(ebook) naval blockades in peace and war: an economic history since 1750 by lance e. davis, stanley
(Ebook) Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History since 1750 by Lance E. Davis, Stanley L. Engerman ISBN 9780511246777, 9780521857499, 052185749X, 0511246773 download
(Ebook) Cambridge IGCSE and O Level History Workbook 2C - Depth Study: the United States, 1919-41 2nd Edition by Benjamin Harrison ISBN 9781398375147, 9781398375048, 1398375144, 1398375047
(Ebook) Land Rights, Ethno-nationality and Sovereignty in History (Routledge Explorations in Economic History) by S. Engerman ISBN 9780415321266, 0415321263
We havebenefitedfromthecommentsreceivedatpresentationsatthe 2000meetingoftheEconomicHistoryAssociation,the2001meetingof theAmericanEconomicAssociation,atEliF.Heckscher:ACelebratory SymposiumheldattheStockholmSchoolofEconomicsinMay2003,and atapubliclectureatColbyCollege.
We alsohavebenefitedfromcommentsbyFranc ¸ oisCrouzet,threereaders forCambridgeUniversityPress,DavidSurdam,RichardPatard,Gregory A.Caldeira,JohnNye,MaryMcKinnon,andHughRockoff.Ashortened ver sionofChapter 8 was publishedinthe JournalofEconomicPerspectives, Spring2003,whichcontainstherelevantacknowledgmentsforthatessay.
Themoderndiscussionofblockadescustomarilybeginswiththe1584 DutchoperationagainstSpanish-heldportsinFlanders.Theleadingnation indefiningconditionsofnavaltransportationduringperiodsofwartime were theDutch,whohadtreatiesthatstatedthatthefateofthecargowas determinedbytheflagofthevessel,sothatneutralgoodsonenemyships were consideredtobegoodprize,whereastheyclaimedthatfreeshipsmake freegoods.ADutchProclamationof1630laidoutsomebasicprinciples,in allowingtheconfiscationofneutralshipsthathadbrokentheblockade,that were laterregardedasthecoreofblockadelaws.Provisionsofimmunityof
goodsinneutralvesselswereincludedinseveralotherinternationaltreaties, suchastheTreatyofPyrenees(1659),atreatybetweenFranceandSpain thatrestrictedthedefinitionofcontrabandto“armsandmunitionsofwar,” whereasvarioustreatiesmadebytheDutchwithotherEuropeanpowers were toprovidefor“freeships,freegoods.”TheAnglo-DutchTreatyof Whitehall(1689),however,effectivelydidmeanthatneutralshipswerenot recognized.England,generally,maintainedtheviewthatconfiscationof enemygoodsinneutralvesselswasacceptable.AFrenchordinanceof1681, continuingearlierordinances,wasmodifiedin1744and,again,in1788,to permittheimmunityofgoodsinneutralvessels.Between1674and1679, a seriesoftreatiesamongHolland,France,Sweden,andEngland,recognizedblockadesaslongastheycouldberegardedaseffective,basedonreal investmentintheblockade.6
Indefiningthetermsofwhichgoodscouldbeconfiscated,aprovision was madebytheBritish,calledtheRuleoftheWarof1756–arule that wastopreventtheFrenchfromusingtheDutchtradetoitscoloniesin ordertocircumventtheBritishblockade.Thisprovisionwastobecarried forwardintofutureyears,withtheargumentthat“aneutralisnotentitled tocarryonatradewhichisclosedtohimintimeofpeace.”7
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“Although we wish the triumph still might last For such a prince, and his discovery past: Yet now, great lord of waters, and of isles, Give Proteus leave to turn unto his wiles.
And whilst young Albion doth thy labours ease, Dispatch Portunus to thy ports.
And Saron to thy seas; To meet old Nereus with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home with pearls, And Orient gums, to burn unto thy name.
And may thy subjects’ hearts be all on flame, Whilst thou dost keep the earth in firm estate, And ’mongst the winds, dost suffer no debate, But both at sea, and land, our powers increase, With health and all the golden gifts of peace.”
It is sometimes stated that music was killed by the Puritans. If Pepys is to be considered as an average London citizen in this respect, their music was very far from being killed by the Puritans. We find him, his household and his friends, all singing, playing, taking a part; we find parties on the river singing part songs as they glided down the stream; we hear of the singing in church; at Court the evenings were always provided with singing boys; at the theatre songs were plentifully scattered about the plays. The Elizabethan custom of music at dinner had apparently vanished, yet the power of playing some instrument was far more general than it was later. As soon as possible after the Restoration the choral service was reestablished in the cathedrals and the Royal chapels. Cooke, Lawn, Rogers, Wilson, and other composers were engaged in forming and teaching the choirs; new anthems were composed by Pelham Humphrey or Humfrey, Michael Wise, John Blow, and Henry Purcell. The last of these, one of the greatest of English composers, was born in 1658 and died in 1695.
It was common for people of rank to attend the service of the Chapel Royal at Whitehall or that of St. Paul’s Cathedral. At Oxford an association was formed, consisting of the leading scholars and professors of the University, for the purpose of promoting the study
and practice of music, vocal and instrumental. It is true that in the eighteenth century music seems to have deserted the English household; perhaps in the seventeenth it lingered only among the better sort, and had already been killed in the circles affected by the sour Puritanism of the time.
The condition and advancement of painting in the century may be briefly considered. The soil was prepared for the development of the fine arts by the learning, scholarship, and travel of the English nobles and scholars. About the year 1615 the Earl of Arundel began to collect pictures, statues, vases, and gems. Prince Henry began a collection which at his death passed to his brother Charles. On his accession Charles began to increase the Royal collections begun by Henry the Eighth, and continued slowly by his successors. Charles bought the whole of the cabinet of the Duke of Milan for £18,000. The cartoons of Raffaelle were acquired in Flanders by the agency of Rubens. Whitehall Palace contained four hundred and sixty pictures, of which twenty-eight were by Titian, eleven by Correggio, sixteen by Julio Romano, nine by Raffaelle, four by Guido, and seven by Parmigiano. Vandyke, the greatest among the pupils of Rubens, came over to this country and remained here for life. In 1630 Rubens himself came over, not as a painter but as an ambassador. However, he consented to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall. Charles planned an Academy of Arts, but, like everything else, it had to be set aside.
Among lesser painters of the century were William Dobson, John Hoskins, Samuel Cooper, John Peiletot, and Geuteleschi, all of whom lived and painted in London.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE PERIOD
From Musicalinstruments, Historic, Rare, andUnique(A. & C. Black, 1888).
Go to transcription of text
Lely of course belongs to the first Restoration period. So also do Hayls, Michael Wright, Henry Anderton, the two Vandeveldes, and
many others. Grinling Gibbons belongs to the latter years of the seventeenth and the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
The greatest invention of the century was, without doubt, the newspaper. As far as this country is concerned, setting aside the apocryphal history of the English Mercury, its first newspaper was started in London by Nathaniel Butter, with whom were associated Nicholas Bonner, Thomas Archer, Nathaniel Newberry, William Sheppard, Bartholomew Dounes, and Edward Allor. The sheet was called the WeeklyNews, and it is believed to have begun on May 23, 1622. In the same year the London Weekly Courant also began. Twenty years later the Mercurius Clericus (1641) was started in the interests of the clergy; the Mercurius Britannicus (1642), the Mercurius Civicus (1643), the Mercurius Politicus, a Parliamentary paper, and MercuriusPragmaticus, a Royalist paper.
About the year 1663 the Kingdom’s Intelligence was started, and this was incorporated with the London Gazette when that was founded in 1665.
Of course it was not long before the power of the Press was discovered. The Government began to subsidise the papers; private persons began to pay for notices in them; and trade advertisements began to appear. All these papers were weekly. In 1695, however, the PostBoyappeared—the first daily paper.
CHAPTER VI
SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS
A LIST of sports in 1600 is quoted in Furnivall’s notes to Stubbes (Part I. Series vi. No. 6, p. 316).
“Man, I dare challenge thee to throw the sledge, To iumpe or leape ouer a ditch or hedge, To wrestle, play at stooleball, or to runne, To pitch the barre, or to shoote off a gunne: To play at loggets, nine holes, or ten pinnes, To trie it out at foot-ball by the shinnes; At Ticktacke, Irish, Noddie, Maw, and Ruffe; At hot-cockles, leape-frogge, or blindman-buffe; To drinke halfe pots, or deale at the whole canne
To play at base, or pen-and-ynk-horne sir Ihan: To daunce the Morris, play at Barly-breake: At all exploytes a man can thinke or speake: At shoue-groute, venter-poynt, or crosse and pile: At beshrow him that’s last at yonder style.”
The prohibition of games on Sunday by the Puritans led to the abolition of the working-class’s amusements altogether, and was therefore answerable for much of that hideous brutality which possessed that class during the latter part of the eighteenth century. They were not to wrestle, shoot, play at bowls, ring bells, hold masques, wakes, play games of any kind, dance, or exercise any other pastime on Sunday. Now, as Sunday was the only day when the working people could play games or have any recreation, this prohibition destroyed the knowledge of these games, the old delight in them, the desire for them, the skill in them. After eighteen years of Puritan rule a new type of working man grew up, one who knew no games and could practise none; a duller creature, heavy witted, slow of sight, and clumsy of hand; one who would yield to the temptation of drink without resistance; one who was capable of
sinking lower and lower still. This is one of the many blessings which have been bestowed upon London by the Puritans.
For winter amusements the better class had a variety of games, such as “cards, tables, dice, shovelboard, chess, the philosophers game, small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks, singing, dancing, all games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches, purposes, questions and commands, merry tales of knights errant, queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies, goblins, friars”—Malcolm[12] has picked this list out of Burton.
SPORTS OF THE PERIOD
From contemporary engravings by Hollar.
Go to transcription of text
The shows and performances at the fairs were extremely popular. There were puppet shows, at which scriptural pieces were represented, or the Patient Grizzle, or the Lady Godiva; there were tight-rope dancers; there were performing dogs or monkeys; there were strong men and cunning men; jugglers, and conjurers.
Athletic sports were in vogue. Many of the young nobles were expert swimmers; others, among whom was the Duke of Monmouth, were fast runners, so that foot-races were a favourite amusement. Two of them once ran down a buck. Tennis was a favourite game, as was also pall-mall; skating, when there was ice, was extensively practised; bowl-racing and horse-racing were common. Bowls continued as a game which never goes wholly out of fashion. Baiting of the bull and the bear were resumed after the Restoration, but the lust for this brutal sport seems to have gone out.
The evening amusements of James the First, which seem stupid and coarse enough, may be perhaps regarded as the natural swing of the pendulum after a day spent in the maintenance of the Royal dignity by a king in whom there was naturally very little of dignity. The passage also shows the kind of amusement which rich men who could afford to keep buffoons were pleased to adopt:—
“The Monarch, it is said, would leave his dining or supping room to witness the pastimes and fooleries performed by Sir Edward Zouch, Sir George Goring, and Sir John Finit. The first sung indecent songs and related tales of the same description, the former of which were written by Finit, who procured fiddlers as an accompanyment to Zouch; and Goring was master of the game for fooleries, sometimes presenting David Droman and Archee Armstrong, the King’s fool, on the back of the other fools, to tilt one at another, till they fell together by the ears; sometimes antick dances; but Sir John Millisent, who was never known before, was commended for notable fooling, and so he was the best extempore fool of them all.”
Chamberlayn’s Present State of England presents the most complete picture of the sports of this century:—
“For variety of Devertisements, Sports and Recreations, no Nation doth excel the English.
The King hath abroad his Forests, Chases, and Parks, full of variety of Game; for Hunting Red and Fallow Deer, Foxes, Otters; Hawking, his Paddock-Courses, Horse-Races, etc., and at home, Tennis, Pelmel, Billiard, Comedies, Opera, Mascarades, Balls, Ballets, etc. The Nobility and Gentry have their Parks, Warrens, Decoys, Paddock-Courses, Horse-Races, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing, Fowling, Hawking, Setting-Dogs, Tumblers, Lurchers, Duck-hunting, Cock-fighting, Guns for Birding, LowBells, Bat-Fowling, Angling, Nets, Tennis, Bowling, Billiards, Tables, Chess, Draughts, Cards, Dice, Catches, Questions, Purposes, Stage-Plays, Masks, Balls, Dancing, Singing, all sorts of Musical Instruments, etc. The citizen and peasants have Hand-Ball, Foot-Ball, Skittles, or Nine Pins, Shovel-Board, StowBall, Goffe, Trol Madams, Cudgels, Bear-baiting, Bull-baiting, Shuttlecock, Bowling, Quoits, Leaping, Wrestling, Pitching the Bar, and Ringing of Bells, a Recreation used in no other Country of the World.
Amongst these, Cock-fighting seems to all Foreigners too childish and unsuitable for the Gentry, and for the Common People Bull-baiting and Bear-baiting seem too cruel; and for the Citizens, Foot-Ball, and Throwing at Cocks, very uncivil, rude, and barbarous within the City.”
In the Directory of London, 1761, there are fifteen streets, lanes, and alleys, which are named after the game of bowls. This simple fact proves the popularity of the bowling green. These places were licensed by James the First. They were allowed to have tennis courts, rooms for cards and dice, and such diversions besides bowling greens. They were all in the suburbs; there had formerly, however, been a bowling green in Thames Street. Twenty-four were
allotted to the suburbs of London and Westminster; four to Southwark; one to St. Katherine’s by the Tower; two to Lambeth; one to Shoreditch; and one to every town, village, or hamlet within two miles of London or Westminster. In Charles’s reign a barber set up a place provided with two bowling greens in Piccadilly, between the Haymarket and St. James Street; nothing is said about any licence being required for this venture.
Fencing schools were much frequented. The terms used in fencing, which are enumerated by Ben Jonson, were all Italian. The masters granted degrees to their disciples, Master, Provost, Scholar. These schools became haunts of vice, and attempts were made to suppress them, but without success.
Duke Cosmo says that the fencing masters, in order to gain reputation, give a general challenge, offering twenty or thirty jacobuses or more to any one who has a mind to fight with them.
Josevin de Rochefort, whose travels in England were published in 1672, gives a long account of a fencing match:
“We went to see the Bergiardin, which is a great amphitheatre, where combats are fought between all sorts of animals, and sometimes men, as we once saw. Commonly, when any fencing masters are desirous of shewing their courage and their great skill, they issue mutual challenges, and before they engage, parade the town with drums and trumpets sounding, to inform the public there is a challenge between two brave masters of the science of defence, and that the battle will be fought on such a day. We went to see this combat, which was performed on a stage in the middle of this amphitheatre, where, on the flourishes of trumpets and the beat of drums, the combatants entered, stripped to their shirts. On a signal from the drum, they drew their swords, and immediately began the fight, skirmishing a long time without any wounds. They were both very skilful and courageous. The tallest had the advantage over the least: for, according to the English fashion of fencing, they endeavoured rather to cut than push in the French manner, so that by his height he had the advantage of being able to strike his
antagonist on the head, against which the little one was on his guard. He had in his turn an advantage over the great one, in being able to give him the jarnac stroke, by cutting him on his right ham, which he left in a manner quite unguarded. So that, all things considered, they were equally matched. Nevertheless, the tall one struck his antagonist on the wrist, which he almost cut off: but this did not prevent him from continuing the fight, after he had been dressed, and taken a glass of wine or two to give him courage, when he took ample vengeance for his wound: for a little afterwards, making a feint at the ham, the tall man, stooping in order to parry it, laid his whole head open, when the little one gave him a stroke, which took off a slice of his head, and almost all of his ear. For my part I think there is an inhumanity, a barbarity and cruelty, in permitting men to kill each other for diversion. The surgeons immediately dressed them, and bound up their wounds: which being done, they resumed the combat, and both being sensible of their respective disadvantages, they therefore were a long time without giving or receiving a wound, which was the cause that the little one, failing to parry so exactly, being tired with this long battle, received a stroke on his wounded wrist, which dividing the sinews, he remained vanquished, and the tall conqueror received the applause of the spectators. For my part I should have had more pleasure in seeing the battle of the bears and dogs, which was fought the following day on the same theatre.”
Just as, early in the eighteenth century, there was a scare about the Mohocks, so in the reign of Charles II. there was a scare about the so-called “Scowerers.” There were “Roreres,” in the thirteenth century; “Roaring Boys,” in the sixteenth; “Scowerers,” in the seventeenth; Mohocks in the eighteenth; and Corinthian Tom in the nineteenth century. And the facts and achievements of their young bloods are always exaggerated. We are now told that the Scowerers assembled in bands, stormed taverns, broke windows, upset apple carts, and generally showed their indomitable spirit. Shadwell wrote a comedy about them. I record the common belief, but doubt the fact.
Wrestling, and the sight of wrestling, was a favourite amusement of the time:—
“In 1681,” (MannersandCustoms) “the King witnessed a wrestling match where the abettors were the Monarch and the Duke of Albemarle: a meadow below the castle was the scene of action, and the match was composed of twelve men on each side: the King’s party wore red waistcoats, and the Duke’s blue: a ring or inclosure was formed, and a space in it admitted the Royal coach: the Queen and her ladies viewed the contest from the terrace, but the Duke mixed with the crowd. The activity displayed on this occasion excited great applause, and only one of the number offered foul play, which the Duke punished by tripping up his heels.
The victory was gained by the blues: and they thus procured their employer 200 guineas, the wager depending: the sum of 10s. each was given to the King’s men, and 20s. to the victors. After which the King’s men challenged the Duke’s at back-sword: in which exercise some being unskilful, others were taken in to complete the number. This was performed with great skill and courage, but not attended with those barbarous circumstances which were usual with the Roman gladiators, who, to shew the Emperor sport, sheathed their swords in one another’s bowels: our most clement and gracious King abominating all acts of cruelty. The issue of this was only some broken pates, and the palm was again given to the blues. The King’s men being heated, and unwilling that the Duke’s should thus carry a victory, resolved to have another trial with them, and challenged them at football, which being accepted, the goals staked out, and the ball placed in the middle, the Duke held up an handkerchief over the ball, the letting fall of which was the signal to give the start, and the handkerchief a reward to him that got the first kick, which was one of the Duke’s men, who (in all three exercises) behaved himself so singularly active, that his Majesty took particular notice of him, and gave him a guinea. And, notwithstanding fortune still appeared on the Duke’s side, his Majesty seemed highly pleased with that day’s divertisement.”
“One of the most curious and ingenious amusements” ever offered to the public ear was contrived in the year 1682, when an elm plank was exhibited to the King and the credulous of London, which, being touched by a hot iron, invariably produced a sound resembling deep groans.
“This sensible and very irritable board received numbers of noble visitors: and other boards, sympathising with their afflicted brother, demonstrated how much affected they might be by similar means. The publicans in different parts of the City immediately applied ignited metal to all the woodwork of their houses, in hopes of finding sensitive timber: but I do not perceive any one so successful as the landlord of the Bowman tavern in Drury Lane, who had a mantle tree so extremely prompt and loud in its responses, that the sagacious observers were nearly unanimous in pronouncing it part of the same trunk which had afforded the original plank.”
The following paragraph is from the Loyal London Mercury, October 4, 1682:—
“Some persons being this week drinking at the Queen’s Arms tavern in St. Martin’s le Grand, in the kitchen, and having laid the fire-fork in the fire to light their pipes, accidentally fell a discoursing of the groaning board, and what might be the cause of it. One in the company having the fork in his hand to light his pipe, would needs make trial of a long dresser that stood there, which, upon the first touch, made a great noise and groaning, more than ever the board that was shewed did, and when they touched it three or four times, and found it far beyond the other. They all having seen it, the house is almost filled with spectators day and night, and any company calling for a glass of wine may see it: which, in the judgment of all, is far louder, and makes a longer groan, than the other, which to report, unless seen, would seem incredible.”
The subject of fairs is treated very fully in the volume on the eighteenth century; nevertheless, they cannot be here altogether omitted, as they formed one of the chief amusements of the seventeenth century.
Fairs began by being serious markets, but later became a place of less important trade, where lace, gold and silver embroidery, jewellery, and finery of every kind were exposed for sale. A further decline took place when people of fashion ceased to attend the fair for the purchase of these things. Then the fair became frankly a place of amusement and pleasure with booths. These are the several stages of a fair: first, the exhibition and sale of its staple as wool; next, or in addition, its ordinary trade; thirdly, a catering for children and the lower class. All this time its shows and amusements are growing of more and more importance, until at length they become the principal object of the fair. Paul Hentzner, writing in 1598, describes St. Bartholomew’s Fair as follows:— HabitoftheLORD MAYOR ofLondonin1640. HABIT oftheLADY MAYORESS of Londonin1640. From a contemporary print.
“Every year upon St. Bartholomew’s Day, when the Fair is held, it is usual for the Mayor, attended by the twelve principal Aldermen, to walk into a neighbouring field dressed in his scarlet gown, and about his neck a golden chain, to which is hung a Golden Fleece, and besides, that particular ornament (the collar of SS.) which distinguishes the most noble Order of the Garter. During the year of his magistracy he is obliged to live so magnificently that foreigner or native, without any expense, is free, if he can find a chair empty, to dine at his table, where there is always the greatest plenty. When the Mayor goes out of the precincts of the City a sceptre, a sword, and a cap are borne before him, and he is followed by the principal Aldermen in scarlet gowns with gold chains, himself and they on horseback. Upon their arrival at a place appointed for that purpose, where a tent is pitched, the mob begin to wrestle before them, two at a time; the conquerors receive rewards from the Mayor. After this is over a parcel of live rabbits are turned loose among the crowd, which boys chase with great noise. While we were at this show one of our company, Tobias Salander, Doctor of Physic, had his pocket picked of his purse, with nine crowns (ecus du soleil), which, without doubt, was so cleverly taken from him by an Englishman, who always kept very close to him, that the Doctor did not in the least perceive it” (England,asseenbyForeigners, p. 107).
Hentzner might have observed also that by the law of England the cut-purse was liable to execution. In 1612 one John Pelman, a cutpurse, was actually hanged for stealing a purse containing forty shillings in the King’s Chapel of Whitehall. It is said of him that he came in “good and seemly apparel like a Gentleman, a fair black coat laced and either lined thorow, or faced, with velvet.” What says and sings Nightingale in the play?—
