Abstract
From the beginning of the fourth quarter of the sixteenth until the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth centuries England's trade underwent a marked transformation. English ships and seamen travelled on routes they had not travelled before, to destinations they had not yet visited. In search of both legitimate trade and ill-gotten plunder, this is the period when English mariners and merchants first discovered the worlds of trade of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, and those created by the Iberian empires. This period has been heavily studied, both on its own terms and as the genesis of the English-cum-British empire. Rather than latch onto the names of larger-than-life legendary figures like Drake or Raleigh, the aristocracy of the sea, Eleanor Hubbard writes a history of the common seamen who made possible both the epic voyages and humdrum trade.
The book is composed of seven chapters that focus on different activities or regions of trade, or examine an aspect of the position of sailors more generally. These chapters are preceded by an introduction, which lays out the book's methodology, sources and historiographical background. Hubbard covers a lot of ground, both spatially and temporally. However, her ambition is to study sailors, not as nameless parts of a larger collective, but as individuals. This requires a skilful examination of the sources, and this is where Hubbard excels. Her main sources are those archived in the High Court of Admiralty in Southwark. The court's examinations of sailors and merchants provide a highly personal insight into the conflicts between these parties, as well as the lives and concerns of the sailors. By drawing on this rich – but demanding – body of sources, Hubbard succeeds in painting highly personal pictures of the men she studies in the book.
The first chapter covers the Anglo-Spanish War (1585−1604), during which privateering was a burgeoning business and many sailors had their first experience aboard privateers. More generally, the war put English commerce on a path towards large, heavily manned and heavily armed ships which could serve in battle. English long-distance trade shifted towards risky areas and the high-value products that would offset these risks. The Mediterranean was one such area. The second chapter zooms in on this area and the various English renegades and corsairs operating under foreign flags there – much to the dismay of the English Levant Company. Trade was not without risk, for sailors and merchants. As new areas of trade opened, the risks and rewards became points of contention between these two parties. Chapter 3 examines these employment disputes, and Hubbard shows that sailors fought hard to retain traditional rights under new circumstances.
For some, employment in legal trade was not remunerative enough, as is shown in chapter 4 on the pirate community of La Mamora on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. For me, this was in many ways the most surprising chapter, and it serves as a good antidote for the all-too-common association of piracy with the Caribbean. Chapter 5 returns our attention to legal trade by looking at the sailors of the East India Company (EIC). The debates in Jacobean England (ca. 1603–1625) on the utility of trade with Asia are well known: the great losses of both men and ships at sea ignited public debate over whether the EIC was, in fact, a benefit to the nation. Here too Hubbard makes an innovative contribution by bringing in the voices of the EIC's sailors.
Chapter 6 takes a slightly different direction by focussing on the concept of ‘Englishness abroad’. How did sailors and merchants perform their ‘Englishness’ when abroad – for instance, while they sought to convince locals of their good intentions, but also when showing strength when needed? Chapter 7, finally, looks at the relationship between sailors and the state. The availability of able-bodied sailors, preferably with some experience, was a matter of national security to the English state. To develop and sustain its maritime endeavours, the state had a vested interest in ensuring a reliable pool of sailors. This interest cut across sectors, from the chartered companies to proposed fishing ventures. In the event of disputes between sailors and merchants, the latter were not always favoured since the state looked kindly on the former.
Nationality, in a more broadly defined early modern sense, is a crucial component of this book. Sailors constructed a sense both of themselves and of their profession as Englishmen, and they could play on this constructed identity at times – for example, to market their services as neutral transporters with strong ships. This approach calls for a broader comparison with the seamen of other European nations. Did the ways in which English seamen behave really differ so much from the ways in which other early modern seafarers behaved? The trap here is that by relying exclusively on English sources, which trumped up the achievements of English mariners, one cannot in good faith say anything about how they in practice differed from their European colleagues.
This is relevant for more than merely understanding the rhetoric of the times – the pilot John Stoneman's scorn for the ‘wilful negligence or simple ignorance’ of Spanish pilots is a good example (p. 262). Comparison could also serve to underline the distinctiveness of the English labour market for those with maritime skills, for the relations between employers and employees and the role of the state in structuring these relations. The merchant-led Dutch Republic is said to have been less protective of its sailors in their disputes with merchants. But then why was the Republic not wracked by a dearth of sailors? Similarly, if the position of the EIC's sailors was much better than that their peers with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), then why was the recruitment of sailors for the fleets to Asia never a problem for the VOC in this period, but apparently a recurring issue for the EIC? There is more to be said here still. These points should serve as an impetus for further work along the lines of Hubbard's excellent book. By focussing on the lives of the sailors and by putting in an impressive amount of archival research, Hubbard has produced a supremely readable, gripping tale which casts light on an important topic of early modern maritime history.