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Book Review: Merchant Organization and Maritime Trade in the North Atlantic, 1660–1815

Sir Walter Ralegh several abortive attempts were made to establish a colony at Roanoke during the 1580s. A combination of problems, compounded with the rival attraction of privateering, delayed effective colonization until after the end of the Spanish war. Although the English then proceeded to establish small beachheads in Chesapeake Bay and New England, their development is briefly summarized in accordance with Bradley's focus on the immediate consequences of English enterprise in the new world. The final part of this study covers English activity in the South Atlantic and beyond. As in other regions of the new world, English maritime enterprise was disjointed and often disorderly in character. Commercial probing in Brazil during the 1530s and 1540s was followed by ambitious plans for settlement further south. Drake's intrusion into the South Sea, during his unplanned circumnavigation from 1577 to 1580, revealed the vulnerability of Spanish American trade and settlements to English raiding, which spawned a host of imitators attracted by the wealth of Peru. This tradition lingered on in the activities of the buccaneers during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It also influenced some of the earliest naval expeditions into the region, though by the 1760s the character and focus of such activity was beginning to change. Although specialists will find little that is new in this study, it provides a detailed and admirably clear account of English maritime enterprise in the new world which makes effective use of the earlier work of K.R. Andrews, David Quinn and Glyndwr Williams. In a work of such scope, however, it is a pity that no maps were included, to support and illuminate the text. Moreover, while the decision to focus on immediate and short term consequences may be justifiable, it lends a curious shape to the narrative. Despite their importance to English enterprise across the Atlantic, the Newfoundland fishing trade receives scant attention and the development of the slave trade is barely mentioned. As a result, the cumulative consequences of English voyaging remain indeterminate; while the English began to develop the outlines of a widespread seaborne empire during this period, the way in which it occurred is difficult to perceive from the structure of this book.