and Spanish merchants, with a surprising number of such deponents, who are less visible in other sources such as hearth tax, and who are hard to find in Chancery cases. See Portuguese merchants in London and Spanish merchants in London.
- Considerable detail is available on commercial practices in certain ports. In HCA 13/71, for example, there is considerable detail on practices at the ports of Cyprus and Zant.[2]
- Physical descriptions are available for some ports, concentrating on associated navigational difficulties. For example, the problems of the fast flowing waters at Lisbon, and XXXX.[3]
Trade in and with specific geographies
- HCA 13/71 is rich in cases involving the Mediterranean, inclusing the Zant and Morea currant trade, trade with the Turkish port of Scanderoone, trading with the Barbary coast, and trading with Spain. No individual depositions or cases in themselves give a deep insight, but pieced together, and combined with other sources, there is the potential to enrich understanding of trade in certain geographies.
- Using HCA 13/71, the area with the greatest potential in the Mediterranean for such a treatment is probably Zant and the Morea.
- Another geography that stands out in HCA 13/71 for the number of cases is that of the Canary Islands. There appears to be some potential to explore this trade, in combination with other sources, such as the letters of the London merchant John Page. Some detail is available on the practices of Spanish port officials and on commodities shipped out to the Canaries.
- The single geography which stands out in HCA 13/71 as one where the volume offers some really novel inisghts is that of Greenland. By combining the case of Batson and others con Gosling and others (1656 and 1657) with further cases invoicing Batson in another HCA volume, a good picture can be built up of the operations and risk taking of an English whaling ship operating in the waters of Spitzbergen. There is the potential to attempt to explore the social and economic structure and network of an English whaling ship, using the crew list, and the Court supplied details of a large number of deponents who were on the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound. How far this could be taken remains to be seen. For further information, see C17th Arctic whaling.
Micro-model of English trade
Resources on geography and trade
Geographies of trade
Bound for Barbary
English coastal trading
Types of trade
Currants and raisins trade
Oranges and lemons trade
Slave trade
Slavery without redemption
Textile trade
Statehood of merchants
Dutch merchants in London and elsewhere
Jewish merchants
Portuguese merchants in London
Spanish merchants in London
Commercial and legal practice
General comments
Commercial practices and behaviours
HCA documents have considerable research potential for academics interested in establishing the nature of mid-C17th commercial infrastructure and working practices in London and on the Thames estuary, and to a lesser extent in a range of European, Caribbean and and North American ports.
They also have considerable research potential in identifying working practices on board ship and
The HCA 13 series is a good series from which to start such looking at shore based infrastructure and working practices, since it contains a fair number of cases involving shore based suppliers to ships, and cases which link specific ladings of commodities to specific wharves and keys.
Cases provide useful detail on neglected areas of historiography, including Thames docks and wharves, Thames shipyards, and local Thames river traffic involved in loading and unloading larger ships, and transporting goods by river and coastal waters over short distances. Using these data is likely to involve significant work of synthesis, and will require inspection of a broader selection of HCA documentation across years and HCA documentation types, and of totally different series and document types, such as records of involving Chancery, probate, hearth tax, merchant letters, and State papers. See: Thames docks and wharves; Thames lighters; Thames shipyards in 1650s
A slightly different approach which focuses on material handling, independent of whether it involves goods onboard a ship or at a wharf or port, also yields some interesting research material. See: Materials handling.
An interesting research strategy, which could make good use of materials, would be to take a specific commodity and to look at its supply chain from original source through packaging, shipping, unlading, reshipping, reunlading, and transit to wholesaler or retail.
Specific commodities which might be both interesting and possible to explore would be timber, iron, and tobacco.
When the electronic searchable edition of HCA 13/71 is complete, it will be possible to search for all references to specific commodities, and to see which ships specific commodities were carried on, at to which destinations they were sent. Sampling of tobacco related cases in HCA 13/71 shows Virginia being laded at Virginia, but also at the Bermudas, and transported to London, but also from Virginia directly to the Canary Islands and to Spain. In HCA 13/71 tobacco is also reshipped from London to a variety of locations, including the Canary Islands, Spain and Aleppo. See Virginia tobacco trade in the 1650s
Timber appears in HCA 13/71 typically in the form of deals, spars and balkes being transported from various Baltic ports, such as Berghen and Quinsborough, and bound for London. There are some references to the import of dye woods from Brazil via English owned ships imployed by the Portuguese Brazil company.
Iron appears in HCA 13/71 in the form of bars, and processed metal. In HCA 13/71 iron is acquired both in the Baltic region and from Northern Spain. Together with copper, iron is transported to Guinney to be exchanged for slaves.
Legal practices and behaviours
HCA materials may offer some insights into legal practices and behaviours.
They appear richest as a source to advance understanding of the use of law and the courts within a commercial dispute, and are relatively free of complex legal issues or legal argument. This is in contrast to Chancery Court materials.
The High Court of Admiralty legal process can be discerned within HCA 13/71, but the volume does not contain the complete set of documents relevant to a single case. Interrogatories, if they have survived, as recorded in a separate volume, as are the findings of the court, as are supporting materials which are cited in HCA 13/71 as schedules and annexes.
To prepare for a fuller discussion of these topics at the Forum it would be helpful to look at:
High Court of Admiralty process
Introduction to the High Court of Admiralty
Thames wharves and keys
HCA 13 and other HCA data can be combined with probate data for PRC wills and inventories for individuals identifed as wharfingers, warehousemen, and other trades linked to specific wharves and keys. HCA data can also be linked to A2A searches of county and municipal archives for court cases involving specific wharves and keys, and redevelopment plans and maps for named wharves and keys.
Thames shipyards
HCA 13/71 contains some data on Thames shipyards. See: Thames shipyards in 1650s
One case provides detail of John Pett's Deptford shipyard.[4] More generally there are a good number of depositions by shipwrights, though typically testifying to repairs on specific ships, or of travel on specific ships as crew members, rather than providing contextual detail on dock infrastructure.
It is possible that other volumes in the HCA 13 series will provide more detail on Thames shipyards.
One case in HCA 13/71 provides detail on ship building activity in Normandy. See: XXXX
Frequent mention is made in HCA 13/71 of the purchase by English merchants of foreign ships, frequently of Dutch origin, though typically without details of their building or the specific ship yard from whence they came. See: XXXX
Thames river traffic
Resources on commerce and law
Commercial infrastructure and associated behaviours
Customs and excise
Materials handling
Thames docks and wharves
Thames lighters
Thames shipyards in 1650s
The Exchange in the City of London
Port trades
Ports
Commercial behaviour
Discipline
Injury and death
Maritime incompetence
Masquerade
Navigation
Privateering and piracy
Commercial economics
Seamens' wages
Seasonality
Ship economics
Law
Commercial law
High Court of Admiralty process
- ↑ Electronic link to a digital source
- ↑ Electronic link to a digital source
- ↑ Electronic link to a digital source
- ↑ HCA 13/71 f.219r Case: Pett against the Ruth and Maurice Tompson and others; Deposition: 1. Edward Tompson of Shadwell in the County of Middlesex Mariner, aged 49 yeeres; Date: 10/05/1656
