| FA-57151-13 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Richmond Tyler Barbour | The Voyage of Jacobean England's Greatest Merchant Ship, "Trades Increase": A Microstudy of 17th-Century Global Capitalism | 1/1/2013 - 12/31/2013 | $50,400.00 | Richmond | Tyler | Barbour | | | | Oregon State University | Corvallis | OR | 97331-8655 | USA | 2012 | Renaissance Studies | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
The tragic voyage of Jacobean England's greatest merchant ship--a magnificent ruin burned to the waterline in Java as the crew succumbed to tropical diseases--and the ensuing controversy over Eastern trade epitomize the ambitions and limitations of the East India Company's founding generation. The full story of the voyage and its public and corporate texts has not been told. Published journals and most summaries were produced by scholars who endorsed British expansionism and saw the early failures as episodes in a grand imperial narrative, not as symptoms of inherent vulnerability. My archival work has uncovered manuscripts enabling the responsible delivery of this compelling story to post-colonial readers: a "micro-history" that illuminates the long view of global capitalism and corporate power. The voyage manifested destabilizing divisions of interest that resonate in the globalized economy of the 21st century. |