In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. This simple rhyme used to teach children the date of Columbus’ famous voyage contained a great deal of information. It denoted the importance of the ocean as a means of transportation to Columbus’ “discovery.” The use of a ship was implied by the verb “sailed,” and Columbus’ name indicated European origins. This rhyme, however, does not allude to the interconnected Atlantic world initiated by this voyage. Within a few centuries of Columbus’ first contact, a vibrant economy emerged based on staples. The success of this trade allowed for continual growth and development of many regions throughout the Atlantic. None of this, however, would have been possible without the ocean that Columbus sailed. This massive body of water connected four continents consisting of thousands of people form various backgrounds. The ocean contributed significantly to the formation and development of the Atlantic economy by providing access to natural resources, and producing ever-present demands on a market dependent on the sea for trade.
Fisheries were the first major industry of the Atlantic. Northwestern Europeans had vast experience from fishing in the North Sea, and applied this to catching cod in the northeastern part of North America. Initially in the sixteenth century Spain, France, and Great Britain dominated this trade. With both external and internal conflicts Spanish and French influence waned, but the British continued to profit from this extensive maritime trade throughout the eighteenth century. “According to customs returns from 1764 to 1774, dried cod from Newfoundland was the third-most valuable export from British America, surpassed only by sugar and tobacco.” In addition to cod, whaling became a profitable ocean based enterprise throughout the Atlantic. Exporting primarily whale products provided the barren island of Nantucket with enough revenue to import almost all the necessities of life. Whaling also generated enough demand for companies in New England to finance large long-term hunting voyages off the coast of South America. By the end of the seventeenth century whaling and cod staples had propelled the establishment of colonies and trading networks in northeastern North America. Many of these staples were taken directly from the ocean and the maritime nature of these industries heavily influenced the development and formation of this region.
In addition to providing oceanic natural resources, the Atlantic connected four continents with numerous land-based commodities. A Colombian Exchange occurred across the ocean bringing new foods, diseases, people, and products to previous unreachable locations. The exchange created new European demands for goods like chocolate, potatoes, peanuts, tobacco, sugar, and indigo. The various staples produced in the Americas resulted in spread effects unique to a particular commodity. Menard and McCusker identified two different trends in staple spread effects based on its production function and linkage networks. The “plantation colony” produced a labor-intensive crop, subject to substantial scale economies, that employed or enslaved large numbers of low-skilled workers. The staple provided few demand linkages for a developed domestic maritime economy, and the majority of needed goods and services were imported. The “farm colony”, conversely, had a labor force that was skilled, a more even income distribution, and a strong domestic maritime economy that usually emerged through demand linkages of the staple. Both of these trends in the staples theory relied on the ocean for their existence. To be successful, the Philadelphian wheat farm as well as the Caribbean sugar plantation needed the Atlantic’s accessibility to foreign markets. The only difference was how staple producers handled the demands of maritime commerce.
The ocean not only provided access to new commodities from distance lands, it also supplemented staples in the creation of various maritime industries. Staples usually encouraged investment in at least one of “…three related areas: in the domestic production of goods for the use of the export sector; in processing, transport, and storage; and in the supply of commercial services…for shipment.” These services were all created as a result of using an ocean as a trading conduit, but as mentioned earlier the domestic maritime services offered in a given region would depend on the production factor and linkages of the staple. Each staple-producing colony, however, would not have gotten far without a port. As Jacob Price indicated, port towns attracted commodities for storage, exchange, and transshipment from one transport medium to another. Goods needed to be processed, packaged, and moved. Ships would need to be built, financed, manned, and repaired. All of these services satisfied the demands brought upon by oceanic transportation, but they were not necessarily provided at the same port.
Ocean going vessels were an indispensable segment of the Atlantic economy. Ships were the major tools used by western Europeans to explore the Americas, felicitate communication, and commence trade throughout the Atlantic Ocean. By the eighteenth century they were built primarily to meet the demands of the ocean trade, and advancements in ship technology illustrated this clearly. Ralph Davis denoted a shift, starting in the sixteenth century, from round one-masted to long three-masted ships for greater speed and maneuverability. This was supplemented in proceeding centuries by risk reducing navigational technologies like the chronometer, and advanced knowledge of the oceans currents and winds were illustrated in the first English sea atlas Atlas Maritimus. These developments promoted more proficient trade routes that lowered overall costs of maritime commerce. This trend continued with the reduction of the pirate threat and adoption of the more cargo efficient Dutch flyboat in the late seventeenth early eighteenth centuries. All of these advancements in shipping technology involved the reduction of risk and increase in efficiency for maritime commerce. The ships of this time period, and the people that built and operated them, vigorously attempted to master the ever-present demands of transatlantic trade.
The ocean was an inescapable way of life for many merchants, masters, and sailors involved in the Atlantic economy. Each member of this labor force had specialized duties to ensure the transshipment of goods based on the demands created by the sea. At the top were the merchants. These individuals collected various goods to be shipped, gathered the latest commercial news, and arranged the financial services necessary for Atlantic trade. Merchants were able to acquire goods by extending lines of credit to various wholesalers, retailers, and planters. In an era without credit ratings, published accounts, and professional auditing, the majority of these credit networks were usually based on kinship and trust. “A prominent Glasgow tobacco merchant wrote that at the local level in Virginia in 1766 ‘it is in dependence on the labor, industry and honesty of many [small planter], not of their real property that they get goods on credit from different storekeepers’”. The management of these credit networks was usually accomplished in a port town. According to David Hancock, “Choosing where to locate a counting-house was one of the most important early decisions aspiring overseas merchants”. This would determine a merchant’s access to financial institutions and international news from the local taverns. Rapid access to this information decreased some of the risks associated with ocean commerce. A merchant could do a last minute change to a ships destination to avoid a saturated market or a natural disaster. By developing vast credit networks based on trust and kinship, and a counting-house centered around important information, a merchant had a better opportunity to satisfy the constantly changing demands of the Atlantic economy.
All merchants, despite extensive preparation, depended on a master and his crew to safely deliver the ship and its cargo. Ralph Davis indicated that, “The exact degree of the master’s responsibilities was largely determined by the character of the trade he was engaged in, but within this customary framework much depended on an owner’s willingness to be heavily involved and on the extent of his confidence in the master.” The unpredictable nature of maritime commerce warranted a certain degree of executive behavior by the master. Up to date information acquired at sea would be useless to a master if he were unable to act upon it. Despite the level of commercial responsibilities, all masters managed the ship and her crew. Together these individuals dealt directly with the demands of the ocean. A master and his mates would be accountable for the ships navigation and labor management. The common sailor required the knowledge and ability to load and unload cargo, and operate the ship at sea. The later involved three basic chores steering the ship, managing the rigging, and working the sails. The performance qualities of these duties—navigation and ship management—were primary influences on the amount of time a vessel was out to sea. The higher the skill of master and his crew, the easier it was for a ship to satisfy the demands of ocean commerce.
During this time period thousands of individuals sought a life outside the law on the Atlantic Ocean. “Almost all pirates had labored as merchant seaman, Royal Navy sailors, or privateersmen.” These individuals sought a less dogmatic more egalitarian lifestyle at sea. Pirates too had to satisfy the demands of the ocean, but attempted to do so with extralegal methods. Plundering ships was the key to economic success in this world of outlaws. Booty would be taken to ports to exchange for needed specie, goods, and services. Some pirates established their own bases—usually temporarily—to felicitate the demands of a life on the ocean. These bases were ideally located “near major trade routes, as distant as possible from the powers of the state.” Because there was no permanent base or nation, the pirate’s dependence on the ocean was vastly greater than other peoples of the Atlantic economy. When European governments passed numerous encumbering legislative acts, one of which criminalized contact with pirates, the robbers of the sea gradually declined in number. Without safe ports to trade goods and repair ships Pirates would not remain afloat in the Atlantic economy.
The ocean dictated the growth and development of the Atlantic economy from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Initially it provided abundant natural resources that proved to be an attractive source of revenue for fishing and whaling industries. With the establishment of permanent settlements in the Americas, Western Europeans also developed land based staple commodities for export. In an era without air travel, the ocean was the primary means of transportation and communication between the Americas and Europe/Africa. This mandated the use of ships and the establishment of ports to facilitate the transfer of various information, goods, services, and people. Throughout this oceanic trade network individuals found employment as merchants, farmers, mariners, pirates, fishers, and more. Each fulfilled a niche inside an economy that was dependent on the Atlantic Ocean.
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