Merchant Empires Research Articles

Turning points in leadership: Ship size in the Portuguese and Dutch merchant empires

AbstractThis paper discusses the implications of organizational control on the race for technological leadership in merchant empires. I provide an illustrative framework in which poor organizations have reduced incentives to invest, which in turn stifle technology improvements making leaders lag new entrants. In the late sixteenth century, Portugal’s large ships carried more merchandise and were more fitting of the monarch’s grandiose preferences, but they also were more prone to disaster. The merchant-controlled Dutch East India Company however, invested in smaller but more seaworthy vessels conducting more voyages at a much lower loss rate. The surviving historical evidence shows Portugal relying on large ships well into the seventeenth century suggesting her technological edge was gone by the time the Dutch dominated the Indian Ocean.

On reading the Histoire des deux Indes (1780) by Raynal and Diderot: exploring tensions between European expansion and Enlightenment values

This contribution will engage with a key question concerning the Histoire des deux Indes (1780) by Raynal and Diderot, viz. What can the ideas and the writings of these two philosophes still teach us today? In our discussion we will focus first on Raynal’s Histoire and its 18th-century Europeans, their commerce and colonies outside Europe, with special attention to what at the time was almost a paradigm case: the global maritime merchant empire of the Dutch. Secondly, we will consider what Diderot’s many contributions have added to the Histoire’s power and impact, especially his critique of European colonial, commercial and civilisational endeavour around the world. At the time, as Diderot and Raynal gave voice to the discontents arising from the ongoing global expansion of Europe, their Histoire – as Jonathan Israel has shown in his magnum opus – became a major vehicle for the dissemination of their Radical Enlightenment. The question that will concern us here is the one posed by Anthony Pagden: What relevance do those radical ideas still have in our postcolonial and globalised world of today, where the former colonial empires and their peoples are today writing back themselves, clamouring to be heard?

Revisiting the expansion thesis: international society and the role of the Dutch East India company as a merchant empire

This paper breaks new ground by looking at the role played by merchant empires, such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in shaping European interactions with the non-Western world. It offers a critique of the English School’s state-centric narrative of the expansion of international society by looking to how the VOC and its expansion in Asia influenced developments within Europe. As a non-state actor, the VOC developed networks of trade and power, which were intertwined with the Dutch struggle against Iberian hegemony. As this paper shows, the development of international law, sovereign equality and European international society needs to be understood as being constituted through these colonial encounters. Looking to the VOC as a merchant empire presents a more nuanced approach to the expansion narrative that recognises that states, empires and early modern companies developed in a co-evolutionary manner. This critical approach calls for the recognition of international society as an ongoing process formed by the contestation of hybrid cultures.

O comércio internacional de peles silvestres na Amazônia brasileira no século XX

Durante o século XX, o comércio internacional de peles foi responsável pelo abate de milhões de mamíferos e répteis na Amazônia. Negociadas no regime de comércio fluvial e aviamento, as peles seguiam dos portos e seringais, localizados no interior, para as casas aviadoras e exportadoras de Manaus e Belém, de onde eram exportadas principalmente para os Estados Unidos, a Europa e o sul brasileiro. Neste artigo, analisamos documentos fiscais inéditos liberados pelo extinto império econômico do aviamento - a empresa J. G. Araujo -, bem como periódicos da Associação Comercial do Amazonas e os registros portuários da Manáos Harbour Ltd. O comércio internacional de peles silvestres intensificou-se imediatamente após a crise da borracha (1912) e atingiu seu auge entre 1935 e 1946, com o pico durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. O segundo pico ocorreu na década de 1960, principal e ironicamente logo após a publicação da Lei de Proteção à Fauna (1967). Ao longo do período que antecedeu a aprovação da Convenção sobre o Comércio Internacional de Espécies Ameaçadas (CITES), em 1973-1975, não houve depreciação significativa no preço ou na demanda internacional por peles silvestres, sugerindo um esforço de caça constante e intenso por quase meio século.

Incentives in merchant empires: Portuguese and Dutch compensation schemes

The Portuguese and Dutch merchant empires had a similar geographic distribution with outposts all around the Indian Ocean, which they controlled and manned. Both empires faced the same problem of monitoring their agents in remote corners of the world. Each, however, arrived at a different solution to the monitoring problem. I use a principal–agent model to link different monitoring options to the different organizational structures of the two empires. I further investigate the implications of the model with archival data on labor compensation for Portuguese and Dutch workers overseas.

The organization of Eastern merchant empires

In the sixteenth century, European countries engaged in long-distance trade with the East. Despite sharing the same objectives and technology, Portugal opted for a crown monopoly, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden franchised trade to private merchants, whereas in Denmark and France, king and merchants shared control. The financial condition of the crown appears to have been relevant for the monarchs' decision. I provide an economic mechanism to illuminate the historical variation in terms of the differences in relative endowments of king and merchants within each country. I also explore the implications of control allocation using archival data on labor compensation and shipping technology. Differences in the long run performance of merchant empires suggest a major impact of organization.

The Low Countries in the Sixteenth Century: Erasmus, Religion and Politics, Trade and Finance (review)

Reviewed by: The Low Countries in the Sixteenth Century: Erasmus, Religion and Politics, Trade and Finance Henk van Nierop The Low Countries in the Sixteenth Century: Erasmus, Religion and Politics, Trade and Finance. By James D.Tracy. [Variorum Collected Studies Series, 808.] (Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2005. Pp. xii, 346. $124.95.) One of the most prolific, versatile, and creative historians of the sixteenth-century Netherlands, and more generally of Renaissance and Reformation Europe, is undoubtedly James Tracy. Having begun his long career with a dissertation, and then a book, on The Politics of Erasmus (1978), he became interested in the history of the Habsburg Netherlands as the backdrop to the great humanist's thinking, which eventually resulted in a monograph on the political and religious history of the county of Holland before the Revolt, Holland under Habsburg Rule (1990). While working in the archives at The Hague, he became interested in Holland's public debt system, which apparently predated England's famous "Financial Revolution" of the 1690s by at least one century and a half. This resulted in a long article (republished in the volume under review) and another book, A Financial Revolution in the Habsburg Netherlands (1985). Professor Tracy's interest in financial matters was broadened in a study of Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War (2002), which focuses on the ways the emperor paid for his wars in Europe and North Africa. As director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Early Modern History he also became involved with the history of long-distance trade, editing two volumes on the rise, and the political economy, of merchant empires in the early modern world (1990, 1991). In the meantime he continued to publish on Erasmus (Erasmus of the Low Countries, 1996), and produced a textbook on Europe's Reformations 1450–1650 (1999). His latest book The Founding of the Dutch Republic came out in January 2008, focusing on how the province of Holland largely on its own paid for the initial stages of the Revolt, thereby safeguarding its own vital interests at the expense of the peripheral Dutch provinces. In between, he dabbles with fields as diverse as the correspondence of Justus Lipsius (thus combining his interests in early Dutch Humanism and sixteenth-century Dutch politics), and relations between the Low Countries and the Ottoman Empire. Unsurprisingly, James Tracy's research over many years has resulted in a great number of articles in various journals and volumes of conference papers. Fourteen of these have been published in the present volume of essays. Its structure reflects the author's interests: there is a section on "Erasmus" (five essays), a section on "Religion and Politics in the Low Countries" (four essays), and a section on "Finance and Trade: Netherlands Perspectives" (five essays). Two essays have been published previously in The Catholic Historical Review ("Erasmus and the Arians" and "With and Without the Counter-Reformation"). Since many of these essays have been published in various journals and volumes not readily available, this volume will undoubtedly find a wide readership. All papers in this volume have retained their original pagination, as is customary in Ashgate's Variorum series. While this practice undoubtedly facilitates [End Page 156] the retrieval of references, the bewildering variety of lay-outs and type-sets has resulted in a volume less handsome than the author deserves, for a price that may be called rather stiff. Henk van Nierop University of Amsterdam Copyright © 2008 The Catholic University of America Press

Sinking Peat Bogs: Enviornmental Change in Holland, 1350–1550

In the important transition period between 1350 and 15 50,the roots of the Republic of the United Netherlands were formed. The slow-growing but solid roots enabled the new republic, usually referred to as the Dutch Republic, to turn very quickly into a major merchant empire once the branches broke the Habsburg greenhouse. The republic was also very effective at controlling nature and mastering the waters, a skill it learned quickly after it had destroyed the protective wetlands along the North Sea coast in the late Middle Ages. The rapid rise of the republic challenges every new generation of historians to formulate new explanations. The late medieval in the human relationship with nature predated the birth of the republic, which contrasts with earlier political and socioeconomic explanations.' An is a complex, large-scale process encompassing nearly every aspect of society. It not only affects material production but also legal, political, and social structures. American environmental historians such as Carolyn Merchant coined the term ecological revolution for such radical processes.: The word transformation points more to the structural aspect of the change than to its speed. In the case of Holland, the leading province of the Dutch Republic, the humaninduced subsidence of the raised peat bogs triggered changes in production. The crisis further deepened when peat mining completely demolished the soils and created huge lakes. Historiography shows a tendency to view the crisis predominantly as a total depletion of resources. Some older English historians saw a direct relationship between natural poverty and the rise of sea activities: To keep alive the inhabitants of lands singularly unblessed by nature ... they developed what was to become Europe's largest sea-fishery, and one which initially provided them not only with food but with vessels which, when unemployed, could be used in the

The Political Economy of Merchant Empires. James D. TracyWorld Trade since 1431: Geography, Technology, and Capitalism. Peter J. Hugill

<i>The Political Economy of Merchant Empires</i>. James D. Tracy<i>World Trade since 1431: Geography, Technology, and Capitalism</i>. Peter J. Hugill

Reviews and Short Notices

Reviews and Short Notices

The New Cambridge History of India. vol. 1.2. Vijayanagara. By Burton Stein. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1989. Pp. xiv, 156. - The Political Economy of Commerce: South India, 1500–1650. By Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1990. Pp. x, 401. - Goa through the Ages. vol. II. An Economic History. Edited by Teotonio R. De Souza. Concept Publishing Company: New

The New Cambridge History of India. vol. 1.2. Vijayanagara. By Burton Stein. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1989. Pp. xiv, 156. - The Political Economy of Commerce: South India, 1500–1650. By Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1990. Pp. x, 401. - Goa through the Ages. vol. II. An Economic History. Edited by Teotonio R. De Souza. Concept Publishing Company: New Delhi, 1990. Pp. ix, 316. - The Rise of Merchant Empires. Long-distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750. Edited by James D. Tracy. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1990. Pp. ix, 442. - Brides of the Sea. Port Cities of Asia from the 16th–20th Centuries. Edited by Frank Broeze. New South Wales University Press: Kensington, NSW, Australia, 1989. Pp. xv, 254. - Albuquerque, Caesar of the East. Selected Texts by Afonso de Albuquerque and his Son. Edited and Translated with an Introduction and Notes by T. F. Earle and John Villiers. Aris &amp; Phillips: Warminster, England, 1990. Pp. xi, 308. - Intrepid Itinerant. Manuel Godinho and his Journey from India to Portugal in 1663. Edited and Translated by John Correia-Afonso with the assistance of Vitalio Lobo. Oxford University Press: Bombay, 1990. Pp. XI, 253. - Volume 27 Issue 4

The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750

(1993). The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 45-45.

The Political Economy of Merchant Empires.

Acknowledgements Introduction James D. Tracy 1. Institutions, transaction costs and the rise of merchant empires Douglass C. North 2. Merchants and states M. N. Pearson 3. The rise of merchant empires, 1400-1700: a European counterpoint Thomas A. Brady Jr 4. Europe and the wider world, 1500-1700: the military balance Geoffrey Parker 5. The pirate and the emperor: power and the law on the seas, 1450-1850 Anne Perotin-Dumon 6. Transport costs and long-range trade, 1300-1800: was there a European 'transport revolution' in the early modern era? Russell R. Menard 7. Transaction costs: a note on merchant credit and the organization of private trade Jacob M. Price 8. Evolution of empire: the Portuguese in the Indian ocean during the sixteenth century Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Luis Felipe F. R. Thomaz 9. Comparing the Tokagawa Shogunate with Hapsburg Spain: two silver-based empires in a global setting Dennis O. Flynn 10. Colonies as mercantile investments: the Luso-Brazilian empire, 1500-1808 Jose Jobson de Andrade Arruda 11. Reflections on the organizing principle of pre-modern trade K. N. Chaudhuri Selected bibliography of secondary works Index.

The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350-2750

The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350-2750

Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade, C. 1400—1750. Edited by Roderich Ptak and Dietmar Rothermund. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991. - The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750. Edited by James D. Tracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade, C. 1400—1750. Edited by Roderich Ptak and Dietmar Rothermund. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991. - The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750. Edited by James D. Tracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. - Volume 52 Issue 1

Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade, C. 1400—1750. Edited by Roderich Ptak and Dietmar Rothermund. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991.The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750. Edited by James D. Tracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade, C. 1400—1750. Edited by Roderich Ptak and Dietmar Rothermund. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991. - The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350–1750. Edited by James D. Tracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. - Volume 52 Issue 1

Book Review: The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750

Book Review: The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750

Early Modern International Trade and Merchant Empires: A Review Article

Early Modern International Trade and Merchant Empires: A Review Article

Book Review: The Political Economy of Merchant Empires

Book Review: The Political Economy of Merchant Empires

Book reviews

Book reviews