Routes into Networks : The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833

http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/research/working_papers/downloads/2004_07.pdf

Erikson Emily and Peter Bearman. 2004.
Routes into Networks : The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833

ISERP Working Paper 04- 07, Columbia University
http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/research/working_papers/downloads/2004_07.pdf

Abstract
Drawing on a remarkable dataset compiled from ships logs, journals, factory correspondence, ledgers, and reports that provide unusually precise information on each of the 4,572 voyages taken by English traders of the East India Company (hereafter EIC), we describe the EIC trade network over time, from 1601 to 1833.

From structural images of voyages organized by shipping seasons, we map the (over time and space) emergence of dense, fully integrated, global trade networks: of globalization before globalization. We show that the integration of the world trade system under the aegis of the EIC was the unintended by-product of systematic individual malfeasance (private trading) on the part of ship captains seeking profit from internal Eastern trade.

Keywords: principal-agent problem, networks, global trade, historical sociology, the EIC.

Extract
[...]
Data for this paper arise from The Catalogue of the East India Companys Ships Journals and Logs, 1600-1834 and The Biographical index of East India Company maritime service officers: 1600-1834, sources which integrate the journals, logs, ledgers, imprest books, pay books, receipt books, absence books, company papers, and voluminous correspondence of the Company relevant for each ship and employed officer. From the first volume, we have a complete list of the 1,480 ships (4,725 voyages) that were engaged in EIC trade from 1601 to 1835. Eighty- Routes into Networks five percent of the entries for voyages contain a complete set of ports visited with dates of arrival and departure. All ships list the trading season in which they were active and 99% percent include the intended destination. Less systematically, there is information on ship tonnage, dimensions, crew size, armaments, principal owners, and shipbuilders. In the analyses reported below, ports fall in and out of the network. [...]
-----------
[The sources in question are:
* Farrington, Anthony. 1999. Catalogue of the East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600-1834. London: The British Library.
* Farrington, Anthony. 1999. Biographical Index of the East India Company Maritime Service Officers. London: The British Library.
- tmc.]

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Trade, piracy, and naval warfare in the central Mediterranean: the maritime history and archaeology of Malta

http://handle.tamu.edu/1969.1/437

Trade, piracy, and naval warfare in the central Mediterranean: the maritime history and archaeology of Malta
Authors: Atauz, Ayse Devrim
Keywords: Malta, Mediterranean, Order of Saint John, Crusades, Maritime Archaeology
Issue Date: 30-Sep-2004
Publisher: Texas A&M University

Abstract: Located approximately in the middle of the central Mediterranean channel, the Maltese Archipelago was touched by the historical events that effected the political, economic and cultural environment of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The islands were close to the major maritime routes throughout history and they were often on the border between clashing military, political, religious, and cultural entities. For these reasons, the islands were presumed to have been strategically and economically important, and, thus, frequented by ships. An underwater archaeological survey around the archipelago revealed the scarcity of submerged cultural remains, especially pertaining to shipping and navigation. Preliminary findings elucidate a story that contrasts with the picture presented by modern history and historiography. In this sense, a comparison of the underwater archaeological data with the information gathered through a detailed study of Maltese maritime history clearly shows that the islands were attributed an exaggerated importance in historical texts, due to political and religious trends that are rooted in the period during which the islands were under the control of the Order of Saint John. An objective investigation of the historical and archaeological material provides a more balanced picture, and places the islands in a Mediterranean-wide historical framework from the first colonization of the archipelago eight thousands years ago to the twentieth century.
URI: http://handle.tamu.edu/1969.1/437

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Northeast Asian Maritime Trade Networks, 800-1000

http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/search/label/Korea
 
"Maritime trade in East Asia began to flourish in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E. It was jump-started by Persian and Arab merchants, who traveled to and settled in ports as far from home as Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China. Later, commerce spread eastward and northward along the coast to Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Mingzhou (Ningbo), and finally Hangzhou, where merchants could gain access to the Chinese interior via the Grand Canal. Foreign trade thus became integrated to a certain extent with China's domestic economy. Although pioneered by Arabs and Persians, this route soon fell under the domination of ethnic Chinese. Meanwhile, Korean merchants established their own trade networks connecting the west coast of Silla with Laizhou, Haizhou, and other ports in north China and entering the canal system through the mouth of the Huai River. In the early ninth century, semiautonomous communities of Korean traders were scattered along much of the north China littoral.

These northern routes were further extended to Japan under the direction of the Korean tycoon Chang Pogo. Chang himself is said to have visited Kyushu in 824 and met with the governor of Chikuzen, although the validity of this account has been questioned. In any case Chang, acting by authorization of the king of Silla, was in charge of maritime defenses at the Ch'?nghae garrison on Wan Island by the late 820s or early 830s. It is probably no coincidence that the first Japanese record of "Silla merchants" in Hakata dates from 831.

However, Korean domination of the Hakata trade was short-lived, to say the least. Merchants from Tang make their first known appearance in Hakata in 842, and soon thereafter they completely replace their counterparts from Silla. Chinese merchants bypassed the Korean coastal route entirely, traveling directly across the East China Sea from locations such as Fuzhou and Mingzhou. These same ports continued to supply the bulk of foreign merchants visiting Japan after the demise of Tang (in 907), when they fell under the control, respectively, of the Wu Yue kingdom and then (after 978) the Song empire.

SOURCE: Gateway to Japan: Hakata in War and Peace, 500–1300, by Bruce L. Batten (U. Hawai‘i Press, 2006), pp. 111-112"

Src: http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/search/label/Korea, 11 May 2007

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CLIWOC: A climatological [and trade routes'] database for the world's oceans 1750-1854

http://www.knmi.nl/cliwoc/index.htm

KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute), De Bilt, Netherlands

A public-access database of georeferenced positions and meteorological data collected from over 280,000 historical observations in the logbooks of Spanish, Dutch and English sailing ships engaged in trade, war, and exploration voyages across the Pacific, Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean from 1750 till 1854.

Site contents:
* CLIWOC project history;

* Metadata - CLIWOC Dutch individual ships position plots
(Pre-1750 Ships: Africa (1677), Freden (1748-1749), Maarseveen (1662-1663), Wesel (1699), [...]
1750-1799 Ships: Admiraal de Ruyter, Africaensche Galey, Agatha, Akerendam, [...]
1800-1854 Ships: Abel Tasman, Adder, Admiraal Evertsen, Admiraal Jan Evertsen [...]);

* Metadata - CLIWOC English individual ships position plots
(Ships: Acasta Active(1), Active(2), Active(3), Adamant, Admiral Pocock, [...] Worcester, Yarmouth, York, Yorke);

* Metadata - CLIWOC Spanish individual ships position plots
(Ships: Activo, El, Aguila, El, Aigle, Le, Aimable Marie Anne, L', Ambition, L', Amphitrite, L', Ana, Santa, [...], Vicente, San, Vicomte de Choiseuil, Le, Viviana, Zephir, Le)

* Metadata - CLIWOC ship positions maps and graphs
(1750-1759, 1760-1769, 1770-1779, 1780-1789, 1790-1799, 1800-1809, 1810-1819, 1820-1829, 1830-1839, 1840-1850, 1750-1850 (b/w), 1750-1850 (colour));

* CLIWOC Meteorological data 1662-1855 (Wind observations - [for all 12 month of the year], Air Temperature (C) per 5x5 degrees [for all 12 month of the year & for the whole period]);

* CLIWOC database:
Release 1.1 (23 January 2004) and
Release 1.5 (15 April 2004) [freely downloadable zipped file CLIWOC15.zip, 12.7 MB, Complete version in IMMA-format, period covers 1662-1855; contains 280,280 records, compatible with MS-DOS environment (each record ends with the combination CR/LF). Also available: Complete Database in Microsoft Access 2000 and Complete Database in Microsoft Access 97. - ed.];

* CLIWOC Publications/Literature/Media;

* Links
(CLIWOC related links,
VOC and EIC links: VOC Kennis Centrum, VOC-links, VOC-Glossarium, Bataviawerf (Batavia Yard), Tanap, VOC Site, De VOC. Scheepvaart tussen Nederland en Azie (1595-1795),
Other links)

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Sustaining the Empire: War, the Navy and the Contractor StateWhat did the sailors eat?

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.21346/viewPage/2
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK

[...]
The official WEEKLY scale of provisions to be supplied was:

Biscuits 7 lb/person
Beer 7 Gallons
Beef 4 lb
Pork 2 lb
Pease 2 Pint
Oatmeal 3 Pint
Butter 6 oz
Cheese 12 oz
[...]
"... various substitutes could be issued when any of the main foods were not available.  For example, chickpeas or lentils were issued in place of pease in the eastern Mediterranean or in India; sugar could be used instead of oatmeal, butter or cheese, and outside home waters the daily gallon of beer was replaced by a pint of wine or half a pint of spirits. Each man was also allowed half a pint of vinegar a week."

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Logistics of Boat Travel

http://www.visi.com/~ch3dietz/dc3/statistics/index.html

Information useful in working out logistical arrangements of small-scale traders travelling by light river boats is given in analyses of the 16 annual trips (1977-2003) of the DC3 sports group in the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) of northern Minnesota, US

"DC3 BWCA STATISTICS
The eight bar graphs on this page display various statistics pertaining to the annual DC3 trips. The red line on each represents a five year unweighted moving average.
* Total Distance - The total distance of the trip in miles, including portages. ( Dt )
* Portage Distance - The total length of all portages in rods. ( Dp )
* Portage Count - The total number of portages made. ( P )
* % On Land - Ratio of the distance portaged to the total distance. ( 100 * ( Dp / 320 ) / Dt )
* Activity Level - Ratio of the number of active days to the number of total days. ( 100 * Ya / Yt )
* Average Portage - The length of the average portage in rods. ( Dp / P )
* Average Day - The average distance in miles (including portages) traveled per active day. ( Dt / Ya )
* Difficulty - [a very useful Difficulty Factor algorithm - ed.]"

See also practical advice of the "Canoe Country Wilderness Canoeing" web site in their section on
Portage Techniques
(http://www.quietjourney.com/information/portaging-techniques.htm)

One mile equals 320 rods [a rod = 16.5 feet, or about the length of a canoe)
(a) Single pack, double carry: [three trips across the portage]
(b) Double pack, single carry: [the portage is taken once rather than three times.]
(c) Portage-and-a-half: [portagers' idle time is minimized]
(d) Leapfrog [good method for long portages]:

As well as the DC3 skills list
(http://www.visi.com/~ch3dietz/dc3/skills/index.html)
* Camp Set Up: Hanging the Food Pack [to protect it from scavengers]; Water [treatment of it, to protect travellers
from infection]; The Kitchen; Other [placement of tents] and the section on
* Gear (the choice and management of: Canoes; Tents; Packs; Cookware; Sleeping Bags; Clothing; Gadgets; Other)

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