Vortrag London 2910 Statistics. London and German Port Books

Transcription

1 1 Vortrag London 2910 Statistics London and German Port Books We are going to present the port statistics of three different ports. The findings we present have come out of our research on the international early modern trade of German merchants residing in London, Hamburg and Bremen. London exchequer port books After the Restoration England s overseas trade experienced a major change and expansion to areas beyond Europe. A dynamic growth of the export and import as well as re-export trades set in which also affected the shipping and ship-building industries. The rapid growth of commerce led to what has been called the Financial Revolution at the end of the century, the establishment of the Bank for England and the first insurance companies to finance the long distance trade. London was the hub of the expanding network. About 80% of the imports, 65% of the export and 85% of the re-exports ware handled in London. 1 The vigorous growth of the overseas commerce was organised and financed by London s merchant elite. The crucial role of London s mercantile elite has been highlighted in a number of recent studies. Given the paucity of individual records of that time London s exchequer port books have become an indispensable source for exploring the activities of individual merchants as well as the growth of England s economy. The exchequer port books have been used by Brenner to identify the new merchants who pioneered London s colonial trade at the beginning of the seventeenth century. D.W. Jones used the books to explore the role of London s overseas merchants in financing the war and organizing the supply of the country. More recently Nuala Zahedieh highlighted the contribution of the London s merchants to make the capital the flourishing hub of the growing Empire. London leading merchant community was a rather cosmopolitan group. Gregory King estimates London had about merchants in 1688, among them 2000 eminent 1 French, 28f.

2 2 merchants and lesser merchants. About 30% of them were of foreign birth or descent. The majority of them were probably Dutch and Huguenot merchants. Since the late 1670s England was experiencing a mass immigration of Huguenots who fled before the prosecutions of Louis XIV. and in the shadow of the massive wave of French immigrants a rising number of protestant German merchants came over and settled in London. Those coming from the Palatinate near the French border also fled for religious reasons but the majority from the northwestern parts of Germany as well as from Hamburg and Bremen came for economic reasons. The expanding British Empire provided a huge market for German linen and other goods. Given the economic restrictions of the navigation acts which restricted the colonial market to natives, and the fact that Germany did not have any colonies, a settlement in London offered a direct access to the colonial goods which could be re-exported to Germany. As the German immigrants left no personal records the London port books became a rich and valuable source for tracing the scope and structure of their trading activities. The exchequer port books are however not an unproblematic source: The port books are locally created records of custom duties paid on overseas trade. They were the product of a reform of the custom inaugurated under Mary in midsixteenth century and the aim was to improve administration and apply a uniform system throughout the country. The first one begins in 1565 and they run until About port books have survived, many are in a poor state of preservation and there are many gaps. So there is no continuous series of commercial statistics until 1696 when the King decided to improve the management of his revenues. His need to finance the massive costs of the wars caused him to reorganize the custom system. Even contemporaries believed that the old port books were not kept diligently but thought they were in some disorder. The old London port books of the eighteenth century were subsequently destroyed, so that the London port books have not survived for There are different series created by different types of local customs official:

3 3 a. The collector who had to make a return of all the goods imported and exported and who received the money b. The controller who made a similar return (received no money) c. The searcher appointed to prevent fraud Separate port books exist for the overseas and coastal trades I am going to talk about the overseas series only. They are again divided into separate books: Overseas imports Overseas imports by aliens Overseas imports by denizens Overseas exports by denizens Overseas exports by aliens Overseas imported wine Overseas imported cloth Overseas exported wool and leather The content of the various volumes differs very much. Some are incomplete and very thin volumes while others are voluminous. Moreover the differentiation between denizens and aliens was made because aliens had to pay a 25% higher duty. On the other that differentiation was not strictly adhered to. Entries of aliens can be found in the denizens books and vice versa. Aliens frequently tried to evade the high alien duties and entries were made in the name of denizens. We therefore cannot expect to get an accurate insight into range of goods imported by aliens. The spelling of names of foreign merchants or masters is another problem, it makes sometimes difficult to identify the owners. Names are also anglicised a Schmidt is turned to Smith, a Müller to Miller. Also the extent of smuggling, evasion and fraud cannot be measured. Separate books for the importation of wine or cloth have only survived for a few years. Here again entries for the import of wine or cloth can also be found in other volumes. Entries in the port books include the date on which the duty is paid, the name of the merchant, the master and ship, the port of departure or of destination, the goods and

4 4 the quantities and the amount of duty paid. Given the poor condition of many books the last two entries are often not to be read. Despite the restrictions they are a vital source of evidence on the development and geographical structure of the trade and the trading merchants. They allow information on the big and smaller traders. The port books reveal that the German merchants in London were predominantly textile traders, importing various sorts of German linen. Besides textiles they also imported clapboards, staves, wood, potash and a variety of other goods. The ports of departure were mainly Hamburg and Bremen, but also the Dutch ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam or Dordrecht. Important places of departure or destination were the ports in the Baltic and those of the Iberian Peninsula. Their trade also extended to the New World. Unfortunately the new custom system established by the Inspector General in 1696 does not allow any information on the acting traders. Some information on the trade between Britain and the north-german ports and those German merchants trading with Britain can be gained from the custom records of Hamburg and after the middle of the century from Bremen

5 5 Hamburg Hamburg was Germany s major maritime port. Records generated there thus provide a fairly reliable overview on the structure of maritime imports and exports from and into Central Europe. Quite a dense series of 18 th century records have survived: The Convoy contribution, meant to finance the small Hanseatic navy, created in the 1660s to protect Hamburg ships against North African corsairs. The contribution was levied on the ship. The Port Admiral s Toll, meant for the maintenance of port facilities, and levied on the cargo. 50 volumes of the customs records have survived from the period 1728 to 1811, corresponding with c. 60 % of the original number. The entries of the Admiral s Toll indicate the - name of the ship s captain - place of consignment or destination of the commodity - name of the receiving or dispatching merchant in Hamburg - the designation of the commodity with a vague information on its quantity - its value - the amount of the duty paid Declaration for each and every batch or parcel was entered separately, entries from several ship are therefore randomly mixed on the same page. Dispersed among these declarations appear the Convoy contributions paid on each ship, indicating the - name of the captain - tonnage of the ship - the number of the ship s guns - the amount paid (the more guns, the lower the duty)

6 6 Entries of Admiral s Toll do not indicate - the name of trading partner abroad Entries of Convoy contributions do not indicate - the flag of the ship One of the major problems inherent to the source is the exemption of certain goods and of certain groups of merchants. The duties covered only larger ships coming in from beyond the Netherlands; thousands of small vessels from Dutch ports were not covered. Further, the proper export trade of Hamburg citizens was exempt; citizens had to declare only their commission trade. Non-citizens notably the important group of Huguenots settled in Hamburg had to declare both their proper and their commission transactions. In 1764, a range of important export items became exempt: linen, yarn, iron, copper. All imports, in contrast, had to be declared and paid for. Yet, there was an exemption for all imports and exports that passed Hamburg in transit. In general, the proper trade of citizens, transit trade, and the small coastal traffic with Holland were exempt. We also need to have in mind that a considerable share of Hamburg trade was in fact channelled through the neighbouring Danish port of Altona to avoid the very duties which made up our source. Drawing on sample examinations of the years These customs records are therefore far from providing a full picture of Hamburg trade, in particular when it comes to absolute figures. The most trustworthy information we have on absolute figures are reports filed at the French government s dep. of Foreign Affairs. They had been provided by the French residents in Hamburg. According to these well-informed envoys, or ministers, Hamburg-French trade alone was 20 to 30 percent above the recorded volume. Including the trade via Altona it may have been the double.

7 7 If absolute figures are impossible to attain, we may assume that the structure of the trade is reflected quite accurately. The books confirm our knowledge about Hamburg s staple commodities: The by far major export item was German-made linen, followed by copper and copper products, ironware, timber, wax, glassware. The by far single most important import commodities were raw sugar and coffee, followed by wine and brandy, wool and woollens, cotton and indigo. Sugar and coffee came almost exclusively from France, woollens from England. The source confirms absolute French preponderance on the market of plantation produce. The quantitative approach is particularly interesting when adding to it the chronological dimension. EXAMPLE: Seven Years War, and the period immediately before an after.

8 8 Bremen Except for Hamburg the port or custom books are a hardly researched source in Germany. The fact has to be mentioned that not port statistics for many smaller ports along the North sea coast have survived. In the case of Bremen the surviving port books do not deal with customs. The sums entered in the books were fees taken to maintain the port. Geographically Bremen lies at the inner end of river mouth of the Weser and ships coming in from the Sea had to pass the Duchy of Oldenburg before they arrived at Bremen. It was the Duchy of Oldenburg which raised the customs at Elsfleth much to the annoyance of the City state of Bremen. The first port books for Bremen start in 1754 and there are gaps in the 1750s and 1760s ( und ). Only from 1769 onwards there exist yearly volumes. The condition of the books varies and given the old German script many are difficult to decipher. The surviving port books only register the imports. The fee was introduced in 1670, but the fee was limited to certain goods known in 1670 only, and as many merchants evaded the fee a new system of registration was introduced in It required that each incoming ship had to hand in a list of the goods imported with the name of the receiving merchant. The port books of Bremen include the date of entry, the name of the receiving merchant, the port or departure or the last port the ship had left and the goods. Besides the overseas ports also the nearby small ports are mentioned what can be summed under costal trade. They do not mention the master, the ship or the flag. They also do neither give information on the value nor do they specify the weight of the goods precisely, they include only summary entries like sack, tun, bale or barrel. Given the many systems of weight and measures at that time which moreover changed over time it is not possible to give reliable data. After the turn of the century with the proclamation of the mutual blockades first by the British in 1803 and then by Napoleon in 1806 the ports of departure are not longer mentioned. The port books run until the 20 th century but after the middle of the nineteenth century they change their character as a result of the industrialisation and the rise of

9 9 companies. The names of individual importers were increasingly replaced by company names. The records of the nineteenth century are printed. In all they present a continuous series of port books covering almost a century and a half- Given the lack of other sources they are an extremely valuable source for the the second half of the eighteenth century, for they allow us to reconstruct the geographical scope of the trade, the group of overseas merchants and the development of the overseas trade. The second half of the eighteenth century was a period when Bremen s trade began to expand rapidly and ships increasingly arrived from the New World from North America and the West Indies.