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Brief Historical Relation 1690 Q1

Political and other events

From Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation, a diary of news and current events.

January 1690

Several horse are lately brought to town for the king's service.

The earls of Pembroke and Torrington have each a commission to raise a marine regiment, to consist of 12 companies each, and 200 men in a company, to go on board the fleet. BR 2.1, 1 January 1690

Pembroke is Thomas Herbert (1656 - 1733), 8th earl of Pembroke. MP for Wilton before taking up the peerage. Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, commanded the county militia in putting down Monmouth's rebellion in 1685. First Lord of the Admiralty from 1690 to 1692, also for short periods Lord High Admiral. Negotiator at Ryswick 1697. Lord Privy Seal 1692 - 1699. Lord President of the Council 1699 - 1708. John Locke dedicated his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to him.

Torrington is Arthur Herbert (1648 - 1716), fourth …

English navy under the later Stuarts

James Stuart, Duke of York, was Lord High Admiral from 1660 to 1673 and had taken a close personal interest in the Navy. But he was required to step down from this post in 1673 after the passing of the Test Act. Interestingly, he remained Lord High Admiral of Ireland and of the Plantations, which allowed him a share of profits from prizes and wrecks in those jurisdictions. He had also, shortly before his resignation in England, managed to succeed to the same responsibility for Scotland. The previous holder of the post, a distant Stuart cousin, drowned in the icy waters off Copenhagen while attempting to get on board his own ship - having enjoyed rather too much Danish hospitality. (Davies 2017, p. 108)

For the next six years (1673 - 1679), James continued to play a considerable role behind the scenes while the Admiralty was technically in commission (overseen by a …

Dutch and St Thomé

By the latter half of the seventeenth century, conflicts between nations in Europe had their counterparts in far corners of the world. At this period, such actions were generally of minor importance to the main course of any war. In peacetime, the English, Dutch, French and Danes mostly got along well in India. They kept largely to their own bases, but visited and did business with each other. The company shore personnel were not militarised, except that the forts and larger settlements housed troops of armed guards as a combination of garrison and police.

When war was declared, despatches would arrive from each company headquarters (London, Amsertdam, etc) giving orders to stop enemy vessels doing business or obtaining services in ports under the control of that company. The ships were armed and could chase or be chased as prizes, which incentivised a certain amount of sea combat. However, the number …

Foundation for Empire (2)

The economics of the East India trade

An obvious aspect of mercantile activity, but one which will bear reiteration, is that the faster a merchant's capital is turned over, the smaller the amounts of money capital the merchant must employ. Conversely, the more slowly it is turned over, the larger this portion. The problems of the long-distance overseas trade were different from those in the domestic and European trades. The merchant's capital invested in his activities was employed for a much greater length of time, which increased the farther afield his ventures went. Furthermore, the greater distances put the investments at greater risk. The distances over which mercantile capital was employed thus became the material basis in the period of circulation. Watson 1980, p. 13

Watson defines primary costs as the direct payments made to purchase goods in Asia and bring them to market in London, and secondary costs as …

Foundation for Empire

Ian Bruce Watson's 1980 study Foundation for Empire: English private trade in India 1659 - 1760 is invaluable for researching the milieu of early India merchants like Thomas Pitt. Watson fits his detailed analysis into the broader context of the phenomenon of imperialism.

Empire

Where empire was seen to be the manifestation of a mixture of military might, cultural superiority, humanitarian zeal, and industrial supremacy, which was itself a central component of cultural superiority, theorists of empire began using the term imperialism, under which they subsumed the various component parts in hierarchies which suited their purposes. In effect, the '-ism' was used to explain the 'empire' in one way or another. It was not used to explain why it should have been that an empire could have been gained in the first place. The existence of empire was argued ex post facto, in terms which reflected the dominant political beliefs of …