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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………….. 2 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………... 3 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………..... 4 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Chapter 1 – Defoe, the Review and the world of early-modern information…………… 18 Chapter 2 – Taming the mystery of trade………………………………………………. 30 Chapter 3 – Shaping expectations: Defoe‘s Review and the South-Sea trade………….. 61 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 94 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………. 96

List of Illustrations

Figure 1: Herman Moll‘s 1711 Map of the South-Seas...……………………………… 71 3

Abstract This thesis attempts to historicize our understandings of economic rationality and economic action, specifically in the period leading up to the South Sea Bubble of 1720, an event which seemingly remains shrouded in mystery. The fundamental question addressed is what sort of ―information‖ would have been available to people making decisions about financial assets in the early-eighteenth century? Related to this is a question of a more cultural nature: How did contemporaries determine what information was relevant and how did they evaluate its truthfulness and reliability? Through an investigation into the language used by Daniel Defoe in his widely read newspaper, Review of the Affairs of the British Nation (1704-1713), this thesis aims to show how one emblematic contemporary framed the information he deemed relevant for determining the potential of a British trade to the South-Seas and how he attempts to establish his authority as an interpreter of trade and finance. Sommaire La présente thèse vise à présenter en termes historiques notre compréhension des rationalités et des actions économiques, plus spécifiquement durant la période menant à la ―South-Sea Bubble‖ de 1720, un événement qui reste encore mal compris. La question fondamentale abordée est quelle sorte d‘« information » aurait été disponible aux personnes prenant les décisions sur les actifs financiers au début du XVIIIe siècle ? Liée à cette question en est une autre de nature plus culturelle : comment les contemporains ont-ils déterminé quelles informations étaient pertinentes et comment ont-ils évalué leur véracité et leur fiabilité ? Grâce à une étude du langage utilisé par Daniel Defoe dans son journal à grand lectorat, Review of the Affairs of the British Nation (1704-1713), le présent thèse cherche à démontrer comment un contemporain de renom a utilisé les informations qu'il jugeait pertinentes pour identifier le potentiel d'un commerce britannique avec les Mers du Sud et comment il tentait d'établir son autorité en tant qu‘interprète de commerce et de finance.

Acknowledgements While there are numerous people who have played a role in supporting me throughout the process of composing this thesis, I must first thank my mother, father and grandmother. They have tirelessly stood by me, and were always prepared to offer much- needed support and kind words of encouragement. Thank you for blessing me this opportunity. I must also thank my supervisor, Professor Catherine Desbarats, as she provided me with ardent support, asked challenging questions and delivered invaluable criticisms. This has undoubtedly had an enormous impact on my intellectual development, and I am exceedingly grateful for it. I am also deeply indebted to my dearest friend Drew Desai for bearing with me while I endlessly elaborated on the minutiae of Defoe scholarship and other such things. True friends are hard to come by, and I am blessed to have found one in Drew. Other individuals who must be thanked include; Professor Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, Jason Dean, Bok Hoong Young Hoon, Emma Park, and Facil Tesfaye.

Introduction Although the South Sea Bubble of 1720 is widely cited in today‘s popular press as one of the earliest examples of speculative ―mania‖ in financial markets, this event and the wider intellectual context in which it occurred, remain shrouded in mystery and are perhaps even misunderstood.1 Period interpretations of the Bubble located its origins in the greed and corruption of South Sea Company and government officials, the knavery of the Exchange-Alley Stock-Jobbers, and most importantly for today‘s scholarly debates, in the ―madness‖ of the British people.2 Scholarship in the field of economic history has recently grappled with the latter question of ―madness,‖ disputing whether agents made decisions ―rationally‖ or whether they succumbed to ―irrational‖ exuberance, buying assets whose prices were ―out of line with their fundamental values.‖3 This debate about rationality gives rise to a set of prior historical questions however. Borrowing from the language of economics, we might ask what sort of ―information‖ would have been available to people making decisions about financial assets in the early-eighteenth century? We might also ask a related question of a more cultural nature: How did contemporaries determine what information was relevant and how did they evaluate its truthfulness and reliability? These questions are of the utmost importance for understanding the South Sea Bubble, as both the collection of information and the intellectual framework within which the truthfulness and reliability of this information is evaluated are central in financial decision-making. This is due to the fact that investors expectations about a venture‘s potential profitability are based upon the collection and interpretation of information

1 Julian Hoppit, ―The Myths of the South Sea Bubble,‖ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 12 (2002): 141. Hoppit quite rightly points out that it is somewhat unusual for an early eighteenth-century occurrence to enter ―reasonably common usage.‖ He then goes on to make the claim that the ―Bubble has attained near legendary status, at once familiar if distant, to be used confident and freely.‖ Journalists today regularly refer to this event when discussing periods of market downturn, as a search of the New York Times or Financial Times web databases reveals. 2 For example, see Ellis, The Sense of the People… (London: 1721), 15. In discussing the aftermath of the Bubble, Ellis comments that ―Some People have observed, that the Execution of the late pernicious Scheme, was scarcely attended with more Villainy, than Madness and Folly.‖ See also Anon., The Rise of the Stocks the Ruin of the People… (London: 1721), 31. The anonymous author argues that the Ministry must ―use [their] Endeavours to apply such Restraints on the present Madness of the People, as may hinder them from running headlong to their own Destruction.‖ 3 Ann M. Carlos, Carlos Maguire, and Larry Neal, ―Financial Acumen, Women Speculators, and the Royal Africa Company During the South Sea Bubble,‖ Accounting, Business and Financial History 16 (2006): 220. 6 available to them. In other words, in determining the fundamental, or in the language of the eighteenth century, the intrinsick, value of a stock, investors make predictive or speculative judgements about uncertain future states of the world based on inherently incomplete information. As Richard Taffler and David Tuckett explain, investing is an activity that ―depends on making judgements about available information to resolve two different orders of uncertainty; that caused by unavoidable information asymmetries at the moment of decision-making, and that determined by the fact that the future is inherently unknowable.‖4 The uncertainty involved in these predictive judgements is increased further once the social sphere is introduced, as investors and their expectations come to interact with one another. While neo-classical economic theory has typically depicted economic man as a ruggedly atomized individual who makes investment decisions in a vacuum, as Mark Granovetter rightly suggests, this depiction fails to recognize that in reality economic action ―always occurs in a social context of ongoing relationships… economic action is embedded in these social relationships, and… cannot be understood outside this context.‖5 This insight is particularly useful when thinking about the possibility of the development of shared expectations for a trade to the South Seas by the British investing public, a group which was becoming ever more diverse throughout this period. It is also important to note that information circulating via social or public information networks is necessarily more uncertain than information circulating within personal or private information networks. This is because it is more difficult to determine the truthfulness and reliability of the information contained in texts such as newspapers, given the increased distance between the information provider and the receiver, the lack of access to many of the sources, and the mysterious nature of the things being recounted. In the first decade of the seventeenth century, the printing press took on a new role in making current social, political, and commercial information available to an ever-widening British reading public. It was thus increasingly difficult for contemporaries to determine whether the information contained in this variety of

4 Richard Taffler and David Tuckett, ―Emotional Finance: Understanding What Drives Investors,‖ Professional Investor (Autumn 2007), 19. 5 Mark Granovetter, ―Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,‖ American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985), 481-510. Cited in Bruce G. Carruthers, ―Homo Economicus and Homo Politicus: Non-Economic Rationality in the Early Eighteenth Century London Stock Market,‖ Acta Sociologica 37 (1994), 166-167. 7 pamphlets and periodicals was reliable. In light of this insight, the madness of the nation, as contemporaries referred to the public‘s exuberance for the South-Sea Company stocks, could be understood as in part resulting from the public exchange of unverified information about a British trade to the South-Seas. *************** One key distinction Michel Foucault makes in The Order of Things has proved invaluable in approaching these questions—―The order on the basis of which we think today does not have the same mode of being as that of the classical thinkers.‖6 By classical thinkers, Foucault is referring to those operating in the period between 1650- 1800. During this period, analysis focused on the ―domain of wealth‖ and the establishment of stable definitions of value, money, price, trade, etc. This is quite distinct from the focus of today‘s ―scientific economics,‖ which is organized around formalized notions such as production and consumption.7 As such, Foucault argues that it is misleading ―to apply to this [historical] domain the questions deriving from a different type of economics… [misleading] to analyze its various concepts… without taking into account the system from which they draw their positivity.‖ It is thus necessary to ―avoid a retrospective reading of these things that would merely endow the Classical analysis of wealth with the ulterior unity of a political economy in the tentative process of constituting itself.‖8 In a similar same vein, John Carswell argues in his seminal study The South Sea Bubble: ―It is dangerously easy, by using modern economic terms, to be misled about the realities and the atmosphere of the eighteenth-century business world. The reactions we have come to expect were not only unascertained; they very often failed to occur simply because things were so incoherent. As always, phenomena proceeded grammar; the players were eagerly at the game before the rules had been agreed. Economic theory there was in plenty; and an even greater plenty of economic and financial experiment; but union of the two into a systematic pattern of economic behaviour was lacking.‖9

6 Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (London: Routledge, 2002), 180-181. 7 Foucault states that in the Classical period, ―there is no political economy, because, in the order of knowledge, production does not exist.‖ 8 Foucault (2002), 181. 9 John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (London: Cresset Press, 1960), 11. Carswell‘s monograph is one of the most widely cited studies of the Bubble, but surprisingly many economic historians who cite his work have neglected to heed this warning. 8

Following in this line of thought, this paper will aim at historicizing our understandings of economic rationality and economic action. The relation between economic theory and economic action is succinctly described by Richard Grassby in his monograph on pre- industrial capitalism, in which he writes, ―to most theorists, capitalism is more than just an economic and social mechanism; it is an ideology whose ideals can motivate individuals to act.‖10 Following from this, one of the key assumptions of this paper is that early-modern investors did not act in accordance with the same well-defined understandings of the market as we do today, but rather operated according to a confused mess of ideas about exchanges valued in monetary terms. As Robert Markley has previously suggested, it is ―worth looking briefly at the ways in which the reality of the South Seas in the eighteenth century comes to take a back-seat to [our current] financial fantasies of the Bubble.‖11 In assuming, as Gary Shea does, ―that the financial world of 1720 is not that remote,‖ one necessarily neglects to take into account the fact that for the eighteenth-century investor, trade was an exceedingly mysterious subject.12 The primary aim of this paper then is to attempt a reconstruction of the confusing reality in which eighteenth-century investors made financial decisions. Through a close reading of one influential and emblematic textual source, it will be shown that the assumptions contemporaries made about the nature of the market were rooted in a language imbued with moral, providential and naturalistic overtones. These assumptions were not in fact systematized into a coherent whole, but were rather a volatile mix of fuzzy definitions and uncertain operations. This paper will also attempt to show that various domains of knowledge (i.e. religious, economic, political) which today have been clearly defined as distinct were in fact inseparably linked with one another during the early-modern period. Jose Torre succinctly expressed the relationship early-modern thinkers drew between ―the narratives of markets and morality‖ when he wrote that these narratives ―shared… an epistemic base and theory of causation. Both of these narratives understood the human experience as a self-realizing or immanent teleology driving towards a providential and

10 (Emphasis my own.) Richard Grassby, The Idea of Capitalism Before the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Roman & Littlefield, 1999): 11. 11 Robert Markley, ――So Inexhaustible a Treasure of Gold‖: Defoe, Capitalism and the Romance of the South Seas,‖ Eighteenth-Century Life 18 (1994), 150-151. 12 Gary Shea, ―Understanding Financial Derivatives During the South Sea Bubble: The Case of the South Sea Subscription Shares,‖ Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis Working Paper Series, CDMA05/12 (December 2005), p.2. 9 benevolent outcome.‖13 Another key example of the overlap of intellectual domains during this period was the link between the domain of commerce and trade and political domain, a point Bruce Carruthers has previously explored in his City of Capital.14 The main thrust of Carruthers‘ argument is that investment decisions were not only based on the potential financial gains that could be accrued, but in fact were also motivated by political ends as well. The working hypothesis in this paper then is that a recognition of the significant overlaps between these various domains of knowledge is important when attempting to reconstruct the reality in which early-modern investors made decisions. *************** In order to investigate this set of problems, and historicize our understandings of economic rationality and economic action, this paper will examine two different but related questions: the use of language and the sources of information employed by Daniel Defoe in discussing the subject of trade in his widely-read ‗penny‘ newspaper, the Review of the Affairs of the British Nation.15 In the Review, a tri-weekly paper printed in London from 1704 until 1713, Defoe not only commented on subjects of a political and religious nature, but also engaged in extensive discussions of trade and commerce.16 As he attested in the final volume of the Review, ―writing upon trade was the Whore I really doated upon, and design‘d to have taken up with.‖17 This statement is indicative of the colourful language that Defoe would use throughout his writings in the Review, and clearly exhibits Defoe‘s prioritization of trade within this wider project. The Review is a useful entry-point into the language used in discussing trade in the period leading up to the South Sea Bubble because Defoe was particularly ―sensitive

13 Jose R. Torre, ―The Teleology of Political Economy and Moral Philosophy in the Age of Anglo- American Enlightenment‖ (paper presented at the Program in Early American Economy and Society Markets and Morality Conference, Philadelphia, U.S.A, November 7 2008), 3. 14 Bruce Carruthers, City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). 15 The Review was in fact originally entitled Review of the Affairs of France, which is telling, given that Defoe continually returned to the theme of Britain‘s competition with France for political dominance. But in 1706, Defoe would change the title to Review of the State of the English Nation, as he found himself increasingly concerned with writing about domestic affairs. Very much in keeping with his thoughts on the Union of England and Scotland, in 1707 Defoe would rename the paper Review of the Affairs of the British Nation. 16 The Review was also printed in Edinburgh for a period. 17 Daniel Defoe, Defoe’s Review, edited by Arthur Secord (New York: Facsimile Text Society, 1938), [IX], 214b. Throughout this paper, the system of citation used for the Review will follow the convention: Review, volume number, page number, column a or b. 10 to… the unstable relationship between language and meaning.‖18 As a result, his writings would aim in part at stabilizing for his readership certain ambiguous concepts which had become central for economic activity during this period; such as money, credit and stocks. Defoe‘s life also overlapped with a period of significant political and social change in England, including the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, both of which have been identified by historians as watershed moments. His experiences made him fully aware of the ―epistemological unsettlement‖ that was the result of the transition to an international, credit-based system of trade, and his response was to try and clarify for his readers the fundamentals of this system in terms which he himself was struggling to understand.19 Defoe was also representative of the early-modern merchant, given that he was an active (albeit apparently not so successful) merchant and wholesaler engaged in a number of trades, including a stint as a merchant in the Spanish port city of Cadiz.20 Defoe‘s experience in Cadiz likely would have made him aware of the intricacies of international trade, possibly lending him a credibility amongst some of his readership. Finally, and most importantly for this present paper, the Review was a popular source of information for Defoe‘s contemporaries, particularly among the lower echelons of the burgeoning commercial class.21 This is central since this group would make up a significant portion of South-Sea Company investors. As Carswell has noted, ―among the shareholders at Christmas 1714 were… many modest tradesmen, not only in London, but in the provinces.‖22 It is also likely that these modest merchants and tradesmen would have turned to public sources of information like the Review when making decisions about whether or not to invest in the South Sea Company, as their private information networks were most likely quite limited.

18 Katherine Clark, Daniel Defoe: The Whole Frame of Nature, Time and Providence (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 210. Carswell (1960), 21. 19 J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republic Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 452. 20 John Robert Moore, Daniel Defoe: Citizen of the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 85, 346-347. See also Maximilian E. Novak, Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions: His Life and Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 670. 21 As discussed in the next chapter, the sparse evidence we have about the Review‘s readership suggests that it was ―widely read by the populace,‖ including those of the ―meanest capacity.‖ See Charles Eaton Burch, ―Notes on the Contemporary Popularity of Defoe‘s Review,‖ Philological Quarterly 16 (1937), 210-213. 22 Carswell (1960), 68. 11

The focus of this paper then will be on the lead-up to the Bubble, narrowing in on the period of the founding of the company and its earliest proposals for establishing a trade to the South Seas (1711-1712), in order to investigate how one influential contemporary formed his earliest expectations of the Company, and how his writings in the penny press came to affect the expectations of less-informed minor investors. The questions here then deal less with Defoe‘s motivations or intentions in writing the Review, but rather with how this text contributed to ―public opinion‖ in Britain at this time. *************** This thesis came to be informed by a diverse, and at times, divergent, body of literatures. Drawing on economic histories, histories of print culture and the newspaper, histories of British imperial expansion, literary criticism, historical biography, and most importantly the ―new economic criticism‖ has proved difficult, seeing as the reconciliation of modern disciplinary formalities is not a straightforward task. But, as historian Natasha Glaisyer has previously pointed out, ―part of the process of de- economising economic history, as scholars have recognized, must involve a closer relationship with literary, cultural and intellectual histories, as well as attempts to cross disciplinary boundaries.‖23 While this realization is not entirely new, given that Arthur Cole argued along somewhat similar lines in an article published in 1957, it is only recently that historians have applied it in earnest.24 The initial impetus for the questions dealt with in this paper was a recent debate about investor rationality in the Economic History Review between Richard Dale et al. and Gary Shea.25 Dale et al., on the one hand, argue that investors at times may act in ways which can fairly be described as irrational, such as was the case during the South- Sea Bubble. By investor irrationality, Dale et al. mean investors develop ―unrealistic

23 Natasha Glaisyer, The Culture of Commerce in England, 1660-1720 (Rochester, NY: Boydell and Brewer, 2006), 8. 24 Arthur Cole, ―Conspectus for a History of Economic and Business Literature,‖ Economic History Review 17 (1957), 333-388. 25 Richard Dale, Johnnie Johnson and Leilei Tang, ―Financial Markets Can Go Mad: Evidence of Irrational Behaviour During the South Sea Bubble,‖ Economic History Review 58 (2004), 233-271. Gary Shea, ―Financial Market Analysis Can Go Mad (in the Search For Irrational Behaviour in the South Sea Bubble),‖ Economic History Review 60 (2007), 742-765. Richard Dale, Johnnie Johnson, and Leilei Tang, ―Pitfalls in the Quest for South Sea Rationality,‖ Economic History Review 60 (2007), 766-772. 12 expectations about a company‘s future profitability; as a result the relationship between fundamental values and prices breaks down.‖26 Shea, on the other hand, makes two claims in order to debunk Dale et al.‘s findings and show that investors are rational. First, Shea argues that ―by not examining the legal and political history of the subscription shares, [Dale presents] a history that is fundamentally counterfactual.‖ He then goes on to criticize the methodology employed by Dale et al., arguing that ―how their data were selected, adjusted, and presented just happened to make their arguments appear in the most favourable light possible.‖27 Reading outwards from this debate in the economic history literature on the Bubble, it became clear that these questions about investor irrationality are not entirely new, and that there is some accuracy in Dale‘s assertion that ―those authors who employ quantitative analysis favour a rational explanation, and those who employ qualitative analysis conclude that irrationality prevailed.‖28 The Scottish journalist and poet Charles Mackay was one of the first modern commentators to argue that investors behaved irrationally in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, published in 1825. In this text, Mackay deals with numerous examples of what he deems to be the ―madness of the crowd‖ at work, including the South Sea Bubble, John Law‘s Mississippi Scheme and the Dutch Tulipmania. Mackay‘s stated objective is ―to show how easily the masses have been led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are.‖29 What Mackay is essentially arguing is that ―crowd psychology‖ can lead individuals to emulate each others actions, and this can be interpreted as madness or irrationality. More recent interpretations of ―herd behaviour‖ also argue along similar lines: ―It has been suggested that investors may be driven by psychological factors unconnected to fundamental values. For example, when investors are uncertain about the quality of information they hold, they may revert to a simple heuristic of following market trends. If investors use the market in this manner to improve their information set, it can result in a form of herd behaviour.‖30

26 Dale et al. (2005), 237. 27 Shea (2007), 743. 28 Dale et al. (2005), 240. 29 Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (New York: Noon Day Press, 1974), xvii. 30 Christopher Avery and Peter Zemsky, ―Multidimensional Uncertainty and Herd Behaviour in Financial Markets,‖ American Economic Review 88 (1998), 724-748. Thomas Lux, ―Herd Behaviour, Bubbles and Crashes,‖ Economic Journal 105 (1995), 881-896. Both cited in Dale et al. (2005), 237. 13

Eminent economic historian Charles Kindleberger, in his Manias, Panics and Crashes, also contends that ―manias and panics… are associated on occasion with general irrationality or mob psychology.‖31 Much like those who argue that ―herd-behaviour‖ is the source of seemingly irrational actions of investors, Kindleberger suggests that ―speculation often develops in two stages.‖ First, there is a ―sober stage of investment,‖ in which investors ―respond to a displacement [of the price of an asset] in a limited and rational way, in the second, capital gains play a dominating role.‖32 This two stage interpretation ―raises the question of two groups of speculators, the insiders and the outsiders.‖ Insiders, on the one hand, ―destabilize by driving the price up and up,‖ whereas outsiders ―buy at the top and sell out at the bottom.‖33 These outsiders resort to a simple heuristic of following the market ―late in the day,‖ making them ―less price manipulators than the victims of euphoria… When they lose, they go back to their normal occupations to save up for another splurge.‖34 For Kindleberger then, the South-Sea Bubble was a ―classic example of speculative mania, where speculation spread to members of the public who had little knowledge of the market.‖35 Breaking with these earlier qualitative interpretations of the Bubble, much of the more recent scholarship in the field of economic history employs cliometric analysis of the ledger books of highly experienced financiers, such as Josiah Child and Nicholas Hoare.36 These studies definitely provide insight into the actions of investors who held more sophisticated understandings of the market, leading Dale to conclude that the techniques these investors employed were not entirely ―dissimilar to those used by investors today.‖37 And while this very well may be the case, these highly knowledgeable financiers were not representative of the majority of those who invested in South Sea Company stock. Furthermore, as P.G.M. Dickson suggests in his important work on The

31 Charles Kindleberger, Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (New York: Wiley, 1996), 26. 32 Ibid., 27. 33 Ibid., 29-30. 34 Ibid., 30. 35 Kindleberger (1996), cited in Dale et al. (2005), 238. 36 On Josiah Child, see Paul Harrison, ―Rational Equity Valuation at the Time of the South Sea Bubble,‖ History of Political Economy 33 (2001), 269-281. On Nicholas Hoare, see Peter Temin and Joachim Roth, ―Riding the South Sea Bubble,‖ American Economic Review 94 (2004), 1654-1668. 37 Richard Dale, The First Crash: Lessons from the South Sea Bubble (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 38. Dale citing Harrison (2001). 14

Financial Revolution in England, ―even the judgement of experienced businessmen was affected by factors in the social and economic environment, which ‗bred an appetite for gain‘ that ‗could and did become uncontrolled.‘‖38 In attempting to reconstruct the social, political and intellectual context within which the South-Sea Company came into being, this paper also draws on another body of literature, the ―new economic criticism.‖ This burgeoning sub-field of literary criticism has emerged out of a recognition that ―literary and rhetorical methods‖ can be used to investigate the ―buried metaphors and fictions‖ in economic thought.39 One of the first to employ these methods was economic historian Deirdre McCloskey in her Rhetoric of Economics, a ground-breaking study which drew attention to the ―literary character‖ of modern economics.40 Following in this tradition of employing literary methods to study economic problems are the writings of Mary Poovey. In particular, A History of Modern Fact has come to have a decisive impact on this paper, a work which Poovey describes as ―historical epistemology.‖ This term, which she borrows from historian of science Lorraine Daston, is defined as ―a history of the categories of facticity, evidence, objectivity, and so forth.‖41 Poovey goes on to explain that: ―insofar as historical epistemology assumes that the categories by which knowledge is organized—not only epistemological units like facts, but also institutionalized units like disciplines or professional societies—inform what can be known at any time, as well as how this knowledge can be used, historical epistemology is a study of determinations and effects.‖42

This focus on epistemology, rather than discourse, is preferred by scholars such as Poovey because questions regarding the former tend to: ―encourage the historian to consider how domains of knowledge production overlap… how knowledge about nature resembles (as well as differs) from knowledge about society, and how knowledge practices are gradually differentiated, codified, and institutionalized as different kinds of knowledge.‖43

38 P.G.M. Dickson, The Financial Revolution in England: A Study in the Development of Public Credit, 1688-1756 (London: Macmillan, 1967). Cited in Dale et al. (2005), 238. 39 Mark Osteen and Martha Woodmansee, ―Taking account of the New Economic Criticism: an historical introduction,‖ in The New Economic Criticism: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and Economics, M. Osteen and M. Woodmansee, eds. (London: Routledge, 1999), 3. 40 Deirdre McCloskey, The Rhetoric of Economics (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998). 41 Mary Poovey, A History of Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 7. 42 Ibid., 7. 43 Ibid., 19. 15

As noted above, during the early-modern period numerous ―domains of knowledge production‖ overlapped, as in the case of the overlap between the moral domain and the domain of commerce and trade. These overlaps are very visible in Defoe‘s Review, and Poovey‘s insights have thus been most helpful in investigating his use of language and his wider intellectual foundations. A diverse selection of scholarship on Daniel Defoe‘s life and writings has also informed the argument laid out in this paper, although this literature has proved to be quite challenging to grapple with. This is due to the intense disagreement amongst Defoe scholars about various aspects of his life and his writings. To begin with, the Defoe canon itself is highly contested. P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, for example, have repeatedly challenged the attributions made by an earlier generation of scholars, such as George Chalmers, William Lee, William Trent and J. R. Moore.44 The fact that the Defoe canon had, by the time of Moore‘s publication of his Checklist, grown to include over 570 items has led Furbank and Owen to rightly exclaim that it was no wonder that Defoe had come to seem like ―the weirdest mass of contradictions imaginable, a figure impossible to make human sense of.‖45 In focusing on the Review, rather than on a wider selection of the writings in newspapers that have been attributed to Defoe by scholars such as Lee and Moore, this study intentionally sidesteps these difficult debates about the attribution of anonymous periodical writings.46 Another difficulty arises from the fact that we know very little about Defoe‘s life, although there is a general consensus amongst scholars about certain basic points, a matter which will be explored further in the next chapter. As David Blewett most succinctly expressed these issues in a review of prominent Defoe scholar Laura Ann Curtis‘ anthology of Defoe‘s uncollected writings:

44 P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, Defoe De-attributions: A Critique of J.R. Moore’s Checklist (London: Hambledon Press, 1994). P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, ―The Defoe That Never Was,‖ American Scholar 66 (1997), 276-284. P.N. Furbank and Robert Owens, A Critical Bibliography of Daniel Defoe (London: Pickering and Chatto, 1998). 45 J.R. Moore, A Checklist of the Writings of Daniel Defoe (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1971). Furbank and Owens (1997), 282. 46 Both Lee (1869) and Moore (1971) suggest that Defoe wrote extensively for newspapers such as Mist’s Weekly Journal, Applebee’s Journal, and The Director around the time of the Bubble itself, but the evidence they provide to support these attributions has proved far from conclusive. See P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, ―On the Attribution of Periodicals and Newspapers to Daniel Defoe,‖ Publishing History 40 (1996), 83-98. See also P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, ―The Myth of Defoe as Applebee‘s Man,‖ Review of English Studies 48 (1997), 198-204. 16

―There is no established canon of his writings and, given the very large number of his anonymous and pseudonymous works, there probably never will be. Ninety percent of what he wrote is unread. There is still no modern scholarly edition of his major works (surely, now, the most urgent of large publishing projects in the field). And there is an increasing need for a new, more thorough, biography.‖47

While the field of Defoe scholarship has grown exponentially since Blewett wrote this review, and Furbank and Owens have produced a more complete scholarly edition of Defoe‘s major works, these issues still loom large in the field today.48 Finally, and perhaps most important, on numerous occasions Defoe would write tracts on either side of a debate, given that he ―could see most issues from both sides and sheer delight in his own mental agility often led him to advance more than one argument.‖49 It is no wonder then that Defoe has been accused by some of being ―the greatest liar that ever lived.‖50 In light of these fairly significant problems, it is relatively obvious why navigating the waters of Defoe scholarship can seem akin to navigating through the Scylla and the Charybdis. With respect to the scholarship on the Review itself, it is surprising that there is a relatively small corpus of research that deals directly with this important source, compared to the vast number of studies that have focused on Defoe‘s novels, such as Robinson Crusoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier and Moll Flanders. This is surprising primarily because of the fact that a complete set of the nine volumes of the Review has been readily available to scholars since the Facsimile Text Society published their twenty-two book edition based on the original editions in 1938, assembled and edited by the eminent Defoe scholar Arthur Secord.51 Furthermore, Pickering and Chatto has recently published another complete edition of the Review, edited by John McVeagh.52 This sparseness of research dealing with the Review is also surprising because, as William Lee has

47 David Blewett, review of The Versatile Defoe: An Anthology of Uncollected Writings of Daniel Defoe by Laura Ann Curtis, Eighteenth Century Studies 15 (1982), 477. 48 Daniel Defoe, Works of Daniel Defoe, ed. P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2000-2008), 44 vols. 49 Blewett (1982), 478. 50 William Minto, Daniel Defoe (London: Macmillan, 1879), 169. Cited in Novak (2001), 2. 51 Defoe (1938). Furthermore, this edition was also reprinted in 1965 by the AMS Press of New York. 52 Daniel Defoe, Defoe’s Review (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2003-2011), 18 vols. 17 previously argued, ―only those who have read the Review can be thoroughly acquainted with Defoe.‖53 The most thorough study of the Review is William Payne‘s doctoral thesis submitted to Columbia University, which was subsequently published as Mr. Review: Daniel Defoe as the Author of the Review in 1947.54 Payne‘s four-pronged thesis focuses on Mr. Review as an author, journalist, economist, and counsellor and guide. His chapter on Defoe as an economist was particularly informative for this present study, as his numerous citations provide a basic roadmap of Defoe‘s writings on commerce and trade in the Review, making it much easier to navigate the 5,600 pages of the Facsimile Text Society edition. Also invaluable in this respect is the Index to Defoe’s Review which Payne published in 1948, in which the ―Review‘s three million words [were] analyzed and located in a cross-indexed collection numbering some 30,000 items.‖55 The fact remains however that although Payne‘s research into the Review was ground-breaking at the time of its publication, over time this work has come to show its age, as his highly- literal interpretations of Defoe‘s writings have come to seem rather quaint. Recently, there has been a minor resurgence of interest in the Review, as indicated by the publication of the new Pickering and Chatto edition. Some of the more recent scholarship on the Review, informed by wider trends in literary criticism, focuses on Defoe‘s colourful use of language and his use of metaphors in discussing credit. For example, both Paula Backscheider and Kimberley Latta have addressed the highly- gendered language used by Defoe in his allegorical genealogy of Lady Credit laid out in volume five of the Review.56 This emphasis on language and metaphor has influenced this present study immensely, particularly the second chapter in which the moral, providential and naturalistic language that Defoe used in discussing commerce and trade is investigated.

53 William Lee, Daniel Defoe: His Life and Recently Discovered Writings, Volume I (London: Hotton, 1869), 85. Cited in William L. Payne, Mr. Review: Daniel Defoe As Author of the Review (Morningside Heights, NY: King‘s Crown Press, 1947), 3. 54 Payne (1947). 55 W.L. Payne, Index to Defoe’s Review (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948). Payne (1947), 4. 56 Paula Backscheider, ―Defoe‘s Lady Credit,‖ Huntington Library Quarterly 44 (1981), 89-100. Kimberley Latta, ―The Mistress of the Marriage Market: Gender and Economic Ideology in Defoe‘s Review,‖ ELH 69 (2002), 359-383. 18

Chapter One—Defoe, the Review, and the world of early modern ―information‖ From the time of Guttenberg‘s invention of the printing press onward, Europe underwent what has been called a print revolution, as technological advancements in mechanized movable-type led to an ever-increasing reliance on printed texts as a means for conveying information.57 As pre-eminent historian of print Elizabeth Eisenstein succinctly expressed it, ―printing altered methods of data collection, storage and retrieval systems and communications networks used by learned communities throughout Europe.‖58 This alteration of communication networks was particularly important for the expansion of European trade, as it made commercial and political information widely available to the growing merchant class, a development that was particularly visible in Britain. While British printers in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries focused primarily on the production of religious texts, particularly the Bible and a variety of prayer books, by the late seventeenth-century there was a significant increase in the secular materials printed. Such tracts dealt with matters of politics and trade, geography and travel, and science and natural philosophy. This transformation was in many ways related to the liberalization of the legal restrictions on the press, especially the non- renewal of the Licensing Act in 1695.59 This Act, which came into effect in 1662, was officially titled ―An Act for Preventing the frequent Abuses in Printing Seditious, Treasonable, and Unlicensed Books and Pamphlets; and for the Regulating of Printing and Printing Presses,‖ and as the title suggests, it aimed at regulating what was printed in the Kingdom of England.60 In the age of Charles II, the censorship of the press was common place and its importance ―cannot be exaggerated, particularly when it is remembered that the printed word, in an age when the power of the platform had scarcely been recognized, was almost the only means of forming public opinion.‖61 But with the

57 Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). 58 Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early-Modern Europe Volume I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), xvi. 59 Jeremy Black, The English Press 1621-1861 (Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 2001), 6-8. 60 Michael Treadwell, ―The Stationers and the Printing Acts At the End of the Seventeenth Century,‖ in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Volume 4, John Barnard and D.F. McKenzie, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 755-756. 61 J. Walker, ―The Censorship of the Press During the Reign of Charles II,‖ History 35 (1950), 219. 19 non-renewal of the Licensing Act, both writers and printers were emboldened, and these groups began to address matters that previously would have resulted in there being brought up on charges of sedition or libel. As Leonard Dudley expressed it, ―except in times of war,‖ from the lapsing of this act onward, ―England would have a free press.‖62 In Britain, this reliance on printed texts as a means of conveying information was particularly visible amongst urban tradesmen and merchants, and amongst the increasingly educated gentry, some of the main groups which composed the investor base for the South Sea Company‘s stock.63 As David Cressy argues in his seminal text on literacy in England, ―the sophisticated market economy of Stuart London may have created a unique environment where anxieties about writing would thrive and where literacy was sought as an aid to ambition.‖64 The ability to read and write was especially critical for tradesmen and merchants, given that these skills ―made possible the keeping of accounts and journals, the writing of letters, even authorship and creative writing.‖65 Printed texts also provided these groups with access to more diverse sources of information than had previously been available, as they could turn to a variety of pamphlets and newspapers, in addition to the private information-sharing networks which had developed over the previous century.66 While numerous scholars have commented on the importance of the printing press for the development of international trade and the conveyance of ―reliable information… from afar,‖ John McCusker in particular has explored this topic in detail.67 While McCusker‘s focus is primarily on commodity price currents and exchange rate currents, his insights about business thriving ―on the most recent news‖ are also more broadly applicable, given that changes in the both the

62 Leonard Dudley, Information Revolutions in the History of the West (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2008), 126. 63 J.A. Sharpe, Early Modern England: A Social History 1550-1760 (London: Arnold, 1997), 278-283. Carswell (1960), 57. 64 David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 10. 65 Ibid., 11. 66 Harold A. Innis, ―The Newspaper in Economic Development,‖ The Journal of Economic History 2 (1942),1-33. 67 John McCusker and Cora Gravesteijn, The Beginnings of Commercial and Financial Journalism: The Commodity Price Currents, Exchange Rate Currents, and Money Currents of Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam: NEHA, 1991), 23. See also John McCusker, ―The Demise of Distance: The Business Press and the Origins of the Information Revolution in the Early Modern Atlantic World,‖ American Historical Review 110 (2005), 295-321. Harold A. Innis, ―The Newspaper in Economic Development,‖ The Journal of Economic History 2 (1942),1-33. Larry Neal, ―The Rise of a Financial Press: London and Amsterdam, 1681-1810,‖ Business History 30 (1988), 163-178. 20 domestic and international political context affected the environment in which trade took place, and was thus of interest to merchants and traders who ―required the ―freshest advices‖ in order to conduct their affairs profitably.‖68 The information transmitted via the newspaper could reasonably be described as ―Publick,‖ in the sense that through the mechanized reproduction of these texts, multiple copies of the same printed information were disseminated to an extended group of individuals. The newspaper thus provided the reader with a sort of shared or common information and as a result, gave rise to the conditions necessary for the development of shared or common expectations. It has been previously noted that although the ―English novel, as practised by Defoe‖ is widely regarded as a central development of the eighteenth-century, ―the periodical essay… was another product of the century which, like the novel, made a strong appeal to a growing public of middle-class readers and maybe said to have equalled or even surpassed the novel in popularity.‖69 If this is the case, then newspapers would have had an undoubtedly had an important effect on how contemporaries understood matters of commerce, trade and politics. *************** Within this context of a burgeoning print culture emerged a mysterious figure who would come to have a far-reaching impact in the English speaking world. Although Daniel Defoe is one of the most notable (and prolific) writers in the history of English literature, our remarkably limited knowledge of Defoe and his life is ―largely dependent upon his own statements, which are not very precise and which too frequently are open to question.‖70 What we do know conclusively is that Defoe was born sometime in the year 1660 to a London family of modest means. His father was a member of the Butchers‘ livery company who was seemingly ―sympathetic toward his gifted son,‖ as he provided Defoe with an ―education which was exceptional for a boy in his circumstances.‖71 Thanks to his father, Defoe attended Charles Morton‘s Newington Green Academy, one of the foremost Dissenter academies in this period, from approximately 1674 to 1679,

68 McCusker and Gravesteijn (1991), 21. 69 Donald F. Bond, ―Problems in Editing the Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essay,‖ in Eighteenth-Century English Books (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1976), 61. 70 Arthur W. Secord, Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe (New York: Russell & Russell, 1963), 9. 71 Secord (1963), 12. 21 and this was definitely a formative experience for him.72 Morton was an Oxford-educated man, well versed in the advancements taking place in the study of natural philosophy over the preceding century. His academy, like all the other dissenting academies of the period, ―stressed a practical approach to learning‖ and as a result, both the study of natural sciences and modern languages were included in the general curriculum.73 Following in the narrational tradition established by Francis Bacon, Morton also advised his students against the use of ―orational Flash,‖ favouring the use of few words and concise argumentation.74 And while Morton ―was not destined to become a ‗major‘ scientist,‖ he nonetheless played a valuable role in the advancement of learning through his ―dissemination of… new ideas‖ to his many students.75 Defoe was undeniably influenced by Morton‘s teachings, particularly his emphasis on the Baconian natural scientific method and the use of plain language, especially evident in his writings on trade as will be shown below.76 Once he graduated from Newington Green, rather than joining the ministry as was expected of him, Defoe instead turned to a life of trade. He was involved in numerous commercial ventures in the period between 1680-1695 including the whole-sale hosier trade, wine importation from Spain and Portugal, tobacco importation from America, and the manufacture of pantiles and bricks, among other things.77 Of particular importance for his later discussions of the South-Sea trade, Defoe also claims to have resided ―as a merchant in Spain,‖ an experience which would have given him direct knowledge of the Spanish American trade and possibly one of the reasons why he deemed this trade to be

72 L. Girdler, ―Defoe‘s Education at Newington Green Academy,‖ Studies in Philology 50 (1953). Samuel E. Morison, in his introduction to Morton‘s Compendium Physicae, reckons that Newington Green was ―one of the best, if not the best, in England.‖ Charles Morton, Charles Morton’s Compendium Physicae (Boston: Colonial Society of Mass., 1940), xvi. 73 Isle Vickers, Defoe and the New Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 36. See also Morton (1940), xvi. 74 Ibid, 49. 75 Vickers (1996), 35. 76 Defoe often employed the language of the natural sciences (e.g. biological metaphors, metallurgical terminology, etc) in writing on the subject of trade, a point which will be explored further in the following chapter. On Defoe as a Baconian, Katherine Clark notes that ―the work of Ilse Vickers has convincingly established Defoe‘s pedigree as a ‗third-generation Baconian‘. Defoe imbibed Baconian principles as a student at Charles Morton‘s Dissenting Academy, principles which continued to inform Defoe‘s works throughout his life.‖ Clark (2007), 17. 77 Moore (1958), 85-86, 346-347. 22 of such value.78 In spite of Defoe‘s efforts however, it remained that the majority of his business ventures were unsuccessful, and on more than one occasion throughout his life, Defoe would find himself bankrupt and on the lam from his creditors.79 Although Defoe was not the most successful trader, he was an astute observer and a capable writer. Realizing this, he would move on to put these talents to work in the burgeoning pamphlet and periodical press industry. By 1700, Defoe would begin writing and printing pamphlets in earnest, one of his earliest being his ―widely sold poem‖ The True-Born Englishman, a satire on the English ―snobbery‖ that would catapult Defoe into the public eye.80 In 1702, Defoe would publish another widely-read political satire, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, in which he protested ―what he regarded as [High Church] tyranny.‖81 The Shortest Way would cause quite the stir in London, resulting in Defoe‘s prosecution by the Secretary of State, the Earl of Nottingham, who would see to it that he was given ―an exceptionally severe sentence,‖ which included both being imprisoned in Newgate and forced to stand ―in the pillory for one hour one each of three successive days.‖82 His persecution would come to an end late in 1702, thanks to the intercession of Robert Harley, who managed to convince Queen Anne to provide Defoe with a pardon. It was at this point that Defoe would be ―taken into the service of the Ministry… to promote the government‘s public relations,‖ a position he would hold until ―shortly before his death‖ in 1731.83 In 1704, Defoe would start his career as a journalist in earnest. He would launch his Review on February 19 of that year, and while it would initially be published bi- weekly, beginning with issue number 8 of volume II, the Review would be continually published three times a week. With the exception of the first few numbers of volume IX,

78 Moore (1958), 85. See also Novak (2001), 670. Novak suggests that Defoe had an extensive knowledge of the ―wine trade in Spain in the area of Cadiz, where he probably worked for some time in his younger days as an importer of wines.‖ Elsewhere, Novak states that ―Defoe had been personally concerned‖ in the British trade with Cadiz. See Maximilian Novak, ‗Colonel Jack‘s ―Thieving Rogue‖ Trade to Mexico and Defoe‘s Attack on Economic Individualism,‖ Huntington Library Quarterly 24 (1961), 351. See also F. Bastian, Defoe’s Early Life (Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books, 1981), 92-93. 79 Moore (1958), 89-103. 80 Ibid., 76. 81 Ibid, 109-110. 82 Ibid, 349. 83 Ibid, 350. 23 it would continue as such until it ceased publication in 1713.84 What is most impressive is that Defoe wrote the entirety of the Review himself, as this obviously required a significant dedication to the project on his part. At first, Defoe had the Review printed by a certain ―Mr. Matthews… [an] honest Publisher,‖ but when Defoe decided to print the government‘s case against Dr. Henry Sacheverell, the outspoken High-Church minister, in volume VI (1709-10), he would be forced to move the printing of the Review to the establishment run by John Baker.85 The ―Sacheverell Affair‖ was set in motion by a set of sermons he preached in 1709, and which were subsequently published, on the danger posed to the Church of England by the Dissenters and the Whig ministry which was in power at the time.86 The Whig ministry would move to prosecute Sacheverell in the winter of 1710, leading to numerous riots in London and elsewhere in Britain. Defoe explained to this reader that a ―High-Church Army falling upon Mr. M… have taken him Prisoner of War, and the Man being entirely in their Custody… you are to expect no more Reviews from his Hand.‖87 This did not seem to surprise Defoe though, as he goes on to comment that those opposed to the Review had made ―great Endeavours‖ to ―stifle and suppress this Paper; sometimes the Author has been threatened and bully‘d, sometimes the Printer…‖ but he found this all in vain, vowing to the reader that he would continue galling his enemies ―with plain Truth.‖88 The set of events that Defoe reports here is indicative of the political and social climate in London during this period, as the fermentation of religious and political partisanship would, as mentioned above, lead to numerous riotous outbreaks and significant partisan tensions.89 And so, in order to ensure that the Review continued to make it into the hands of its readership, Defoe decided to charge Baker with the task of printing it, for he could not

84 Secord‘s introduction, Review, I, xvii. 85 Review, VII, 49b. Review, I, xxi. 86 For a complete discussion of the Sacheverell Affair, see Geoffrey Holmes, The Trial of Doctor Sacheverell (London: Eyre Methuen, 1973). See also E. Gordon Rupp, Religion in England, 1688-1791 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 64-71. 87 Review, VII, 49b. 88 Ibid, 50a. 89 For a complete discussion of the violent riots that broke out in London during the Sacheverell trial, see Geoffrey Holmes, ―The Sacheverell Riots: The Crowd and the Church in Early Eighteenth-Century London,‖ Past and Present 72 (1976), 55-85. 24

―be bias‘d, terrify‘d, or any way prevail‘d upon to keep it back.‖90 The question that begs asking here is why would Baker assume the risks of publishing such a contentious newspaper, and why was he impervious to the attacks of those who wished to keep the paper back? John Baker, at the Black Boy in Paternoster Row, was a ―bookseller in London… [working in the years] 1680-1710.‖91 And while he remains an obscure figure in the history of London trade publishers, it would seem that he was relatively important, as he established the foundation for ―the most complex group of interrelated publishing businesses [in seventeenth century London].‖92 Baker was also an extremely active publisher, as an examination of his catalogue for the year 1711 confirms, containing as it did over forty entries.93 Along with printing the Review and works of theology, he also printed pamphlets and books on variety of other topics; including the Sacheverell Affair,94 the Union of England and Scotland,95 colonial affairs,96 European relations,97 and the South Sea Trade.98 It is obvious from this list of topics that Defoe and Baker shared many interests, both in terms of domestic affairs and overseas expansion. These common interests are probably one of the main reasons why Baker took up the printing of the Review, and why he continued to print it until its cessation in 1713.99 Baker must also

90 Ibid, 50b. 91 Henry Plomer, A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland From 1668 to 1725 (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1968), 14. 92 Michael Treadwell, ―London Trade Publishers 1675-1750,‖ The Library, 6th Series, 4 (1982), 111. 93 John Baker, Books Printed For J. Baker at the Black-boy in Paternoster Row (London, 1711). 94 See, for examples, The speeches of four managers upon the first article of Dr. Sacheverells impeachment (London: J. Baker, 1710). A true and exact view and description of the court for the tryal of Dr. Henry Sacheverell, in Westminster-Hall… (London: J. Baker, 1710?). Squire Bickerstaffe’s elegy on the much- lamented death of John Dolben, Esq; manager in chief against Dr. Sacheverell. (London: J. Baker, 1710). 95 See, for example, Daniel Defoe, Union and no union. Being an enquiry into the grievances of the Scots… (London: J. Baker, 1713). 96 See, for examples, The four kings of Canada. Being a succinct account of the four Indian princes lately arriv’d from North America. ... (London: J. Baker, 1710). A journal of the last voyage perform'd by Monsr. de la Sale, to the Gulph of Mexico, to find out the mouth of the Missisipi river; ... (London: J. Baker, 1714). 97 See, for examples, The ballance of Europe: or, an enquiry into the respective dangers of giving the Spanish monarchy to the Emperour as well as to King Philip (London: J. Baker, 1711). Reasons why a party among us, and also among the confederates, are obstinately bent against a treaty of peace with the French at this time. (London: J. Baker, 1711). Reasons Why This Nation Ought to Put a Speedy End to This Expensive War… (London: J. Baker, 1711). 98 See, for examples, Letter From a Merchant in Amsterdam to a Friend in London (London: J. Baker, 1712). Daniel Defoe, An Essay on the South Sea Trade… (London: J. Baker, 1712). Robert Allen, An Essay on the Nature and Methods of Carrying on a Trade to the South Seas (London: J. Baker, 1712). All of these texts favour the South Sea trade while acknowledging that a free-trade with Spanish America was not likely. See chapter four for a further discussion on this matter. 99 It is worth noting that Baker died in 1717, and was succeeded by Thomas Warner, who continued to print works for Defoe into the 1720‘s, as this indicative of the strong relationship that Defoe had developed with 25 have made some profit in printing the Review, although the lack of any records indicating whether this was the case or not makes it impossible to determine unequivocally, although it was definitely the case that with the lapsing of the Licensing Act, ―there was a sounder basis for investment‖ in the printing of newspapers.100 As with Baker‘s motivations for printing the Review, Defoe‘s are probably impossible to ascertain with certainty. But again, the fact that he did so three times a week for nine years attests to his dedication to the endeavour. In addressing this question of motivations, Defoe himself would claim that one of the primary designs of the Review was to ―answer the Publick Design of this Paper, viz. Publick Information.‖101 In addressing the Review to a ―public that was rapidly becoming newspaper-minded,‖ Defoe might have hoped to influence the public‘s expectations by providing ―Publick Information‖ that he claimed was unhampered by partisan biases and blatant falsehoods.102 Another possible motivation for his publishing it, which would remain un-stated in his writings, was his employment by Robert Harley‘s ministry to propagate its political and commercial interests. But Defoe obviously left this un-stated in his writings, so as to maintain his credibility as an uncorrupted source of information in the eyes of his readership.103 Furthermore, Defoe would on numerous occasions in the Review emphatically deny that he made his living by his pen, such as when he responded to charges printed in the Observator that he was a bankrupt. In this instance, Defoe claimed that it was his ―Business (by which, and not by Writing, as he does, I get my bread).‖104 Along similar lines, in the preface of volume eight, printed in early 1712, Defoe would claim that he had been ―Condemn‘d by Common Clamour, as writing for money, writing for particular persons, Writing by great men‘s Directions, Being dictated to… every title

this printing shop. See Treadwell (1982), 111. Of particular interest is the fact that Warner would print Defoe‘s The Chimera: or, the French way of Paying National Debts, laid open. Being an Impartial Account of the Proceedings in France, for raising a Paper Credit, and settling the Mississippi Stock. (London: T. Warner, 1720). 100 Black (2001), 8. 101 Review, VIII, 333a. 102 James Sutherland, Defoe (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1938), 110. 103 J.A. Downie, Robert Harley and the Press: Propaganda and Opinion in the Age of Swift and Defoe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 129. According to Downie, Defoe was a ―mainstay of the Oxford ministry‘s propaganda machine.‖ 104 Review, VIII, 496a. 26 of which… is abominably false.‖105 The question as to whether Defoe profited from writing the Review, if he was ―writing for money,‖ is impossible to answer with any certainty, but it is not unthinkable that part of Defoe‘s income came from his writings. If this was the case, it would be reasonable to assume that his emphasis on his independence and honesty might have been a means to downplay this, so as to establish his authority as a reliable source of information to his readership. Defoe would, on numerous occasions in the Review, state unequivocally that he never written anything that was not entirely his own ―Free, Undirected Opinion and Judgement.‖106 And while he might have profited from his writings, and as some Defoe scholars have argued, while his employment by Harley might have influenced his writings, when it came to the South Sea trade, it is clear from the tone of his writings that he was ―never a bitter political partisan.‖107 Throughout the Review, Defoe would promote political moderation, or as he called it, the ―Middle Channel between parties,‖ as he believed that party politics was in no way beneficial for the nation, and only served to draw the nation ―into civil war.‖108 This call for moderation would be particularly visible in his discussions on the South Sea trade, as he repeatedly beseeched his readers to refrain from engaging in partisan actions which would only serve to undermine the nation by endangering the public credit. Furthermore, it is relatively clear in Defoe‘s writings that his relationship with Harley did not restrain him entirely from expressing his views, as was the case in his discussions of the South Sea trade, for Defoe only gave ―cautious‖ support to the project, realizing that there was a real possibility that it could lead to ―frantic or dishonest‖ speculation, a point he would stress repeatedly in his writings.109 ***************

105 Review, VIII, Preface. 106 Ibid., Preface. 107 William Thomas Morgan, ―Defoe‘s Review as a Historical Source,‖ The Journal of Modern History 12 (1940), 228. On Defoe‘s non-partisan leanings, P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens argue that ―among the political principles which appear to be shared by Defoe and Harley was a belief that government ought to be ‗above‘ party.‖ They go on to cite the preface to volume VII of the Review, in which Defoe states that the ―Government ought to be of no party at all.‖ See ―Introduction‖ in Political and Economic Writings of Daniel Defoe, Volume 2: Party Politics, P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, eds. (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2000), 22-23. 108 Review, VII, 1-2. 109 Moore (1958), 293. 27

Ascertaining exactly how large Defoe‘s readership was is difficult, given that precise circulation records are simply not available.110 And while numerous Defoe scholars have anecdotally commented on the popularity of the Review, C.E. Burch‘s analysis of the observations of Defoe‘s scribbling contemporaries provides concrete evidence of just how popular the paper was, and also exhibits the social diversity of its readership.111 Both Charles Leslie (writing in the Rehearsal) and Jonathan Swift (writing in the Examiner) acknowledged that the Review was ―widely read by the populace,‖ and this would cause them considerable alarm, as they both suspected Defoe of being up to ―mischief‖ in his writings.112 Leslie in particular recognized that Defoe‘s plain style allowed him to communicate with a wide audience, and went as far as to advise other journalists to express themselves in a ―plain and familiar style and method of argument, as to be intelligible to the meanest capacity.‖113 And it was not only those of the ―meanest capacity‖ who were reading the Review, for as Leslie would be forced to admit, ―not only were the intellectuals reading [it], but [they] were evidently influenced‖ by it as well.114 Defoe himself would repeatedly draw attention to the plainness of his style in the Review, a point which is indicative of his intention to reach as a wide an audience as possible. As noted above, during his studies at Charles Morton‘s academy, Defoe would have been exposed to the works of Francis Bacon, which encouraged the use of plain language and concise argumentation. This would have a clear influence on Defoe‘s writings, exemplified by his insistence on a ―loose Way of treating the World as to Language, Expression and Politeness of Phrase‖ and his emphasis on plain style, particularly ―in treating the subject of trade.‖115 This emphasis on plain style is made apparent throughout

110 In addressing the precise circulation figures of the Review, J.A. Downie assumes that ―that the sales of the paper rose from the 1704 estimate of 400 per issue to a peak, from which they gradually declined to approximately 500 copies of each number by 1712.‖ See ―Mr. Review and his Scribbling Friends: Defoe and the Critics, 1705-1706,‖ Huntington Library Quarterly 41 (1978), 345-346. Similarly, James Sutherland argues that although ―copies of the Review are certainly very scarce to-day… it seems unlikely that it would have been referred to so often by Defoe's contemporaries unless it sold more than 400 copies twice a week. I suggest that the explanation is to be found in the fact that the Review had not been before the public very long when this estimate was made, and that later on the circulation increased, as indeed its publication three times a week in 1705 would suggest.‖ See Sutherland, ―The Circulation of Newspapers and Literary Periodicals, 1700-30,‖ The Library 15 (1934), 116. 111 Burch (1937), 210-213. 112 Ibid., 211. 113 Ibid., 212. 114 Ibid., 213. 115 Review, I, Preface. 28 the Review, as the following examples will show. In discussing the ―future Advantages‖ of the Union with England, Defoe offers to ―say something as plain and as concise‖ as he can in order to dispel certain news-writers claims that ―their Trade‖ would be ruined by the Union.116 In his response to a letter regarding the ill-treatment of Dissenting ministers by tax-commissioners, Defoe begins with the statement, ―The Honesty and Plainess of the Stile in this Letter, I hope… [will] convince any Man of the Genuine Native Sincerity of the Man…‖117 In responding to another letter and addressing the truthfulness of the claim that he demanded bribes to keep silent on some matter, Defoe begins by stating that his answer would be both ―plain and direct,‖ again reiterating his insistence on being perceived as plain-speaking.118 Finally, in the most indicative example, Defoe claims that his arguments were made ―in my plainer homely manner, with not so much Rhetorick, nor such an affecting manner.‖119 It is also important to note that most modern Defoe scholars would agree with Secord‘s assertion that Defoe was ―a master of the art of telling a story, directly and plausibly, in terse, homely language.‖120 In employing plain homely language, which was familiar to the majority of literate Britons, Defoe was probably trying to make his discussions of complex matters, such as trade and politics, comprehensible to those people which Leslie deemed of the ―meanest capacity.‖ And it would seem that this plain style of writing made the Review an important source of information and opinions for a wide variety of his contemporaries. As Secord expressed it, Defoe‘s plain language enabled him to explain complex matters of commerce and trade ―in a way which the man in the street could understand.‖121 Defoe might also, as Secord claims, have hoped to use the Review as a means to bring his readership into the ―world of ideas‖ within which he lived.122 While Defoe endeavoured to be practical in his thinking, as illustrated by his repeated insistence on providing his reader with ―useful

116 Review, III, 653a-b. 117 Review, III, 375b. 118 Review, III, 432a. 119 Review, IV, 510b. 120 Secord (1963), 11. See also Payne (1947), 20-23. Along similar lines, Paula Backscheider argues that Defoe ―was deeply committed to explanation and always concentrated more upon issues than upon personality. His writing from his earliest publications was straightforward, factual, and admirably clear… Defoe developed the plain, easy, straight-forward style the he would use throughout his life.‖ Daniel Defoe: Ambition and Innovation (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1986), 53. 121 Secord‘s introduction, Review, I, xxi. 122 Ibid., xvi. 29 knowledge‖ in a ―plain style,‖ it has been argued that this ―highly practical thought rests on an imaginative basis.‖123 His emphasis on conveying complex, abstract concepts to the reading public in a manner which was not only understandable but also ―useful‖ illustrates his objective of bringing his readership into his ―world of ideas.‖ Although it is probably impossible to ascertain with any degree of certitude why Defoe devoted so much time and energy to writing the Review, it is probably reasonable to assume that he did so because he hoped to have an influence on his contemporaries thoughts on trade and politics. And while his employment by the Harley ministry would most likely come to have an effect on the topics he wrote about, this is not to say that this position would bind him to the Tory party line and prevent him from expressing his own thoughts on matters at hand. Defoe was most likely trying to encourage his readers, particularly those with limited information and knowledge about complex issues like international trade and international political relations, to reflect on these matters as he deemed them ―useful‖ for understanding commerce and trade. Finally, Defoe was undoubtedly an advocate of political moderation, and thus was probably hoping to encourage his readership to avoid engaging in partisan conflicts, for he thought that these conflicts ran contrary to the best interests of the British nation.

123 John McVeagh, ―Defoe and the Romance of Trade,‖ Durham University Journal 70 (1978), 146. John Brewer defines the term ―useful knowledge‖ as ―knowledge applicable to everyday life… a type, a category of knowledge, not necessarily of immediate value to those who acquired it, but having potential to be deployed usefully.‖ See The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783 (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 228. Interestingly, Rebecca Connor claims that Defoe was ―clearly one of the early practitioners of useful knowledge, first as a merchant-entrepreneur and then as an accountant.‖ See ―‗Can You Apply Arithmetick to Every Thing?‘: Moll Flanders, William Petty, and Social Accounting,‖ Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 27 (1998), 171.

Chapter Two—Taming the Mystery of Trade Defoe dedicated a substantial portion of the Review to discussing matters of commerce and trade, as an inspection of William Payne‘s Index to Defoe’s Review reveals.124 And while the terms trade and commerce have been equated with the modern term economics by Payne in his Mr. Review, this is a somewhat anachronistic reading.125 In Defoe‘s usage of these terms, commerce was a broad category that encompassed manufacturing, agriculture, demographics and labour, public finance, trade (both domestic and international), etc, whereas trade was much more narrowly defined as the circulation and exchange of goods. In addition, his usage of the term oeconomy bears little resemblance to the modern term: ―From the general Scheme of this Nations Oeconomy, I mean the Habits, Customs, and Manner of our People.‖126 Both commerce and trade were some of Defoe‘s preferred subjects in large part because he felt that these domains of knowledge were so mysterious, so little understood, and yet infinitely useful for increasing the prosperity of the British nation.127 In order to better comprehend Defoe‘s thoughts on ―the Elements or Generals of this new System‖ of commerce and trade, this section will present a close reading of the language used in discussing these topics in the Review, narrowing in on the moral, providential and naturalistic components of this language.128 It should be noted that the Review was written during a period of significant intellectual change in Britain, with ―Newton and Locke… transforming science and philosophy; Swift and Defoe, language.‖129 Further, these intellectual changes affected the actions of contemporaries‘ in the realm of the market. And so while Defoe did not provide a fully systematized model of trade and commerce, his writings in the Review certainly could have influenced his readers understanding of commerce and trade and how they might act towards one another in the market.

124 Trade was one of the most prevalent topics of discussion in the Review, along with the Union of England and Scotland and the Dissenters‘ cause. See Payne (1948). 125 Payne claims that the ―word ―trade‖ is almost synonymous with the present-day word ―economics‖; its usage in the Review should be understood in that light.‖ Payne (1947), 128, note 10. 126 Review, II, 58b 127 Review, I, 365a. See also Review, VIII, 1a, in which Defoe explains that trade was, ―to me a pleasant, and I hope to you all, a profitable theme‖ of discussion. 128 Review, VI, 134a. 129 John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (London: Cresset Press, 1960), 21. 31

In order to locate the underlying assumptions of Defoe‘s system in the Review, his elaborate allegorical genealogy of Commerce laid out in volume eight will first be examined.130 Defoe‘s use of the genealogy as a narrative form is notable primarily because genealogies are imbued with multiple symbolic meanings. In addition to the fact that genealogies are central in biblical narratives, there was also a vigorous interest in pedigree and lineage in early-modern Britain, making this form both familiar and popular, something which Defoe must have recognized when composing his genealogy.131 Defoe‘s allegorical genealogy of Commerce provides insight into his understanding of man‘s fallen nature and how this nature affected the development of trade. Traditionally sinful qualities like pride and ambition would, in Defoe‘s narrative, come to have useful and practical functions, as they encouraged mankind to lift themselves out of their natural state of want and poverty. Pride in conjunction with necessity would encourage mankind to employ their faculties at invention, and adopt qualities like industry, ingenuity, and honesty. This tension between mankind‘s sinful or fallen nature and its relation to the improvement of mankind‘s condition is a key element in Defoe‘s system of trade. Defoe‘s general definitions of trade will next be addressed, in order to investigate the tension in his system between trade‘s mysterious and its useful qualities. These mysterious qualities were in part the consequence of Defoe‘s conviction that God had, ―in the Order of Nature, not only made trade necessary to the making of Life of Man Easy,‖ but had also ―adapted nature to trade, and made it subservient in all its parts, to the several necessary Operations of Commerce.‖132 There was an underlying order implanted in the material world, what Defoe calls ―Nature Natureing,‖ which was given ―Life and Laws‖ in all its ―subsequent Operations‖ by the ―Infinite Power‖ of the ―God of Nature.‖133 These ―Laws‖ made mankind and their environment amenable to trade, but like all ―Laws‖ of nature, those which governed the functioning of the domain of trade were located beyond the boundaries of man‘s finite reason. Through observation and the

130 Review, VIII, 153a-156b. 131 Daniel Woolf, The Social Circulation of the Past: English Historical Culture 1500-1730 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 99-115. 132 Review, [IX], 107a. 133 Review, III, 32a. 32 systematic study of trade, one could partially uncover these laws, but the subject would forever remain, in Defoe‘s mind, incomprehensible in its infinite entirety. In defining money, Defoe would also emphasize a tension between its mysterious and its useful qualities. For while Defoe thought that money was ―the charm that unlocks the cabinet, unscrews Nature,‖ it was also ―the general denominating Article in the World,‖ and thus allowed for domestic and international trade to occur, both of which were key elements in his system of trade.134 Defoe exhibited certain bullionist tendencies in his discussions of the value of money, in that he firmly believed in the metallic foundations of currency, one of the main reasons why he was so interested in the Spanish American trade and the mines of Potosi. But his system was more complicated than conventional bullionist thought, as his writings also ―sought to modify bullionist teachings by an appreciation of the new potentialities of credit.‖135 The tension between mysterious and useful qualities was also visible in his definition of Money’s ―younger Sister… Her name in our Language is call‘d Credit.‖136 Defoe described this ―Invisible, Je ne seay Quoi‖ as both a ―substantial non-entity… [which seemed] to have a distinct essence (if nothing can be said to exist) from all the phenomena in Nature,‖ and as the ―Machine‖ by which all war and trade was carried out.137 At the turn of the eighteenth century, ―Publick Credit‖ was of increasing importance for Britain‘s power in European and colonial conflicts, given their lack of substantial gold- and silver-producing colonial possessions.138 In addition, the expansion of ―Personal Credit‖ in trade also encouraged British reliance on various forms of paper- based wealth. As a result of these developments, the British Atlantic economy would essentially come to run ―on borrowed capital.‖139 Defoe clearly recognized this, and strongly advocated credit‘s usefulness to his readership, in spite of its highly unsettling nature of its ―non-essence.‖ Defoe did however warn his readers that there were certain

134 Review, IV, 423a; III, 10b. 135 Payne(1947), 77. 136 Review, III, 17a-b. 137 Review, VI, 122a-b. 138 According to John Brewer‘s estimates, ―credit accounted for 31 per cent of spending during the War of Spanish Succession.‖ See Brewer (1989), 114. Public credit was thus extremely important for the maintenance of British international power. 139 Jeremy Black, Eighteenth Century Britain, 1688-1783 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 79. See also P.G.M. Dickson, The Financial Revolution in England: a Study of the Development of Public Credit, 1688-1756 (London: Macmillan, 1967). 33 dangers in this new paper-based system, particularly the threat of debtor ―INSOLVENCY,‖ defined as any sort of non-payment on a debt, whether due to ―not being able, or otherwise knavish and not willing.‖140 Related to Defoe‘s conceptions of credit and the problem of insolvency were his notions of ―Honour of Trade‖ and the maintenance of one‘s good reputation. If credit was to contribute to the nation‘s prosperity, Defoe thought that it was absolutely necessary for ―Honour of Trade‖ to be maintained. For Defoe, merchants and traders were required to abide by the customs and habits of ―punctual, fair performance of Contract and Compliance with Appointments,‖ for if they did not, both their personal reputation, and more importantly the ―Publick credit,‖ would be damaged by their indiscretions.141 When knavish traders breached their contracts, they undermined the confidence and the trust of others, and Defoe thought that in doing so, more than war or losses at sea, they dealt a great ―Blow to [Britain‘s] Commerce,‖ leading to a reduction in the total volume of credit available, and as a result, the total volume of trade in Britain.142 There was one trade in particular that Defoe thought was largely devoid of honour or usefulness, the newly emergent pursuit of stock-jobbing, which was essentially the trading in paper forms of credit, such as shares in a joint-stock company. The stock- jobber would buy these shares at the time of their initial offering, speculating that the price would rise once the initial subscription was complete. If the price did in fact rise, the stock-jobber would then sell these shares to other investors at the inflated price, making for themselves a profit equal to the difference between the price at the time of the initial subscriptions and the price of the share at this later date. The workings of this particular trade were, much like commerce and trade more generally, quite mysterious. Indicative of his thoughts on stock-jobbing, Defoe likened it to a ―Black Art,‖ and described the stock-jobbers actions as the rarefication of money, which allowed them to ―evaporate‖ the money of others ―into their pockets.‖143 It is possible that Defoe took such a dismal view of this trade because he recognized that there was a danger in the price of the share diverging from its ―intrinsick‖ value and taking on an imaginary value

140 Review, V, 520a. 141 Review, VI, 131a. 142 Ibid., 131b. 143 Review, VIII, 225b, VI, 120a. 34 that had little to do with the company‘s potential profitability. As Defoe expressed it, through the addition of ―Air-money‖ to a stock, the jobbers falsely inflated its worth, leading to this gap between the assets ―intrinsick‖ and ―imaginary‖ values.144 In addition, for Defoe this trade had implications in the realm of action, as this ―Modern Mischief‖ had introduced a ―new temper‖ into the British nation, leading men to ―talk now in trade as Spaniards walk, with their hands upon their swords.‖145 By employing rumour and misinformation to influence share prices, the stock-jobbers had undermined the people‘s trust in one another, and thus undermined one of Defoe‘s fundamental tenets of commerce and trade, honest dealing. As Defoe explains it, the stock-jobbers manipulated the price of shares in joint-stock companies with that ―Jade Rumour,‖ the ―double tongu‘d Devil‖ who had been ―hir‘d out to the Stock-Jobbers‖ to dispense misinformation.146 There was ―nothing more fatal‖ than the ―spreading [of] Rumours, Suggestions, and Reports about the World‖ that were unreliable, as this obviously ran contrary to the maintenance of honesty in trade and the trader‘s maintenance of a good reputation.147 Defoe‘s disdain for the spreading of misinformation and his insistence on honesty in trade are related to his understanding of claims to ―Truth‖ and ―Fact,‖ for as he saw it, when someone relates a ―Falshood‖ without ―due Caution… he pawns his own Reputation upon the Truth of it, makes himself answerable, and the Fraud becomes his own.‖148 It is clear that for Defoe, the dissemination of unverified or false information was morally reprehensible, especially for self-serving ends like the manipulation of share prices, as these sorts of actions, by undermining the people‘s faith in a credit-based system, could prove fatal for the well-being of British trade, and by extension, the British nation itself. *************** Throughout the Review, Defoe repeatedly employed biological metaphors and allegories in discussing commerce and trade. For example, in volume four, while reflecting on a proposed bill ―Entitled for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor in England,‖ Defoe describes manufacture and trade as being ―the blood in the body, they

144 Review, VI, 119b. 145 Review, VIII, 303a. 146 Review, VI, 305a. 147 Review, II, 205a. 148 Review, I, 49b. 35 subsist by their circulation…‖ At the centre of this circulatory system was London, which functioned as ―the heart thro‘ which, by proper pulsation‖, the system was kept from stagnating.149 Another fine example appears in volume three, where in describing the ―Publick Lunacy‖ of the age, Defoe makes the comparison to a ―high-fever‖ affecting the nation, arguing that ―like Bodies that have their peculiar diseases, ours runs up to madness and frenzy…‖150 This universal frenzy had come to ―infect the climate‖ in Britain, creeping ―up into the [nation‘s] Brain.‖151 In choosing to employ these biological allegories to describe phenomena in the domain of trade, Defoe may have been influenced by the Baconian tradition and the emergent language of biological systems.152 It could be argued that by using the language of natural philosophy to outline the general laws and principles by which his system of trade operated, Defoe was attempting to transform notions from the moral realm into matters of fact. This was difficult ―because some authorities claimed that… experimental writing did not work well when applied to the realm of the passions and interests,‖ but nonetheless Defoe creatively used ―natural philosophy as a licence for parable and allegory.‖153 The most complex of the biological allegories outlined in the Review are Defoe‘s allegorical genealogies related to trade, particularly his genealogy of Commerce laid out in volume eight.154 Printed during the summer of 1711, and immediately preceding his initial discussion of the trade to the South Seas and the founding of the Company, with this genealogy Defoe offered his readers an examination of ―the original and Genealogy of this great Thing called Commerce in the world.‖155 While some have suggested that this was simply a ―tedious digression… [which] we need not suppose that Defoe‘s readers were actually interested [in],‖ others see his use of allegory as a testament to the

149 Review, IV, 15a. 150 Review, III, 362b. 151 Ibid., 362b. 152 For an informative discussion of ―Daniel Defoe and the Baconian legacy‖, see Vickers (1996), 55-80. 153 Simon Schaffer, "Defoe's Natural Philosophy and the Worlds of Credit," in Nature Transfigured: Science and Literature, 1700-1900, J. Christie and S. Shuttleworth, eds., (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989), 17. 154 There are a few instances in the Review where Defoe uses an allegorical genealogy to describe the relations between abstract concepts. Late in volume five, for example, Defoe develops a far simpler genealogy of Trade. For a discussion of Lady Credit‘s place in this genealogy, see Latta (2002). 155 Review, VIII, 153a. (Emphasis my own). 36 innovativeness of his journalistic techniques.156 It would seem reasonable to assume the latter, as the narrative form of the genealogy would not only have been familiar to his readers but would have framed the discussion in a form that traditionally dealt with moral claims. Furthermore, as a Christian who had trained for the ministry, Defoe was undoubtedly familiar with the narrative structures of the Old Testament (a text replete with genealogies), and thus could have been influenced by biblical techniques of representation.157 He might also have been interested in pedigree and lineage, as many in early-modern England were at this time.158 Given that genealogy was central for ―various forms of legitimation‖ in early modern England, Defoe‘s use of this narrative form in describing the origins of commerce can be seen as a way of legitimizing this pursuit as morally favourable, in spite of its seemingly conflicted origins in man‘s evil nature.159 Defoe also draws a connection between genealogy and history. In Defoe‘s thought, the world was divided into ―Things and Persons,‖ and while the ―Hera‘ds, Antiquaries, and Historians‖ give accounts ―of Persons by Genealogy and History,‖ Defoe will ―take the same Method,‖ providing his reader with a ―Genealogy of Things, as they do of Men, the History of them will follow.‖160 While traditionally, historical narratives provided accounts of the actions of individual men, Defoe was investigating the origins of shared customs, manners and habits. His genealogy of commerce was a means to provide readers‘ with a ―History of [Commerce’s] Family and Relations‖ in order to explain the various relations between the seemingly incompatible moral qualities which motivated

156 John R. Moore, ―Defoe and the South Sea Company,‖ Boston Public Library Quarterly 5 (1953), 178. On the one hand, Moore argues that the genealogy was only intended to fill space while Defoe waited for a confirmation from Harley regarding his plans for the South Sea trade. On the other hand, Paula R. Backscheider argues that the use of genealogy is both testament to his originality and also ―provides an example of the continued impact of such allegorical tales… points to the symbolic representations which Hogarth… later made visual.‖ See Backscheider (1981), 90. 157 For an idea of the many examples of Defoe making reference to the Old Testament in the Review, see Payne (1948), 110-111. In his introduction to the Review, Secord notes the fact that Defoe ―was well instructed in Scripture. The King James Bible is the most obvious influence upon Defoe‘s style.‖ Review, I, xv. 158 Woolf, (2003), pp. 99-115. Helmut Heidenreich, editor, The Libraries of Daniel Defoe and Phillip Farewell: Olive Payne’s Sales Catalogue (1731) (Berlin: Hildebrand, 1970), xviii. See also Olive Payne, Librorum ex bibliothecis Philippi Farewell, D.D. et Danielis de Foe… London, 1731. Along with the many volumes of historiography listed in Payne‘s catalogue of Defoe‘s library, there were numerous ―works of genealogy.‖ For example, listed in the catalogue were a copy of Sandford‘s Genealogical History of the Kings of England and a copy of Histoire Genealogique de Maieurs d’Abbeville, both examples of an interest in lineage and pedigree. 159 Woolf (2003), 113. 160 Review, VIII, 157a. 37 mankind to trade. The main point of Defoe‘s genealogy was to make these conflicting relations more comprehensible to his readership, and perhaps even to himself.161 Defoe begins the narrative with an introduction to the patriarch of Commerce’s lineage, Pride, and his forefathers Ambition and Violence. It is worth reflecting on the fact that Defoe located the origins of Commerce in Ambition, Violence and Pride, traditionally considered to be lusts of the flesh, but all of which had multiple connotations. Ambition, defined by Bailey as ―a Thirst after, or an immoderate Desire of Honour and Promotion,‖ was not necessarily a negative humour. As Bacon explains in his Essayes, while it has the potential to ―maketh Men Active, Earnest, Full of Alacritie, and Stirring,‖ if not checked it could then become ―Maligne and Venomous.‖162 Violence, normally assumed to mean inflicting ―injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property,‖ could also be positively connotated, in the sense of ―Eagerness, Earnestness.‖163 Pride (a synonym of vanity) is defined primarily as an excessively high opinion of oneself, which ―gives rise to a feeling… of superiority over others.‖164 This ―vice‖ had traditionally been considered a cardinal or deadly sin, and had been assigned the role of the original among them by certain religious traditions. But as with the other two patriarchs, Pride also has positive connotations, given that its Middle English root, proud, is derived from the Latin word ―prodest,‖ which means ―it is useful or advantageous.‖165 In drawing a relation between these ambiguous terms and the origins of commerce, it would seem that Defoe was trying to convey to his reader the notion that qualities traditionally considered to be sinful vices could also be an impetus for mankind to make improvements to their originally fallen condition. In Defoe‘s understanding,

161 Review, VIII, 153a, 170a. On numerous occasions throughout, Defoe begs his readers pardon and requests that they remain patient, for he claims that he was ―balancing‖ his own thoughts on matters. See, for examples, Review, I, 46b, 77a, 153b; VI, Preface [5a], 107b. 162 Nathan Bailey, An Universal English Etymological Dictionary:… The Third Edition… (London: 1731). Bailey‘s dictionary was selected because it was one of the dictionaries cited in Payne‘s catalogue (See Payne (1731), 25) and because it was ―the most popular and representative dictionary of the eighteenth century.‖ DeWitt Starnes and Gertrude Noyes, The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson, 1604- 1755 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1946), 107. While the third edition (1726) is the text cited in the catalogue, both it, the fourth edition (1728), and the expanded fifth edition (1731) will be referred to in this text. Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral… (London: 1673), 165. The 1673 edition of Bacon‘s Essayes is included in Payne‘s sales catalogue (See Payne (1731), 29. See also Heidenreich (1970), 70.) 163 Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online, http://dictionary.oed.com/. See also Bailey (1731). 164 OED Online. Bailey (1731). 165 Eric Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (New York: Macmillan, 1966), 530. 38 mankind‘s nature was full of ―Contradiction and Inconsistence,‖ as they became both ―Wiser and Wickeder together, and so make one Improvement of two.‖166 This process was made possible by the development of a ―Language of Trade‖ that had enabled the transformation of mankind‘s ―Vices‖ into ―our Virtues.‖167 Pride would marry a woman named Sloth (another of the cardinal sins, meaning ―sluggishness, idleness, indolence, laziness‖), and they would inherit a great estate from his forefathers.168 This estate would in turn be passed down to their progeny Necessity, who Defoe described as the ―Female Bastard of an Ancient Family.‖169 Necessity, another term fraught with multiple connotations, could mean both the ―state of a Thing that needs must be‖, and also ―Distress, Need, Poverty‖.170 The conceptual relation Defoe developed here seems to suggest that Defoe thought mankind‘s natural state was necessarily one of distress and poverty, characterized by unmitigated self-interest, ambition and violence.171 As the estate Necessity inherited from her forefathers had been gotten by ―Rapin, War, Treachery, and Blood, it could not therefore be expected to thrive much,‖ for as Defoe observed, citing a well-known English proverb, ―what is gotten over the Devil’s Back, will be spent under his Belly.‖172 Here again, Defoe would stress his belief that mankind‘s original condition was marked by their evil nature, as he associated it with the antithesis of the Christian notion of virtuousness, the Devil himself. As a result of the loss of her inherited wealth, Necessity would fall in with a group of beggars, one of whom

166 Review, VIII, 205a. 167 Review VI, 136a. 168 OED Online. Bailey (1731). 169 Review, VIII, 153b. 170 Bailey (1726). 171 J.R. Moore argues that Defoe, and mercantilists in general, incorporated ―the philosophy of Machiavelli and Hobbes,‖ extracting ―the concept of natural man, motivated by self-interest rather than by morality or religion.‖ Economics and the Fiction of Daniel Defoe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962), 10. Later in the volume eight, Defoe writes that the states of poverty and distress remove ―from the Soul, all Relation, Affection, Sense of Justice, and all the Obligations, either Moral or Religious, that secure one Man against another.‖ Review, VIII, 302b. 172 Review, VIII, 154a. "What is GOT over the Devil's back is spent under his belly," The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, F.P. Wilson, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 329. Wilson cites Ray‘s A Collection of English Proverbs, included in Payne‘s sales catalogue, and adds the clarificatory phrase ―what is improperly obtained is spent in reckless debauchery.‖ See also John Ray, A collection of English proverbs digested into a convenient method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion : with short annotations… (London: 1678), 126. For clarification, Ray cites the Latin proverb ―Male Parta, Male Dibabuntur. What is got by oppression or extortion is many times spent in riot or luxury.‖ 39 was named Poverty, ―a likely Fellow… [and] She Married him.‖173 They would in turn have two children, a son Invention and a daughter Witt.174 Their son Invention ―was Witty and promising,‖ and he would turn ―his Head, and his Hands too, to find out Ways to live,‖ resulting in his beginning ―to thrive and grow Rich.‖175 But what did Invention represent for Defoe? The fact that in the narrative he would go on to marry the daughter of a ―Famous Citizen of the World, call‘d Projector‖ is suggestive of what Defoe was insinuating.176 Invention implies both a ―finding out, [and] also a contrivance,‖177 and it was in this sense the discovery of useful knowledge in order to improve mankind‘s condition. A Projector, on the other hand, was ―one who projects or contrives any design,‖ and this could imply either the propagation of useful knowledge or the contrivance of deceitful schemes.178 Throughout the Review and in a number of his other writings, Defoe returns to this theme of the dual nature of the Projector and the Inventions he propagates, particularly when discussing the trade of the stock-jobber, as will be shown below. Invention and his family would then set about improving the world, and in doing so produced an ―abundance of good to their poor kindred—And all that had any Relation to their Mother Necessity, or their Father Poverty, were the better for them.‖179 He and his wife would have a number of sons; Industry the eldest, followed by Ingenuity, Honesty, and several others, all of whom shared the good-natured temper of their father, and it was through their example that they ―set all the world to work,‖ doing much to eliminate the ―Misery Mankind seem‘d to be born to‖ in their natural state.180

173 Review, VIII, 154a. 174 Woodes Rogers, in his account of Alexander Selkirk‘s (one of the possible inspirations for Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe) discovery on the island of Juan Fernandez, says ―We may perceive by this Story the Truth of the Maxim, That Necessity is the Mother of Invention.‖ Woodes Rogers, ―Account of Alexander Selkirk‘s Solitary Life on Juan Fernandez Island for Four Years and Four Months,‖ in Robinson Crusoe: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticisms, Michael Shinagel, ed., (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994), 235. 175 Review, VIII, 154a. 176 Ibid., 154a. 177 Bailey (1726). Interestingly, Bailey expands this definition in the 1736 edition, adding that invention is a thing that is ―somewhat peculiar in a man‘s genius, which leads him to the discovery of things that are new.‖ 178 Bailey (1726). 179 Review, VIII, 154a. 180 Ibid, 154a-b. 40

Industry, derived from the Latin term industria, in early-modern usage primarily implied ―Pains-taking, Labour, Diligence.‖181 According to one early English proverb, industry was the right-hand of fortune, whereas frugality (a synonym for parsimony) was the left.182 This proverb is indicative of the central role thought to be played by industry, in the sense of industriousness (―as a synonym for diligence‖183), in the creation of wealth. In essence, it was the diligent application to one‘s labour that allowed for the accumulation of wealth, and in Defoe‘s system this was one of the fundamental characteristics required for the expansion of trade and the improvement of mankind‘s condition. Industry would marry the daughter of Old Labour, Parsimony (meaning ―Sparingness, thriftiness, Good husbandry.‖184) and ―their Posterity‖ would ―Improve‖ and ―Enrich‖ the world, ―the Progress they and their diligent Race‖ having made thus greatly ―[Improving] Mankind.‖185 Industry and Parsimony would have a number of children, including their sons Ploughman, Grazier, Miner, Gardiner, and a daughter named Dary. As suggested by their names, this line diligently ―apply‘d themselves to Country Work,‖ indicating that in Defoe‘s thought, both diligent application to one‘s labour and frugality were essential characteristics for mankind, particularly in the domain of agriculture.186 The second male descendant in Invention’s line was Ingenuity. While this term could be construed in two ways, the first associated with ingeniousness, implying ―quick- witted, full of wit or Invention,‖ the second associated with ingenuousness, implying ―Freedom, Frankness, Sincerity,‖ in this context it would seem likely that Defoe was using the term in the former sense.187 Ingenuity would employ ―his Time in the study of Mechanick Arts,‖ which are defined by Bailey as the ―Handicrafts, in which the Labour

181 Bailey (1731). 182 Ray (1678), 14. 183 Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (London: Flamingo, 1987), 165. 184 Bailey (1726). 185 Review, VIII, 154b. 186 Ibid, 154b. J.A. Downie draws an interesting ―link between empire and industry… crucial to Defoe‘s world view. His novels preach the Protestant ethic, right enough, as the white, Anglo-Saxon hero is seen taming the profusion of nature so that it becomes, in Defoe‘s favourite phrase, a ―Planted Garden.‖‖ J.A. Downie, ―Defoe, Imperialism, and Travel Books Reconsidered,‖ in Critical Essays on Daniel Defoe, Roger D. Lund, ed., (New York: G.K. Hall, 1997), 92. 187 Bailey (1726). 41 of the Hands is requisite, as well as the Study of the Brain.‖188 Manufacturing was, in Defoe‘s system, a fundamental element in trade, as it provided England with the exports needed to draw in wealth from other nations. Ingenuity would in turn marry a ―most accomplish‘d Lady, tho‘ not of noble extract herself, yet she has been the Original to Nobility to others… her name was Diligence.‖189 The quality of diligence implied taking ―great Care, Carefulness,‖ and this was a manner of acting that Defoe would actively promote to his readership.190 These two would, like the other members of their family, set about making ―vast Improvements in the World… in order to Propagate and improve Things for the good of Posterity.‖191 Together Ingenuity and Diligence would have three sons; Handicraft, Manufacture and Barter, all of whom would play pivotal roles in the improvement of mankind‘s condition. Handicraft, the eldest, was ―a mechanick, yet a very ingenious person… [who had] a truly Mathematical Head.‖192 He would leave several sons, the oldest Wright (―bred a carpenter,‖ was the progenitor of many trades), the second Smith (the progenitor of gold, silver and brass smiths) and the youngest, Engineer. It is made abundantly clear from the composition of his lineage that Handicraft, defined as the ―working Trades,‖ would have a profound impact upon the world, specifically by making the ingenious inventions which would improve the material conditions of life for mankind available in significant quantities.193 Manufacture, who married Spinster (the daughter of Farmer and granddaughter of Ploughman), was the progenitor of textile manufacture and the spinning of yarn, a sector of central importance for the British economy during this period, as woollens were one of their primary exports.194 Finally, Barter ―apply‘d himself to buying and selling‖ and travelled ―very much abroad… and so by fetching and carrying from place to place… he made great Gain.‖195 Barter would leave only one son, Trade, ―the famous progenitor of the present great Family that bear

188 Bailey (1731). 189 Review, VIII, 154b. 190 Bailey (1731). 191 Review, VIII, 155a. 192 Ibid, 155a. 193 Bailey (1731). 194 Review, VIII, 155a. 195 Ibid., 155a-b. 42 his Coat of Arms.‖196 From Trade ―proceeded [an] abundance of Useful Knowledge; the Vertues and Uses of many unknown Things, the Value of Jewels, the Price and Use of Money, Shipping, and all the Improvements of Navigation… War seems to be wholly Employ‘d for their protection.‖ Here Defoe emphasized the ―Useful Knowledge‖ that trade provided, particularly the use of money and overseas navigation, as these were two foundations of international trade. Trade’s two ―famous‖ uncles, Handicraft and Manufacture, would eventually be ―brought to be entirely depending on him,‖ again suggestive of the centrality of both domestic and international trade in Defoe‘s system.197 Trade would marry Punctual (the eldest daughter of Probity, who was the first born of Trade’s uncle Honesty) and have three children; two sons, Merchant (who would sire twins, Navigation and Exchange), Shop-keeper, and a daughter, Credit, a ―Beautiful Lady, but the strangest, coy, humorsome Thing that ever was heard of.‖198 This latter character would come to play an exceptionally important role in England‘s commerce, as will be shown below. The third son in Invention’s line was Honesty, a moral characteristic of central importance for Defoe‘s schema of trade. Both ―sincerity‖ and ―uprightness‖ were fundamental in trade, particularly when the exchange involved one party extending credit to another, for these relationships were necessarily based on trust and ―Honour of Trade.‖199 Throughout his writings on trade in the Review, Defoe would continually reaffirm this belief that honesty was absolutely fundamental for the development of trade and the increase in the nation‘s wealth, particularly in a system which was reliant on various forms of credit. Witt, defined by Bailey as ―one of the faculties of the rational soul, Genius, Fancy, Aptness for any thing, cunningness,‖ was the second branch in Necessity’s lineage.200 Witt and her ―Numerous Progeny of Bastards‖ would, in Defoe‘s narrative, come to undermine the work of Invention’s line though, as Witt would prove to be: ―a meer Jilt, turn‘d common Whore, and her numerous, tho‘ Spurious Race, has filled the World with Fops and Beggars, who like the Drones in the Hive starve and help to undoe

196 Ibid., 155b. 197 Ibid., 155b. 198 Ibid., 156a. 199 Bailey (1726). Bailey defines credit as ―[Creditum, L.] Belief, Esteem, Reputation, Trust; Authority, Interest, Power.‖ Bailey (1731). 200 Bailey (1731). 43

Mankind, and in spight of all the Application of her Honest and Prosperous Relations, the Posterity of her Brother Invention, she fills the World with Misery, Poverty, Woe, and Wickedness.‖201

While the connotations of Witt in this instance are negative, there are other, positive uses of the term in the Review. For example, in commenting on the Spectator, Defoe praises the author not only for his ―Learning and Wit,‖ but especially for having applied it to ―the true Ends for which they are given viz. the Establishing Vertue, in, and the Shameing Vice out of the World.‖202 Thus wit could be a positive characteristic when applied virtuously. In another instance, Defoe relates a satirical anecdote about the dilution of Portuguese wine by British merchants with what was known as ―Home-Growth‖ (a mixture of turnip juice, cider, etc), closing the story with the line, ―the Boy has learn‘d to add some Wit to his Honesty, and now makes as good a Cellar-Man as his Master did.‖203 This tension between honesty and wit is indicative of the larger tension between Defoe‘s understandings of moral virtue and man‘s evil or fallen nature. The boy was at first too honest, and thus exhibited a certain naïveté about the practices of the wine trade, but by mixing in some cunning into his practice, Defoe ironically suggests that the boy was becoming more adept at his trade. Here wit is connotated in both a positive and a negative sense, suggestive of the dual-natured reactions this attribute could evoke in mankind. Defoe‘s genealogy of Commerce provides a valuable glimpse into the difficulties that arose for him and his contemporaries when private vices were transformed into public virtues.204 These transformations gave rise to many seemingly unanswerable questions, as they were forced to contemplate ―a world in which signifiers‖ could ―lose their meaning.‖205 Vices such as Pride, Ambition, and Violence had been transformed from reprehensible to productive qualities, albeit only when in conjunction with the tempering of virtuous qualities Invention, Industry, Ingenuity, and Honesty. Defoe was

201 Review, VIII, 156b. Defoe uses the analogy of the beehive and drones on numerous occasions to describe the unproductive members of society, an increasingly proverbial trope of this period. Interestingly, Mandeville, in his The Fable of the Bees, addresses many of the same themes as Defoe, particularly the advantages for society of mankind‘s sinful qualities and the necessity of honour in trade. See Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits… (London: 1714). 202 Ibid., 329a. 203 Ibid., 310a. 204 In Defoe‘s words, ―A private Mischief for a publick Good.‖ Review, VIII, 215b. 205 Clark (2007), 95. 44 very concerned with the tempering of the nation‘s vices, particularly with respect to the domain of trade. As will be exhibited in the following section, the uncertainty that arose as a result of the shift to a system based on immaterial forms of wealth would only further complicate these transformations. *************** In his extensive writings on trade in the Review, Defoe would struggle to provide a simple, succinct definition of the term, in large part because for him, it was first and foremost a mystery, a subject of investigation which could ―never be completely discover‘d or understood.‖206 And while he offered his readers a practical, operational definition of trade as ―a general Exchange of the Necessaries and Utensils of Life, from and between Person and Person, Place and Place,‖ throughout the Review Defoe struggled with this definition because trade‘s many mysterious qualities necessarily complicated his understanding.207 What was Defoe trying to convey to his reader in using the term mystery to characterize trade? In early eighteenth-century usage mystery had a variety of theological and non-theological meanings, ranging from the mysteries of a particular trade (as in The Vintner’s Mystery Display’d: or, the Whole Art of the Wine Trade Laid Open…208) to something that was hidden from or beyond human comprehension, in the sense of the mysteries of nature and the divine.209 It would seem that in Defoe‘s understanding, trade was not something that only a few initiates truly understood but rather was impossible for anyone to comprehend in its entirety, given that this was an exceedingly complex subject matter which could not be reduced, as some of his contemporaries assumed, to a ―common pair of Weights and Measures,‖ but rather must be understood in its ―Infinite Varieties, Niceties and Originals.‖210 These ―Infinite‖ complications could never be fully grasped in large part because in Defoe‘s understanding, their origins were located in ―God, in the Order of Nature.‖211 As Rodney Baine concisely explains, Defoe firmly

206 Review, III, 503a. 207 Review, III, 5a. 208 Anon., The vintner’s mystery display’d: or, the whole art of the wine trade laid open. In which are the necessary directions for rightly managing all ... (London: 1705?). 209 Mystery, as defined by Bailey, is both ―a thing conceal‘d, a Secret not easy to be comprehended; also an Art or Trade.‖ Bailey (1726). 210 Review, I, 365a. 211 Review, [IX], 107a. 45 believed that ―the supernatural permeates the natural life,‖ and that God, ―through his general and special providence[,] impinges upon, enters into, and guides, or tries to guide man.‖212 For example, in writing on the ―believing [of] things Supernatural,‖ Defoe admits that a man‘s losing his hair ―may very well be allow‘d to be a Judgement of Providence, to shew the Power of an Invisible hand.‖213 This invisible power of providence was of particular consequence in the domain of trade, given that ―Providence [had] adapted nature to trade.‖214 In order to exhibit this to his reader, Defoe cites two telling examples. The first concerns the ―Law of Gravity‖ and the fact that it made the navigation of the seas possible, an absolute necessity, in Defoe‘s system, for the expansion of commerce and trade. By keeping water in its rightful place in the seas, the ―Law of Gravity‖ preserved ―the communication of one part of the World with another,‖ laying the ―Foundation of Commerce, which would otherwise be altogether Impracticable and Impossible.‖215 Thus, ―obedient nature,‖ true to the ―Laws‖ established by divine providence, played a fundamental role in creating the conditions necessary for trade. The second example Defoe provides relates to how providence made ―the useful part of Creatures Tame,‖ whereas the ―less needful Part are left Wild.‖216 Here again, it was because of the ―Infinite Superintendency of Invisible Providence‖ that the oxen, the horse, the sheep and the dog submitted to mankind and was ―adapted to his Use.‖217 It was plain to Defoe that God, with the ―Infinite Foreknowledge of Divine Wisdom,‖ had adapted the natural world to commerce and trade, and as such, it was natural for mankind engaged in these activities.218 In addition, for Defoe, Providence not only ―concurrs in, and seems to have prepared the World for Commerce,‖ but also ―seems to expect trade should be preserved, Encouraged, and extended by all Honest and Prudent methods.‖219 Thus for Defoe, engaging in trade was not only beneficial in that it enriched the people and the nation materially, but was also an activity which was wholly in accordance with God‘s plan for mankind, as it enriched the people and the nation morally as well. In

212 Rodney Baine, Defoe and the Supernatural (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969), 5. 213 Review, I, 90a. 214 Review, [IX], 107a. 215 Ibid., 107a-b. 216 Ibid., 107b. 217 Ibid., 108a 218 Ibid., 108b. 219 Ibid., 108a. 46 addition, mankind‘s actions in the domain of trade were to be guided by the moral virtues of honesty and prudence, both qualities being absolutely fundamental for his system. While trade had always been, and would always be, mysterious, this descriptor was particularly salient in Defoe‘s day. Commonly accepted notions of trade had undergone dramatic changes in the period following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, as a number of ―seemingly immaterial‖ forms of wealth had come into being and had been ―thrust into the center of economic activity.‖220 More specifically, in the years leading up to the initiation of a South Sea trade, Defoe was increasingly concerned with ―signs losing their meaning‖ and the ―way in which language… was being emptied of any correspondence with people‘s actions.‖221 For Defoe, these changes were matters of considerable consequence, but much to his discontent, the new notions of trade that had been introduced were ―so much pretended to, and so little understood‖ by his contemporaries.222 As Defoe explained in late September 1711, soon after the founding of the South Sea Company: ―New Notions, even of Trade itself, possess now the Minds of the People in all Parts, differing from those understood by their Ancestors… and differing from Reason; so that we do not think of Trade as we us‘d to, nor act in Trade as we us‘d to act.‖223

Many of the elements fundamental in the domain of trade, such as money and credit, were undergoing significant modification during this period, but had not yet been stabilized by the development of new, commonly accepted definitions and meanings. This instability affected not only the realm of thought, but also the realm of action, as uncertainty about the laws governing the functioning of these elements affected the ways in which contemporaries interacted with each other in the domain of trade. While trade was certainly characterized by its many mysterious qualities, in Defoe‘s system it was also exceedingly useful for both the ―People‖ and the ―Nation.‖ As he described it: ―Trade sorts the People, it plants them in Numbers and Bodies, from whence comes Union and Wealth, and from thence Strength and Power, and all the Appendices which

220 Dror Wahrman, The Making of the Modern Self (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 209-210. 221 Clark (2007), 97-99. Clark claims that ―oaths of political allegiances, abjurations and political addresses provided the ‗best illustration‘ that language had been overrun with non-signification. The oath to God had been hijacked ‗to serve Parties and publick interests.‘‖ 222 Review, I, preface. 223 Review, VIII, 326b. 47

serve to make Nations great… England, now in a Way to be the greatest Nation in the World, is wholly rais‘d by Trade…‖224

Trade was, in Defoe‘s estimation, the ―life of this Nation,‖ and was wholly necessary for the continued prosperity of the British ―People,‖ for they could ―no more live without it, than without bread, nor can [they] have bread without it.‖225 By ―People‖ Defoe here is referring to the ―Numbers of the labouring and industrious‖ individuals in Britain ―whose Application to Trade and Manufactures are the Wealth and Strength of a Nation,‖ excluding from his definition those ―Drones in the Hive, who live on the said Labour and Industry of the other.‖226 The latter group were both ―Passive‖ and ―good for nothing,‖ as they had ―no share in the Active Part of Life, and [left] no Notice to Posterity that ever they [had] been here.‖227 In Defoe‘s system then, it was the active ―People‖ in society who were the ―Subjects of Universal Commerce,‖ as their ―useful‖ activity ―in their Proper Sphere‖ contributed to the ―General Advantage of the whole.‖228 The link Defoe draws between the activities of the labouring ―People‖ and the wealth and power of the nation is summarised as such: ―People are indeed the Essential of Commerce, and the more People, the more Trade; the more Trade, the more Money; the more Money, the more Strength; and the more Strength, the greater the Nation.‖229

As the number of ―People‖ in Britain increased, ―thousands‖ came to live in the nation, far ―more than the land [could] maintain,‖ but by the ―Infinite and incessant Circulation‖ of goods, it became possible for the ―People‖ to specialize in ―what we call EMPLOYMENT or Labour.‖230 Through this process of labour specialization, the British ―People‖ came to depend on one another for both the ―Necessaries of Life,‖ meaning ―food, housing and clothing;‖ and the ―Pleasures and Conveniences of Life,‖ which included ―a vast Variety of the luxuriant Demands.‖231 This belief in the interdependence of the nation‘s ―People‖ underlies Defoe‘s thoughts on trade, as he maintained that ―GAIN,‖ the primary goal of trade, should be advantageous for both the individual, and

224 Review, IV, 23a. 225 Review, IV, 23a. 226 Review, VI, 135a. 227 Ibid., 135b. 228 Ibid., 135b. 229 Ibid., 135b. 230 Review, IV, 23a, III, 5a, VI, 134a. 231 Review, VI, 136a. 48 more importantly, for the nation.232 Individuals, motivated by selfish passions such as pride and ambition, required the freedom to pursue personal gain, as trade was thought to flourish ―best under liberty,‖ but the end goal was to increase ―public wealth,‖ which was seen as a ―prerequisite of national security.‖233 In addition to the ―People,‖ the other fundamental elements in Defoe‘s system of trade were money and its equivalent, credit. As Defoe described it in an earlier tract: ―Trade in general is Built upon, and supported by two essential and principal Foundations, Viz. Money and Credit, as the Sun and the Moon… alternately Enlighten and Envigorate the World, so these two Essentials maintain and preserve our Trade…‖234

Money was one of the essential elements in Defoe‘s system of trade because it was the ―great Medium of Conveyance‖ by which both domestic and international trade was made possible.235 In describing the foundational role played by money, Defoe goes so far as to maintain that ―in the Language of Trade, Money is the Alphabet that forms the Sound.‖236 However, it was also an element that had mysterious qualities, as implied by Defoe‘s description of it as the charm ―that unlock[ed] the cabinet, unscrew[ed] Nature.‖237 This tension between its usefulness and its mysteriousness is important, because it indicates the unsettled nature of contemporary definitions of money, particularly the ―new, chaotic, paper and wooden currency.‖238 Money, particularly in these new paper forms, was an especially unstable signifier of wealth and had much in common in this respect with the new forms of credit that were coming into use during this period, such as bank notes and bills of exchange. Even metallic coinage, which was solidly rooted in the natural world, was in certain ways mysterious, given the providential origins of its usage, as will be shown below.

232 Payne (1947), 78. Review, VI, 119b. Another indicative example of this was his description of the Royal Africa Company as a ―Noble, Capital and National Undertaking.‖ Drawing a link here between the quality of being noble and the serving of the national interest, this statement clearly reinforces the claim that for Defoe, these national interests were paramount. Review, VIII, 122a. 233 Istvan Hont, Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation State in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 2005), 57. Indicative of his conception of man‘s motivations in trade, Defoe sarcastically writes that while men sometimes talked ―of other trifles, such as Liberty, Religion and I know not what,‖ what motivated men most was the pursuit of wealth. Review, IV, 423b. 234 Daniel Defoe, Villainy of Stock-Jobbers Detected… (London: 1701), 1. 235 Review, IV, 423a. 236 Review, III, 16a. Defoe also calls money the ―mighty center of Human action,‖ the ―great rudder the world steers by,‖ and the ―vast hinge the Globe turns on.‖ Review, IV, 423b. 237 Review, IV, 423a. 238 John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (London: Cresset Press, 1960), 18. 49

Prior to ―Universal Commerce‖ becoming ingrained in mankind‘s ways, barter was the most common form of exchange. It was obvious to Defoe, however, that barter would become increasingly inadequate as the number of people (and by extension, the number of exchanges occurring) in the market increased.239 As a result, there was a necessity for ―something always ready, that every body will accept… something that, as Solomon says, will Answer all things.‖240 This ―something‖ was money, a substance endowed with the capability to ―bring all matters, between Man and Man, to a stated equality.‖241 And from where did this capability originate? While Defoe recognized that money did not necessarily have ―an intrinsick value in it self,‖ the use of metallic specie as the ―general denominating Article in the World‖ was seemingly determined by ―Nature.‖242 For although Defoe claims it was demonstrable that ―imaginary Worth‖ was based on ―Custom, Opinion and Usage,‖ he goes on to conclude that with ―Time and Experience,‖ ―Nature‖ had prompted mankind to a ―General Agreement‖ on metallic specie because of the particular qualities of metals, such as their ―General Scarcity, Purity of Parts, Solidity, Durableness, Beauty and Usefulness.‖243 Of all the metals, gold and silver in particular were ―secure in their own intrinsick Worth,‖ and because these substances had numerous ―sublime qualities and Vertues Superiour‖ to all others, they would become the measure by which all inferior species were valued. Gold and silver were, in Defoe‘s estimation, the ―finest, purest, and most incorruptible‖ of all metals and further, they preserved ―their Beauty under all the Accidents of Time and Nature‖ beyond all others as well.244 For Defoe, the fact that even in ―nations that had never corresponded with Europe,‖ such as Japan and China, these metals were valued above all others and in turn, had been ―made [the] Arbiters of their Commerce,‖ was further indication that ―Nature‖ had universally prompted mankind to

239 Review, III, 14a. 240 Ibid., 14b. 241 Ibid., 13b 242 Ibid., 9a, 21b. Further on in this volume, Defoe states that ―Gold and Silver, innocent in their kind, and useful in their Nature, are adapted by Providence for the proper Use Trade has employ‘d them in.‖ Emphasis added. Ibid., 16a. 243 Ibid., 10a-b. To make his argument that imaginary worth was based on custom, Defoe cites the use of the cowry shell (a ―Toy… fit [in England] only for the use of our Children‖) as specie by the African groups that the British traded with, explaining that for them, gold was a mere ―useless trifle‖ of little value. This statement also clearly exhibits Defoe‘s belief that Africans were uncivilized, exposing his Eurocentric view of the world. 244 Ibid., 10b. 50 use these metals in exchange.245 Once gold and silver had, by their ―Native Dignity,‖ come to be the ―General Medium of Commerce,‖ next these metals would receive ―the Honour of a Stamp, from the Authority of the several Countries to which it belong‘d.‖246 While the minting of coinage was originally a means of ―Appropriating it to the use of that particular place,‖ as specie came to be increasingly ―Transmitted or Negociated form Place to Place,‖ these stamps would also serve as a means of ascertaining the metallic content (given that the ―Allays and Mixtures‖ used in minting varied from place to place), and thus the exchange value, of foreign coinage.247 As the volume of foreign trade increased, so to would the circulation of foreign coinage, further reinforcing its usefulness in trade. As Defoe explained, again indicating his bullionist leanings, when a nation‘s exports of the ―Growth of their Soil, or Manufacture of their People‖ exceeded their imports, money was the substance by which this imbalance could be brought to equality.248 Because of this increase in the circulation of coinage, an ―abundance of People‖ would come to talk about the movements in the rates of exchange between currencies, but Defoe maintained that ―very few thoroughly‖ understood how these rates were determined.249 As a result of this limited understanding of the ―Infinite Variations and Inscrutable Niceties‖ of rates of exchange, the ―Real Value of Species‖ would increasingly become a ―Slave to the Projecting Broker.‖250 This would endanger the stability of the nation‘s trade, and was thus, in Defoe‘s understanding, completely unacceptable. The operations of the mechanisms of foreign exchange were not the only mysterious aspects of money. Given that money was a ―Vehicle of Providence,‖ it was in many respects a mysterious element, much like trade itself.251 According to the ―Poets, especially in ancient time,‖ money was a catalyst of sorts, which could move ―the Passions; [turn] Hatred into Love, and Love into Hatred… [make] Knaves honest Men,

245 Ibid., 14a-b. Defoe goes on to exclaim that ―Even those Nations of America, whose Ignorance of things was so gross… found out the Beauties and Excellencies of Gold and Silver… and Exchang‘d them, as the Essential Medium of their Trade.‖ 246 Review, III, 14b. 247 Ibid., 14b. 248 Ibid., 9a. 249 Ibid., 14b. 250 Ibid., 14b. 251 Review, IV, 423b. 51 and honest Men Knaves.‖ But Defoe would not take the ―Liberty‖ that these poets did in exclaiming ―against Money, and [cursing] the very Metal.‖252 Defoe would not do this because, as he understood it, money was a ―Harmless passive Element; the Seeds of Crime are in the Man, not in the Metal; not in the Substance, but in the Application.‖253 It was mankind‘s evil nature, the ―Taint and Corruption of Man‘s Mind,‖ and not money, that led to them to call ―Evil Good, [and] Good Evil.‖254 Money was a catalyst of sorts, as in the pursuit of it, mankind would run all sorts of ―hazards‖ and perform all sorts of ―villanies,‖ but the blame was not to be put on the substance, but rather on mankind‘s nature, as the selfish pursuit of personal gain was an inherent quality in man.255 For Defoe, money would share many characteristics with its ―younger Sister‖ credit, particularly in their various paper forms which were increasingly exploited in England at the turn of the eighteenth century.256 Paper money, ―according to received economic theory,‖ was essentially credit, and thus the distinction between the two elements was quite flexible.257 As Defoe understood it, credit was both ―Stock, and Money, and every Thing,‖ indicating a crucial ambiguity in the distinctions between and definitions of these terms.258 Additionally, it is important to recognize that notions of credit were inseparable from notions of the ―Honour and Character‖ of persons, a relation which Defoe makes explicit in his discussion of insolvency, the ―Honour of Trade‖ and personal reputation. These matters of personal reputation were made public by the very nature of the traders collective engagement in the market, and this would pose a new set of questions and problems as well. In Defoe‘s words, credit was ―the great Mystery of this Age,‖ despite the fact that its use ―was already reasonably common in England by the middle of the seventeenth century.‖259 Modern scholars have written extensively on the ―epistemological unsettlement‖ which resulted from the greater reliance on the various forms of credit

252 Review, III, 15a-b. 253 Ibid., 15b-16a. Defoe goes on to write that ―Man is the Monster; the Devil lies in his Nature, not in the Oar; ‗tis the Heart, not the Mountains of Potosi, that contain all the Seeds of Mischief.‖ 254 Ibid., 15b-16a. 255 Review, IV, 423a. 256 For an informative discussion on Defoe‘s gendered language, see Latta (2002), 359-383. 257 Carswell (1960), 18. 258 Review, VI, 130a. In his Villainy of the Stock-Jobbers, Defoe wrote that ―Money raises Credit, and Credit in its turn is an Equivalent to Money‖ (emphasis added). Defoe (1701), 1. 259 Julian Hoppit, ―Attitudes to Credit in Britain, 1680-1790,‖ The Historical Journal 33 (1990), 306. 52 following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, describing them as ―a paradox… impalpable [phenomenon] measured in concrete ‗forms‘ of wealth,‖ which would ―[perplex] conventions of representation‖ and ―[subvert] commonplaces of truth.‖260 This interpretation is wholly in line with Defoe‘s understanding, given that he described credit as ―neither a soul nor a body… a being without matter, a substance without form.‖261 From this statement, it is clear to see that Defoe and his contemporaries found it challenging to comprehend how a sterile, immaterial substance could come to affect the material world through its self-reproduction.262 As Defoe put it, credit was ―all consequence and yet not the effect of a cause.‖263 Likening credit to the ―philosopher‘s stone,‖ another substance which had the power to upset commonplaces of truth, Defoe claimed that this mysterious element had the ―effectual power of transmutation,‖ as it could transform ―Paper into Money, and Money into Dross.‖264 In drawing on alchemical analogies and the language of metallurgy, Defoe was employing ―the idea that alchemy could be used to expand the money stock,‖ which was ―rather well-established during the seventeenth century,‖ in order to clarify the mysterious powers of credit for his readers in language that was somewhat familiar and increasingly accepted.265 Credit, like money, was also essential for the enhancement of British prosperity because its power to transform ―Paper into Money‖ had allowed ―Paper to pay Millions,‖ and had ―doubled or trebled our Specie by circulation,‖ thus increasing the total possible volume of trade in the nation and by extension, the nation‘s wealth and power.266 In Defoe‘s system, credit was subdivided into four categories, ―Petty‖, ―Personal,‖ ―Publick,‖ and ―Paper,‖ but only the latter three were beneficial for the nation. It should

260 Sandra Sherman, ―Promises, Promise: Credit as Contested Metaphor in Early Capitalist Discourse,‖ Modern Philology 94 (1997), 328. 261 Review, VI, 122a-b. 262 From the time of Aristotle up until the mid-sixteenth century, ―money begetting money‖ was considered a ―crime against nature‖ because money was thought to be ―inherently sterile.‖ See Ann Louise Kibbie, ―Monstrous Generation: The Birth of Capital in Defoe‘s Moll Flanders and Roxana,‖ PMLA 110 (1995), 1025. On the realness of credit‘s power in the material world, Sherman writes, ―If credit was projected fantasy, its entrepreneurial ―Motion‖ was real. This simultaneity of ontological states, expressed as exchange between imagination and force, configured credit as an unstable but vital phenomenon.‖ Sherman (1997), 328. 263 Ibid., 122a. Emphasis added. 264 Review, VI, 122b. The term ―Dross‖ is defined by Bailey (1731) as the ―Scum of Metals,‖ meaning the ―matter thrown off from metals in the process of melting.‖ OED Online. 265 Carl Wennerlind, ―Credit-Money as the Philosopher‘s Stone: Alchemy and the Coinage Problem in Seventeenth-Century England,‖ History of Political Economy 35 (2003), 234. 266 Review, VII, 214b. 53 be noted, however, that these categories were not mutually exclusive and often overlapped with one another, and with his conception and definition of money, as will be exhibited below. ―Petty Credit,‖ as defined by Defoe, was the buying of consumption goods, such as ―Cloths, Equipages, Furniture, and Food,‖ on credit.267 Defoe thought this type of credit was ―the Scandal of our People,‖ as it both impoverished the gentry and undermined ―Trade it self… [by] frequently ruin[ing] Tradesmen.‖268 The reason for it being problematic was the fact that ―Petty Credit‖ was extended in a market located at the ―End of Trade, so a Credit there tends not at all to the Encrease of Commerce, but to the Decrease of it.‖269 ―Petty Credit‖ was, in Defoe‘s system, detrimental in that it tied up part of the nation‘s credit, which could otherwise be put to more productive uses, in loans that added nothing to the nation‘s wealth.270 This was obviously in contradiction with his fundamental assumption that trade should benefit the nation most of all. By ―Personal Credit,‖ Defoe meant the sale of ―a Quantity of Goods‖ by one ―Tradesmen‖ to another, the creditor ―having Faith enough in [the] Character [of the debtor], as to his Trade, his Honesty, or his Substance, to believe [he] shall be paid, and so [is] content to give him Time.‖271 This type of credit was of fundamental importance for the nation, as its ―circulation nourishes every Part it passes through,‖ increasing the tradesmen‘s ―Room of Stock‖ and in turn, increasing the nation‘s overall wealth.272 As Defoe explained, ―Personal Credit‖ enabled ―a Tradesmen to do Wonders, to trade without a Stock, trust others with what is none of his own, and extend his Commerce to a hundred Times his Foundation.‖273 It enabled ―Wonders‖ because credit‘s circulation was ―Infinite,‖ an unbounded source of wealth that could continuously increase, given that it

267 Review, V, 519a. 268 Ibid., 519a. 269 Review, VI, 130b. 270 Interestingly, Adam Smith would also write against the extension of credit to consumers. In his opinion, ―The man who borrows in order to spend [on consumption] will soon be ruined, and he who lends to him will generally have occasion to repent of his folly. To borrow or to lend for such a purpose, therefore, is in all cases, where gross usury is out of the question, contrary to the interest of both parties.‖ An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, 1937), 333. 271 Review, V, 519b. 272 Review, VI, 130b. 273 Ibid., 131b. 54 was an immaterial substance not limited by the laws of material reality.274 In order to make this process comprehensible to his reader, Defoe provided an example in which ―a merchant is trusted with 100 l.‖ of goods, and in turn sells them to various manufacturers on credit. These manufacturers would then supply other merchants with their production (again, on credit), and within ―six Months… To all these [merchants and manufacturers] here is a Profit, and every Profit is an Encrease of Wealth to the general Stock.‖275 As long as these traders and manufactures honoured their obligations, this process could provide the British nation with the possibility of unlimited expansion in trade, and by extension, unlimited possibilities for the British nation‘s wealth and power. The ―Publick Credit‖ was, in Defoe‘s estimation, one of the most important developments of the Revolution of 1688, as it had made Britain a ―Nation of Wealth and Opulence,‖ without which Britain would ―return‖ to being a ―Nation of no consideration.‖276 He defined this form of credit as ―the borrowing of money by the Government on publick funds of interest, established by Parliament, and the People lending to the Government on those funds.‖277 According to Defoe, in this form ―Publick Credit‖ was also an alternative to taxation. Given that the government necessarily required funds to support its various operations, the British public had two alternatives, either lend money to the ―Parliamentary Funds‖ or ―prepare to pay such Taxes, as shall raise the Money wanted within every Year.‖278 The former alternative was, for Defoe, clearly the more favourable for the British public, as they stood to gain from the interest payments and could avoid the ―oppressive‖ burden of having their ―Bread… Beef… broad-Cloth and Wearing Apparel Tax‘d.‖ In addition, the risk of default on these loans was minimal, for as Defoe explained, ―you [the public] trust yourselves… you borrow of yourselves.‖279 It is useful at this point to note the distinctions Defoe makes between the ―publick credit‖ and the secondary trade in both stocks, funds, etc, when discussing the minimal risks associated with the ―publick credit.‖ As Defoe understood it, the ―buying and selling, alienating and transferring [of one‘s] Interest in these Funds and Loans, is no

274 Ibid., 131b. 275 Ibid., 130b-131a. 276 Review, VII, 470a. 277 Review, VIII, 282a. 278 Ibid., 282a-b. 279 Ibid., 282b. 55 part of the publick Credit at all.‖280 This secondary trade was sometimes confused with the ―publick credit‖ itself, but was more accurately described as the trade of ―Publick Stocks at the Market.‖281 This confusion, as shall be shown, allowed for the manipulation by stock-jobbers of both the ―publick credit‖ for political reasons and the secondary market in company and bank stocks for personal gains. Finally, ―Paper Credit,‖ the most ambiguous of Defoe‘s types of credit, was defined as the giving ―Notes at Demand, or Notes at Time, or Bills upon Interest for running Cash‖ by either ―Banks, Companies, Exchequers, publick Offices, Cash-keepers, Goldsmiths, or private Persons.‖282 This definition in many ways overlapped with the above mentioned definitions of ―Personal Credit‖ and ―Publick Credit.‖ It is important to note that this definition also overlapped with his definition money in certain respects. The rapid expansion of this new system of trade that was dependent on immaterial forms of wealth introduced new conceptual challenges for Defoe and his contemporaries, particularly with respect to ―commercial integrity.‖283 Derived from the Latin term creditum (to trust, believe), in eighteenth-century usage, credit was defined as both ―Belief, Esteem, Reputation, Trust‖ and the act of ―giv[ing] Credit or Trust to‖ someone or something.284 In the domain of trade, the term described the action of extending credit by a creditor, as in ―lend[ing] or trust[ing] another with Money or Goods.‖285 These definitions are emblematic of the early modern conceptions of credit, not simply as an anonymous contractual obligation supported by institutionalized enforcement mechanisms, but rather as a relationship based on personal reputation and trust between individuals. In Defoe‘s system of trade, it was imperative that the parties involved in any exchange abide by the customs and habits of ―punctual, fair performance of Contract and Compliance with Appointments.‖286 ―INSOVLENCY,‖ meaning the non-payment of one‘s debts, regardless of whether it was because the trader was not ―able, or otherwise knavish and not willing‖ to meet his obligations, was a real threat to British trade, as it

280 Ibid., 282a. 281 Ibid., 282b. 282 Review, V, 519b. 283 Sherman (1997), 328. 284 Bailey (1731). 285 Bailey (1731). 286 Review, VI, 131a. 56 undermined both the reputation of the insolvent trader and the confidence other traders had in the stability of a credit-based system of trade.287 In another of his allegorical genealogies, this one on the origins of Lady Credit, Defoe constructed a narrative based upon the characters Prudence and Vertue. The two sisters were each married, Prudence to Probity and Virtue to Wisdom. These sisters had, among other children, one daughter each, ―Vertues daughter was call‘d Reputation, and the daughter of Prudence was call‘d Credit.‖288 In drawing a familial relationship between these six terms, Defoe was asserting ―the essential relationship between reputation and credit as well as [credit‘s] necessary foundation in integrity and discernment.‖289 Defoe goes on to recount how both of these ―Young Ladies‖ were nursed ―by a popular Lady call‘d Fame‖ and under her tutelage, were bred into the ―most coy, reserv‘d, punctual Young Ladies that were ever seen.‖ 290 The two would, ―according to their own inclinations,‖ adopt ―two very different kind of appearances in the World, different in manner, tho‘ not in the nature of the Thing.‖291 Reputation would busy herself primarily ―about personal character, and the respective Attainments of Life, which we call Vertues—Such as Modesty, Integrity, and Decency of Behaviour, as also about acquired Vertues, such as Learning, Knowledge, Experience, and the like.‖292 These moral qualities would be of central importance for the merchant, as the ability to maintain the trust, and linked to this, the extension of credit by other merchants, was wholly dependent on their perception of his reputation. As Defoe allegorically explains it, like her cousin Credit, Reputation would be: ―constant where she is taken due care of, and decently used; but immediately flies if she be once injur‘d, and inexorably coy and obstinate, against all Entreaties or Mediation; as to a return, where she is once disobliged.‖293

The way for the trader to maintain his reputation was by exhibiting honour in his trading, making sure to abide by contracts and avoiding insolvency. These characteristics were essential to the maintenance of the public confidence in the paper-based credit system

287 Review, V, 520a. 288 Review, VII, 215a. Reputation, and the related term repute, were defined by Bailey as ―Fame, Report, Credit, Esteem;‖ suggestive of the definitional relationship between these concepts. 289 Backscheider (1981), 90. 290 Review, VII, 215a. 291 Review, VII, 215a. 292 Ibid., 215a. 293 Ibid., 215b. 57 which had become absolutely fundamental for the Britain‘s development, and if they were undermined, it could potentially ruin the nation. But much to Defoe‘s consternation, ―honour in Trade‖ was, ―Religion excepted,‖ the ―Thing‖ most in decline during this period, resulting in an increased prevalence of ―Tricking, Sharping, [and] Shuffling.‖294 The frequency of deceitful and abusive practices in trade would typically increase, according to Defoe, when the total volume of activity in trade declined (as it had in 1709- 1710, because of the war with France and Spain). The reason for his was because when there was a deceleration in trade, traders will move to ―support their affairs,‖ and in doing so they ―invade Right, encroach upon Justice, and Dishonour themselves.‖295 By their actions, these traders were not only destroying their personal reputation, but were also making ―war upon Trade itself,‖ undermining the basis of the nation‘s wealth and power, something that Defoe found wholly unacceptable.296 If there was one trade that Defoe thought was largely devoid of honour and virtue it was the mysterious ―Black Art‖ of stock-jobbing.297 Suggestive of Defoe‘s opinion of this trade was his accusation that those engaged in this activity were a ―Vermin never heard of before, Creatures not of Gods creating,‖ and his claim that this trade ―Sprung from the Corruption of National Honesty, and [was] vivify‘d by the contagious fermentation of the Publick Distempers.‖298 The trade itself was defined by Defoe as involving: ―The Subscribing vast Sums to any Fund, or the undertaking for great Sums, beyond the Capacity of the Subscribers, in order by these Subscriptions to Engross the Loan, that then all those that will come in afterward, may be oblig‘d to buy of these Nominal Subscribers, at an advanc‘d Price.‖299

Essentially, the stock-jobbers engrossed the price of an asset to well above its ―Intrinsick value‖ through the addition of what Defoe calls ―Air-Money‖ in order to sell them to other unwitting investors at a profit. Defoe calls this sort of money ―Air‖:

294 Review, VIII, 303a. 295 Ibid., 301a. 296 Ibid., 301a. 297 Review, I, 192a 298 Review, VI, 124a. 299 Review, VIII, 222b. 58

―for indeed it is no other, nay, and the worst Sort of Air too, for it is ten times a more convectible Element than that we breath in. ‗Tis an Element GOD never made, and ‗tis a trade he never bless‘d.‖300

The reason for this pursuit being unblessed by God and not of its creation was the fact that the sole purpose of this ―Modern Mischief,‖ was the enrichment of the stock-jobber himself, and because it afforded no ―real Advantage‖ to the British nation.301 These ―Lunacies‖ of Exchange-Alley were, in Defoe‘s opinion, of no ―real Advantage‖ because it would never be beneficial to have the ―Publick credit… lie so much at the Mercy of a Caprice of the People‖ given that the ―People‖ and their ―Humours‖ were subject to the influences of ―every Combination of Knaves, that make their Market of the publick Confusions.‖302 And while Defoe claims that commerce and trade had been undermined by a number of ―Plagues‖ in his time, he knew of none ―more fatal of late Years, than these two Stock-Jobbing and wagering.‖303 Employing another biological metaphor to explain this situation to his reader, Defoe maintained that while stock-jobbing had started off as a simple ―Feavour,‖ it had ―ripen‘d up to a plague‖ and carried with it ―a mortal, and I fear, an incurable Contagion.‖304 This plague had introduced a ―new Temper‖ amongst England‘s traders, making them ―Jealous of one another‖ and leading them to take ―all Men to be thieves.‖305 As Defoe expressively put it, this ―new Temper‖ would cause Britons to ―talk now in Trade, as Spaniards walk, with their Hands upon their Swords.‖306 Stock-jobbing, the ―new Corporation of Hell,‖ encouraged dishonesty in trade because it was based on the manipulation of the market through the employment of a ―double tongu‘d Devil,‖ the ―swiftest creature that ever had wings,‖ that ―Jade Rumour.‖307 The stock-jobbers, according to Defoe, used rumour to manipulate the markets by creating ―publick Confusions,‖ but this was a challenging phenomenon to

300 Review, VI, 119b-120a. 301 Review, VIII, 303a. 302 Review, VI, 122a. 303 Review, V, 425b. 304 Review, VIII, 325a. 305 Ibid., 303a. 306 Ibid., 303a. 307 Review, VIII, 301b, 305a. 59 articulate given its ―localized and fleeting‖ nature.308 Rumour, as defined by Bailey, was derived from the Latin term rumor and implied ―Report, Fame, Bruit, common Talk,‖ and was also linked to the term ―Rumoured‖, defined as being ―generally talk‘d of.‖309 This latter definition is indicative of an important quality of rumours, their publicness. Through the fabrication and dissemination of false news, Defoe claimed that the stock- jobbers were attempting to manipulate the public‘s expectations for their own personal gain, something he thought was not in the nation‘s best interest. *************** There are a number of key themes in this reading of the Review that should be highlighted. First and foremost is the centrality of mystery in Defoe‘s conception of commerce and trade. This mysteriousness is thoroughly interlinked with his belief that providence played an active role in the physical world, what he calls the ―Power of an Invisible hand,‖ guiding mankind and nature in all domains. As such, for Defoe human agency was inherently limited by this ethereal power of providence. The mystery of nature could be tamed, but only in a limited way, as mankind‘s reason could never comprehend the infinite mystery of the divine. There is a tension in Defoe‘s writings, however, because he also recognizes that there is room for mankind to act in the world, particularly in the social realm. The motivations that led mankind to exchange with one another, such as necessity, pride and ambition, could have both positive and negative effects, leading Defoe to prescribe certain moral qualities and principles as both necessary and useful for guiding mankind‘s actions, such as honesty, integrity, frugality, ingenuity, etc. By acting in accordance with these qualities and principles, and tempering the negative aspects of pride, ambition, etc, mankind would come to increase the wealth of both the individual and the collective, a unit that Defoe calls the ―British Nation.‖ Defoe‘s discussions of commerce and trade in the Review also seem to suggest that for him, the study of these matters were in a certain sense the study of natural phenomena. For example, in Defoe‘s conception of things, trade was in many ways made possible by the laws of nature, such as the law of gravity, which allowed for oceanic navigation and by extension, overseas trade. This reading of Defoe‘s use of language speaks to an

308 Jean-Noel Kapferer, Rumors: Uses, Interpretations, and Images (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1990), 203. 309 Bailey, (1731). 60 argument made by Margaret Schabas in her work The Natural Origins of Economics. In reference to Foucault‘s ―claim that the concept of wealth was a representation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,‖ Schabas argues instead that wealth was: ―conceived of in hard physical terms [by contemporaries, and]… only later, in the mid- to late nineteenth century, did it become a non-material entity, and thus… a representation…Wealth went, not from being a representation to an object, but the other way around.‖310

It seems possible that for contemporaries such as Defoe, the wealth was conceived of in both physical terms and as a representation, as is the case with his definition of money. According to Defoe, money was both a tangible, physical substance, in that it was composed of gold or silver, and also a representation, in that it had certain ―sublime qualities‖ derived from nature and providence which made money, ―as Solomon says,‖ the answer to all things.311 This duality in the nature of Defoe‘s conception of wealth and the related notions of trade, credit, money, etc, definitely suggest that the significant ―epistemological unsettlement‖ of this period needs to be taken into consideration when studying the history of the South-Sea Bubble. It is undeniable that Defoe was a sophisticated ―economic thinker,‖ and thus if he was struggling to comprehend this new credit-based system of international trade, then his contemporaries who didn‘t share this sophistication in thought must have found this new credit-based system of international trade very difficult to comprehend.

310 Margaret Schabas, The Natural Origins of Economics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 18. 311 Review, III, 10b, 14b. 61

Chapter Three—―Shaping Expectations‖: Defoe, the Review and the South-Sea Trade The South Sea Company, founded in the autumn of 1711, came into being during a period marked by significant uncertainty with respect to the domain of commerce and trade, as a close reading of the language Defoe used to describe these matters in the Review reveals. Defoe‘s writings in the Review show that he was keenly aware of how difficult it was to think about and understand the serious conceptual challenges inherent in Britain‘s growing dependence on unstable paper-based systems of money and credit. But understand them Britons must, he felt, in view of the growing importance of such systems. In addition, as Defoe himself put it, this was a period in which the ―Confusions of our Commerce in general‖ had a substantial impact on ―the very Manner and Temper of the Trading part‖ of the British ―Nation.‖312 These conceptual difficulties would thus come to affect the manner in which his contemporaries acted while engaging in commerce and trade. In framing his wider discussions on matters of commerce and trade in traditional moral tropes and the burgeoning language of natural science, Defoe was seemingly trying to clarify and stabilize the definitions of certain key elements, such as credit, in hopes of influencing his readers actions in the market. Also central to Defoe‘s understanding of the South Sea trade was his belief in the mysteriousness of commerce and trade more generally. In keeping with his belief that this domain was exceedingly mysterious and hence little understood, Defoe maintained that the trade to the South Sea was one that ―few people Understand, and some for that very reason… speak evil of it.‖313 This particular trade was little understood for a number of reasons, but mostly, reliable information about the South Sea region was simply sparse in Britain at the time. Thus while Defoe thought that the region‘s history, its geography, population, the sorts of commodities its people demanded, and the sorts of natural resources it contained were all relevant variables for determining the potential of a British trade to the South-Seas, such information was not widely available to Britons at this time.314 The majority of the ―Publick Information‖ about this region that was available to

312 Review, VIII, 305a. 313 Ibid., 153a. 314 Paul Mapp‘s dissertation has greatly informed my understanding of both European geographic ignorance of the Americas, and the imperial rivalry between the British and French during the War of the Spanish Succession. In particular, the first chapter, ―The Inhibiting Effects of Geographic Potential: Diplomatic Restraints on French North Pacific and North American Exploration after the Treaty of 62

Defoe and his contemporaries in England came from two textual sources; translations of Spanish texts, particularly the accounts of the discovery and conquest of New Spain, and the journals of the handful of English buccaneers who had ventured into the South Sea over the course of the preceding century.315 While the former sources are not overtly cited by Defoe in the Review, his discussion of the Conquistadors‘ accounts of the conquest seems to indicate that he was familiar with the English translations of these sources. On the other hand, he does mention by name certain early English buccaneers in the Review, like Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake, but again he does not explicitly cite their works. The reliability of this information was definitely questionable, as it was either ―Ship news,‖ a highly uncertain source of information, or was derived from Spanish textual sources, often in translation, also tenuous sources of what Defoe referred to as ―Intelligence.‖316 Even for Defoe, who on numerous occasions in his writings claims to have direct experience in the Spanish trade and seemingly had connections to individuals who could provide first-hand accounts of the region, there remained significant uncertainty with respect to the prospects of the trade to the South Seas, a fact he would be forced to admit on numerous occasions.317 The international political context of the period introduced important sources of uncertainty into the environment within which the South Sea trade was to occur. First and foremost, it is important to recognize that the context of the War of the Spanish Succession in many ways defined Defoe‘s understanding of how to carry on a trade to the South Seas and the Company‘s prospects for profitability. This long-running conflict (1702-1713) was marked by an intensification of the competition between the French and the British for domination in the colonial arena, in large part the result of waning Spanish

Utrecht,‖ provided many of the sources cited below. See Paul Mapp, ―European Geographic Ignorance and North American Imperial Rivalry: The Role of the Uncharted American West in International Affairs, 1713—1763‖ (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2001). 315 Defoe uses the term ―Publick Information‖ in describing the ―Public Design of this Paper [the Review].‖ Ibid., 333a. 316 Review, III, 445a-b. According to Defoe, ―Ship news‖ was a source of ―Intelligence‖ which Britons had ―been often deceiv‘d by.‖ Translations are obviously problematic, as this process inevitably alters the content of the original text. 317 As previously noted in chapter one, both Moore and Novak suggest that Defoe had resided as a trader in Spain during the 1680‘s. For an example of Defoe admitting his own uncertainty, see the Review of 30 June 1711, in which Defoe asks ―pardon of the impatient,‖ as he was balancing his own thoughts on the matter. Review, VIII, 170a. 63 power in the Americas.318 French activity in the South Sea region during this period would increase substantially, the result of the alliance between King Philip V and his grandfather King Louis XIV. This would obviously complicate any scheme for British trade to the South Sea region. Finally, the questions surrounding the settlement of a peace would come to affect contemporaries‘ assessments of the Company‘s prospects, as the terms would unquestionably alter the environment within which the trade would take place. Peace would eliminate the possibility of establishing an English colony in the region, a requisite for the scheme‘s success in Defoe‘s mind. Without the establishment of a colony, it would be difficult for the British to establish a trade in the region, as it was unlikely, in Defoe‘s estimation, that the Spaniards would allow the British a ―Free Trade‖ with their ports in the region. British domestic politics would also introduce additional uncertainty into the market environment, as this period was marked by intense partisan tensions which had steadily increased since the election of the Tory government led by Robert Harley in 1710. These partisan tensions, according to Defoe, would be expressed in the manipulation of the ―publick Stocks at the Market,‖ given that the various party-backed joint-stock companies were directly implicated in the financing of this ―expensive and controversial‖ war.319 In carrying out such operations, Defoe claimed that partisan stock- jobbers would disseminate rumours, particularly with respect to the prospect of peace, in order to influence the British public‘s confidence in the ―Publick Credit,‖ and thus impede the government‘s ability to access the credit necessary for continuing to carry on the war.320 This dissemination of misinformation about the peace would obviously increase the difficulties contemporaries had in evaluating the potential of a South-Sea trade and by extension, the value of the South-Sea Company‘s stock. These three sources of uncertainty contributed to making the collection and evaluation of relevant and reliable information about the South-Sea region and the prospects for a trade thither difficult for contemporaries. This uncertainty would also

318 On the nature and causes of the War and the decline of Spanish empire‘s power in the Americas, see Henry Kamen, The War of Succession in Spain, 1700-1715 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969), 26-28, 31. See also, William Roosen, ―The Origins of the War of Spanish Succession,‖ in The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe, ed. Jeremy Black (Edinburgh: J. Donald, 1987), 150-175. 319 Carruthers (1996), 137. 320 Defoe explains the operations by which the stock-jobbers did this in Villainy of Stock-jobbers Detected (London: 1701), 6-10. 64 provide the stock-jobbers with ample opportunity to circulate misinformation and rumour in order to manipulate the ―People‘s Expectations‖ of the trade. According to Defoe, this would then allow them to manipulate the price of the South Sea Company shares for their private gain. And as he repeatedly forewarned in the Review, the ―bubbling‖ of paper assets could have significant ramifications for the nation‘s wealth and power, as the manipulation of the ―Publick Stocks at the Market‖ could in turn undermine the people‘s confidence in the ―Publick Credit‖ more generally. Defoe would stress that his writings in the Review were aimed at encouraging his readership to develop what he called ―Reasonable Expectations‖ of a South-Sea trade, so as to prevent them from sowing the seeds of both their own disappointment and the nation‘s undoing. It would seem then that Moore‘s assertion that Defoe ―foresaw the probability of stock-jobbing (like that which brought the collapse of 1720)‖ has some credence to it, as does his assertion that in response Defoe ―did his best to break the force of that catastrophe.‖321 *************** It was, according to Defoe, unquestionable that the Spaniards had managed to maintain a ―free and uninterrupted Possession‖ of the Southern American hemisphere ―for about 60 Years, before any other Nation so much as offer‘d to peep in.‖ Furthermore, Defoe would go on to argue that even in 1711, ―Old Spain… has kept the Possession of New Spain so entire to themselves, undisturb‘d and undisputed by the rest of Europe, that it is a kind of Terra Incognita to this Day, to all the rest of the World.‖322 As a result, Defoe thought his making geographic, demographic and commercial information about the South-Seas available to his readership in the Review was quite novel and very useful. While Spanish information about the Americas had been circulating in England since the time of Richard Hakluyt, these early translations focused on material that described the Eastern coast of North America, such as Hernando de Soto‘s description of Florida, published in English in 1609 with the title Virginia richly valued.323 Samuel Purchas, Hakluyt‘s contemporary, also translated certain Spanish texts, but he too

321 John R. Moore, ―Defoe and the South Sea Company,‖ Boston Public Library Quarterly 5 (1953), 175 322 Review, VIII, 167b, 170b. 323 Colin Steele, English Interpreters of the Iberian New World From Purchas to Stevens: A Bibliographical Study. 1603-1726 (Oxford: The Dolphin Book Company, 1975), 18-20. 65 focused on a limited number of textual sources. Upon Purchas‘ death in 1633, there was ―left a void which no single individual came forward to fill,‖ and the first translation to be produced after this was ―certainly not produced by the demand for information on Mexico and the New World. Its purpose was primarily religious.‖324 Rather than conveying information about the region‘s geography, its commodities, etc, many of the texts translated in the mid- to late-seventeenth focused on the religious conflict between Catholic Spain and Reformed England. An excellent example of this was the ―first translation of the reign of William and Mary,‖ an English edition of Las Casas‘ Brevisima relacion entitled Popery truly display’d in its bloody colours, a text which ―merely reflected the immediate political situation of 1689.‖325 In light of these points, it would seem that while J.H. Elliot is probably accurate in asserting that the ―efforts of Hakluyt and others‖ had made ―a considerable amount of information… available to interested English readers about Spain‘s conquering and colonising enterprises in the New World,‖ it was nonetheless the case that the primary goal of these texts was to incite Englishmen against the Spaniards, rather than to impart information useful for the conducting of a trade to the South Seas. It is also important to acknowledge that the readership of these early texts was not nearly as wide as the readership of the Review.326 As previously noted in chapter one, the numerous social changes that had taken place in the second half of the seventeenth century, with respect to both reading and printing, resulted in a greater number of Britons having access to printed sources of information.327 First off, the number of literate Britons increased substantially after 1650, most prominently amongst the urban merchants and tradesmen.328 There was also a decline in the direct and indirect costs associated with printing periodicals, in part the result of the establishment of the Penny

324 Ibid., 52, 55. 325 Ibid., 95. It is interesting to note that on the title page of Popery truly display’d the translator indicates to the reader that this text had been translated by a number of hands into ―High-Dutch, Low-Dutch, French,‖ and was ―now Taught to speak Modern English.‖ Anon., Popery truly display’d in its Bloody Colours… (London, 1689). This seems to indicate a general interest in Europe for information about the Americas. 326 J.H. Elliott, Spain, Europe and the Wider World 1500-1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 35. 327 Glaisyer (2006), 5. 328 See J.A. Sharpe, Early Modern England: A Social History 1550-1760 (London: Arnold, 1997), 277-284. See also David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 1-10, 117. 66

Post in 1680 and the lapsing of the Licensing (Printing) Act in 1695.329 This made the investment by printers in newspapers less risky, and brought down costs, thus making them more widely available. These low-cost newspapers in particular were increasingly consequential during this period in informing public opinion, particularly in urban areas like London, where weekly, tri-weekly, and even daily newspapers had become relatively common by the early eighteenth century.330 These newspapers were a particularly important source of information for merchants and traders, providing them with the ―Freshest Advices‖ about political affairs, both domestic and international, matters which undoubtedly affected the environment in which trade was conducted. In addition, many of these newspapers were available for perusal in the coffee-shops scattered throughout the larger British cities such as London and Edinburgh, making them even more accessible to the reading public.331 These coffee-shops were also sites were the reliability and relevance of the information contained in these newspapers could be debated, as they were popular gathering places for a variety of merchants and traders.332 It would seem that Defoe might have been justified in thinking of his project in the Review as novel. While this is not to say he was providing his readers with information that was entirely new, with the Review he was nonetheless expanding the bounds of the ―publick‖ which this information reached. Furthermore, as shall be discussed below, Defoe was seemingly well-informed about the South-Sea region, in that he probably had a variety of connections to people with information, thanks to his connections to individuals like John Baker and cartographer Herman Moll.333 Defoe also

329 Jeremy Black, The English Press 1621-1861 (Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 2001), 6-8. 330 While there were a number of weekly and tri-weekly papers in London by the turn of the century, The Daily Courant was the first daily newspaper printed in the city, beginning in 1702. See Black (2001), 9. On the newspaper as an influence on public opinion in Britain, see Adam Fox, ―Rumour, News, and Popular Political Opinion in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England,‖ Historical Journal 40 (1997), 597-620. 331 Natasha Glaisyer asserts that the coffee-houses were important ―new sites of reading‖ in her The Culture of Commerce in England, 1660-1720 (Rochester: Boydell and Brewer Inc., 2006), 5. See also Markman Ellis, ―Coffee-House Libraries in Mid-Eighteenth-Century London,‖ The Library 10 (2009), 3-40. 332 Brian Cowan shows how the coffee-house was an important site of trade in early-modern London, for example in their use as a site for auctions. See The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). See also Glaisyer (2008), 5. 333 John Baker, as previously noted, was an active printer and thus would have interacted with a variety of writers, many of whom would have also been involved in other activities. Given that he and Defoe worked closely together for an extended period of time, it seems reasonable to assume that the two men had numerous shared acquaintances. One such shared acquaintance might have been Robert Allen, author of an Essay on the Nature and Methods of Carrying on a Trade to the South-Sea, which Baker printed in 1712 (an interesting aside, this essay was also printed in 1712 by Rich. Mount, who was the official stationer to 67 identified certain topics as particularly relevant for making investment decisions about the South-Sea Company stock, and would convey this specific information to his readers in order to encourage this increasingly ―newspaper-minded‖ group to formulate what he would call ―Reasonable Expectations‖ of a British trade to the South-Seas.334 *************** In laying out his preliminaries on the South-Sea trade in the Review of June 28 1711, Defoe entered into a brief, yet revealing discussion on the Spanish conquest of Mexico, indicating that he was familiar with some of the Conquistadors‘ accounts of Spanish America. Defoe likely thought it was necessary to provide this historical context to his reader because he deemed it both relevant for investigating the legitimacy of Spanish claims of dominion over the region and useful for coming to an understanding of the people who resided there. As for his sources on the conquest, it is probable that Defoe would have sought out translations of Spanish sources of information, as these could provide him with testimonials on the history of the region, information about it‘s peoples, and descriptions of its geography and natural resources, all of which would provide an indication of the potential profits the region could offer British traders.335 In addition, as previously noted, on several occasions in his writings Defoe mentions having travelled to Spain for the purpose of trade, reinforcing the assertion that he would have been familiar with the information circulating there about the trade to the South-Seas, particularly what sorts of commodities were demanded in Spanish America and what sorts of commodities were exported from the region. Outlining the history of the region since the arrival of the Spanish, Defoe began by explaining to his reader that it was ―by the right of Discovery, Conquest, and Possession‖ that the lands of South America had become the ―proper Dominions of the

the South-Sea Company). There is no concrete evidence as to whether Defoe did in fact know Allen, but the two men did share both a printer and similar ideas about the South-Sea trade, suggesting that he might have. As for Defoe‘s connections with Herman Moll and his circle of associates, see below. 334 James Sutherland notes that ―every year the writers of newspapers were exercising a greater influence on public opinion.‖ It would seem that Defoe hoped to use this influence to support what he believed was a reasonable plan for the South Sea trade. See Defoe (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1938), 110. 335 Payne‘s catalogue included several Spanish language texts, along with a number of translations. Of particular relevance in this context was the copy of de las Casas‘ Histoire des Indes Occidentales (Lyon, 1642). Given that Defoe often used French expressions in the Review and elsewhere, it is likely that he had some familiarity with that language. It is unclear whether he was proficient in reading Spanish. 68

Spaniard about the Year 1521.‖336 It would be difficult to challenge this right, according to Defoe, because ―if disputed, it would be hard to find out the Right of half the Princes of Earth, unless you will turn Whigs, and talk of election.‖337 This last sarcastic remark aimed at the Whigs is telling, given that at this point in time Defoe was in the employment of Robert Harley‘s Tory ministry, as previously mentioned in chapter one. Very much in keeping with period justifications of the rights of conquest and possession, Defoe did not challenge the Spanish claims to the land of South America. In addition, he probably recognized that Britain too would be forced to ―grapple with the delicate problem of the legitimacy of their title to American land,‖ and was thus not willing to engage in the complex problematics of this debate in the Review.338 Perhaps Defoe also thought these questions of dominion and the rights of conquest were beyond the capacities of certain sections of his readership, such as those Jonathan Swift referred to as the ―lowest part of mankind,‖ and thus refrained from engaging with this matter.339 Defoe would also accept as fact the Conquistadors‘ claims that they had ―conquer‘d the Rich and Great Empire of Mexico‖ with a force of ―less than nine Hundred Foot and 120 Horse.‖340 This feat was most impressive because Cortez and his small force had managed to subdue the ―16 millions of People‖ who resided in these lands, ―most of whom he destroy‘d from the Face of the Earth.‖341 Unlike ―all Writers, nay, even some of [the Spaniards] own,‖ Defoe would refrain from questioning the ―Cruelty and Barbarity with which the Spaniards Treated the poor Natives of that Country,‖ as he thought that Cortez had no other choice but to root them out in order to ―secure‖ Spanish possession over the ―Surprizing Wealth of the Country… [the] Mountains of Gold and Silver, an Immense Wealth, Fertility, and Production of all

336 Review, VIII, 166b. Indicative of the his thoughts on the importance of this region, Defoe claims that this discovery was ―the greatest piece of News that ever was brought to any prince since the World began.‖ Ibid., 166b. 337 Ibid., 166b. 338 Elliott (2009), 151. 339 Quoted in Burch (1937), 211. Swift claimed in his Examiner that the Review had done ―a measure of mischief among us,‖ and although the Review was ―unsupportable to reasonable ears,‖ Swift lamented that it was ―of a level‖ that appealed to the ―great numbers of the lowest part of mankind.‖ 340 Review, VIII, 166b. 341 Ibid., 166b. Later on in the same issue of the Review, Defoe claims that the land Cortez conquered was inhabited by ―20 Millions of People.‖ See ibid., 167b. This is one example of the uncertain nature of the information Defoe was relating to his reader. 69 kind.‖342 The language Defoe used here to describe the richness of New Spain and the ―infinite wealth‖ it contained, while in the same breath justifying the Spaniards attempts at eradicating the native populations, makes it abundantly clear that for Defoe the main motivations for expansion in the Americas originated from commercial and political sources, rather than from moral or religious concerns. His was thus not a colonial project aimed at conversion of the native peoples of America to Christianity, but was rather focused on increasing the size of the market for European goods and locating new sources of exotic raw materials. For Defoe then, when it came to the indigenous groups in the Americas, if they stood in the way of European commercial interests, it was perfectly acceptable to eradicate them. Like many of his contemporaries, Defoe also believed that there was no ―trusting‖ the ―Natives‖ of America, and so he would maintain that Cortez had no way to ―go to work with them by Treaties and Confederacies.‖ Comparing the actions of the Spanish to the actions of the English in Virginia, who had both been ―forc‘d to destroy‖ the native populations in order to secure the wealth of these lands, Defoe asked his reader to ―set aside Humanity, Justice, and Christianity out of it,‖ as ―Meer Policy‖ had little to do ―with any of these.‖343 Again, it is clear from these statements that Defoe viewed the native peoples of America as possible impediments to the expansion of trade and the extraction of material resources from these newly discovered regions. The security and productivity of European possessions was thus his overarching priority, and not the protection of the ―idle‖ native peoples. Once the Spaniards had secured their possession of South America, Defoe claimed that they next ―spread themselves over the continent‖ by sending ―vast Numbers of People from Old Spain, and from all the Spanish Dominions in Europe.‖ These people would, in turn, plant the ―Rich Soil,‖ build ―great Towns, Cities, and Country-Seats,‖ and multiply ―all over the Country.‖ But as this ―Place‖ was ―so vastly large,‖ even though ―they say, that in the Register of the Contractation House at Sevill, are six Millions of People, who have gone over from Europe to New Spain,‖ the region remained ―very thinly Inhabited.‖344 That New Spain was so thinly inhabited in spite of the vast emigration from Old Spain would lead Defoe to ask a rhetorical question which would

342 Ibid., 166b-167a. 343 Ibid., 167a. 344 Ibid., 168a. 70 come up repeatedly when laying out his scheme for the South-Sea trade, ―how could Spain alone Plant America?‖345 While a significant number of Spaniards had ventured to New Spain from Europe, Defoe believed that these territories were far too large for the Spanish to occupy alone, particularly along the western coast of the continent, and this would be pivotal for his scheme, as will be argued below. In describing the territory which Cortes had claimed for the Spanish crown, Defoe stated that this possession was as ―large as Europe and Asia, [and was as] full of People as France.‖346 This statement is again indicative of his belief in the importance of both geographic and demographic information, something he would chastise other journalists for lacking on numerous occasions in the Review.347 And unlike the relatively well- charted regions of Europe, the geography of this recently-discovered region was poorly known by almost all Britons, even the most geographically savvy, as implied by Defoe‘s suggestion in a Review of 1704 that the Saint Lawrence River could possibly have ―communication with the South Seas.‖348 By 1711, it would seem that Defoe had developed a certain familiarity with the extensive Spanish territories in the Americas. This was probably the result of his connection with cartographer Herman Moll, who that same year would publish a 229 page description of New Spain which included a detailed map of the South-Seas and described the limits of the area within which the South-Sea Company could trade.349 In outlining the geography of New Spain to his readers, Defoe explained that: ―The whole Continent on the West Shoars, as far either North or South as is Inhabited or is Habitable, is possess‘d by the Spaniards, from Chili and the Latitude of 52 Southward to Acapulco, and on to the Latitude of 36 Northward of the Line, several Great and Populous Cities have been built here, as Panama, Lima, Cusco, Acapulco, and the like; this is the Coast, which we, tho‘ very improperly, call the South-Seas: On the other Shoar they possess all the Country on the Sea Coast, from our Carolina and the Latitude of 36 Northward, to the Northernmost Coast of Brazil, and from the Southernmost Coast of Brazil to the Rio de la Plata or Paraguay, in which those very Colonies of Buenos, Ayres, and Sperito Santo, and all the rest of the Coast, to the Streights of Magellan, would be Planted by them, if it were capable of any Production or Improvement.‖350

345 Ibid., 168a. 346 Review, VIII, 167a. 347 Review, I, Preface. 348 Ibid., 135b. 349 Herman Moll, A View of the Coasts, Countries and Islands Within the Limits of the South Sea Company (London, 1711). See illustration 1. 350 Review, VIII, 170b. 71

Figure 1: Herman Moll‘s 1711 Map of the South-Seas (Source: Herman Moll, A View of the Coasts, Countries and Islands Within the Limits of the South Sea Company (London, 1711), front plate.)

This description was largely consistent with the map that Moll produced (Figure 1) in 1711, particularly in terms of the latitudinal coordinates and place names, suggesting that Defoe was aware of this representation of the region within which the South-Sea Company was chartered to trade. It is interesting to note, however, that Defoe states that the British ―very improperly‖ call the ocean to the west of America the ―South-Seas,‖ as this is the term that Moll uses to describe this body of water on his map. In commenting on the Spanish trade to Manila (see below), Defoe explains how this body of water was referred to by the Spanish as ―the Pacifick, or which the Dutch call the Mare del Zur.‖351 This definitional ambiguity is a prime example of the uncertainty in Britain about this region, for even the term ―South-Seas‖ itself had an unstable meaning, as it could refer

351 Ibid., 175b. 72 either to the Pacific Ocean or both the Southern Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, which was the area within which the South-Sea Company was authorized to trade. While introducing his readers to the history of the various British attempts against the Spanish American colonies, Defoe made it evident that he was also familiar with some of the accounts composed by the Elizabethan era buccaneers who had first ventured into the South-Sea region. These were also important sources of useful geographic and commercial information for Defoe, as they provided him with first hand testimonials about the region. For example, he cited both the adventures of ―Sir Francis Drake‖ and ―Sir Walter Raleigh‖ in his discussion of the early attempts at interrupting the Spanish trade to their possessions in America.352 In addition to his knowledge of these early- seventeenth-century adventures, Defoe was surely familiar with the later works of William Dampier, Bartholomew Sharp, Lionel Wafer, Sir John Narborough, and the other buccaneers‘ who had ventured into the South-Seas during his lifetime.353 Aside from the fact that the writings of these individuals were widely read during this period, given that he was part of Herman Moll‘s circle of associates, probably some of the best informed people about the South-Seas in Britain, Defoe assuredly had contact with other members of the group, including Woodes Rogers and Roger Dampier, both of whom had first-hand experience of the region.354

352 Review, VIII, 177b. The failure of Raleigh‘s attempt in particular disheartened Defoe, as he thought that ―the Miscarriage‖ of this attempt, as ―every Body that has read any Thing of those Things, knows was owing to the Treachery of our Court at Home,‖ and the machinations of the Spanish Ambassador in London. Ibid., 178a. 353 The works of both Dampier and Rogers were highly influential throughout this period. For a more complete discussion on Dampier‘s A Voyage to New Holland, see Markley (1994). Indicative of Dampier‘s popularity was the fact that his New Voyage Round the World ―became, and long remained,‖ a best-seller. In fact, it ―ran to five editions in six years.‖ O.H.K. Spate, Monopolists and Freebooters (London: Croom Helm, 1983), 157. With respect to Narborough, Furbank and Owens claim that Defoe had ―evidently been much influenced by the journal of an expedition to‖ the South Seas published in 1694. See ―Defoe‘s ―South-Sea‖ and ―North-Sea‖ Schemes: A Footnote to A New Voyage Round the World,‖ Eighteenth Century Fiction 13 (2001), 4. Defoe was probably also familiar with Exquemelin‘s The History of the Bucaniers of America, along with the collection of Tracts Relating to the Colony of Darien, both of which were included in Payne‘s catalogue of his library. See Heidenreich (1970), 14, 60, 67, 128. 354 Dennis Reinhartz, ―Shared Vision: Herman Moll and His Circle and the Great South Sea,‖ Terrae Incognitae 19 (1987). The collaborations between Moll, Defoe, Rogers, and the like, are most clearly exhibited by the maps that Moll produced for their various publications, such as Defoe‘s Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain and the map of the world he produced for the 1718 edition of Rogers‘ A cruising voyage round the world. See Burton J. Fishman, ―Defoe, Herman Moll, and the Geography of South America,‖ The Huntington Library Quarterly 36 (1973), 234. See also Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (London, 1718). 73

Woodes Rogers‘ adventures in particular must have interested Defoe, and Londoners more generally, given that in the Spring of 1711 Rogers returned from the South-Sea with a Spanish treasure galleon, which had been captured off the Pacific coast of Mexico in 1709, and parked it in the river Thames.355 The investors would reap a great return from this voyage, ―with gross profits of £150,000, a one hundred per cent return.‖356 These rates of return also must have been known to those who were concerned with the South-Sea trade, and must have added to the sentiment of possibility that they felt, as ―the dream of huge profits [must have proved] hard to resist.‖357 And while the adventures of these buccaneers definitely ―engendered romance,‖ particularly when it came to the possibilities of a South-Sea trade, they themselves ―were anything but romanticists,‖ as their writings had as their ―utilitarian purposes‖ the imparting of information and the incitement of ―patriotic action.‖358 Defoe‘s writings in the Review would in many ways share these purposes, and in many ways his writings also shared the same romantic optimism about the possibilities for British expansion.359 Defoe‘s knowledge of the fortifications which the Spanish had constructed to secure ―the coast from the Accession of Strangers‖ would probably also have come from his familiarity with the buccaneers accounts and from his connection to Moll‘s circle.360 As he explained to his readers, the Spanish had ―built the Town, Castle, and Forts at the Havana, which is the Rendezvouze of all their Strength,‖ as they had done at ―St. Domingo, St. John de Porto Rico, La verra Cruse, Carthagena, Porto Bello, and St. John

355 Glyndwr Williams (ed.), ―Buccaneers, Castaways, and Satirists: The South Seas in the English Consciousness Before 1750‖ in Buccaneers, explorers and settlers: British enterprise and encounters in the Pacific, 1670-1800 (Burlington, VT: Variorum, 2005), 120. See also Spate (1983), 198-199. On this voyage Rogers also found Andrew Selkirk, a castaway who had been left on the island of Juan Fernandez. Many critics later argued he would be an inspiration for Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe. James Sutherland, for example, claims that ―as every schoolboy used to know, the prototype of Robinson Crusoe was a stubborn and refractory Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk… Defoe must have known some or all of the accounts, and it is odd that… he made no reference to Selkirk in the Review or elsewhere.‖ Daniel Defoe: A Critical Study (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), 123. It is also interesting to note the similarities between Defoe‘s commentary in the Review and Woodes Rogers‘ introduction to his A cruising voyage round the world entitled ―An Introduction Concerning the South Sea Trade.‖ Also see Steele (1975), 126. 356 Markley (1994), 152. 357 Ibid., 152. 358 Spate (1983), 158. 359 See John McVeagh, ―Defoe and the Romance of Trade,‖ Durham University Journal 70 (1978), 146. McVeagh argues that in Defoe‘s writings, there is a strong sense of wonder that ―relates to what is known to exist provably and visibly in the far parts of the earth.‖ 360 Review, VIII, 168a. 74 d’Ullah.‖361 These fortifications were of central import for the Spaniards in settling ―the commerce with their new Conquests,‖ as they wanted no other nation but themselves to ―Benefit of the Trade thither,‖ something the English buccaneers would have had first hand experience with.362 It is important to acknowledge that Defoe did not think that the Spanish closed trade system was unjust, as it was ―the same Thing, which by our Act of Navigation is Establish‘d with our American colonies.‖363 Fortifications were necessary to protect the Spaniards ―Advantage,‖ perfectly understandable to Defoe because they had settled the region not for the profit of ―other Nations,‖ but rather ―for themselves.‖364 While Defoe definitely understood that a free trade to the region would be of great benefit to the British, he also appreciated that the Spanish would never allow this, as they stood to lose significant wealth if they did, a point which will be elaborated on below. In addition to being familiar with the geography and constitution of the region‘s population, Defoe also had an extensive knowledge of the commodities both imported to and exported from New Spain, probably acquired during his time spent trading in the Spanish towns of Seville and Cadiz.365 He would argue that this information on imports and exports was necessary as it ―let us into some Knowledge of what this Trade to the South Seas IS, or is like to be.‖366 Defoe obviously recognized that in order to successfully engage in overseas trade, it was necessary to know what sort of goods were in demand at the port of destination, as it would be fruitless to ship goods great distances which were not of interest to colonists. According to Defoe, the commodities most in demand in New Spain consisted of ―Cloaths, Houshold-Furniture, Arms, Ammunition, Metals, and all sorts of European goods.‖367 And as Defoe explains to his reader, the majority of the goods which the Spanish exported to their American colonies were in fact produced in other European nations, ―because as to Manufactures, we all know Spain has none.‖368 The specific commodities that England could supply New Spain with were ―Various kinds of our Woollen Manufacture, particularly Bayes, Sayes, Broad Cloath,

361 Ibid., 168b. 362 Ibid., 168b. 363 Ibid., 170a. 364 Ibid., 170a. 365 Bastian (1981), 92-93. 366 Review, VIII, 171a. 367 Ibid., 170b. 368 Ibid., 171a. 75

Serges and Perpets, to an inconceivable Quantity, with Calicoes and Silks from the East- Indies.‖369 It is interesting to note that the first two types of woolens Defoe included in this list are lightweight fabrics. Bayes (or baize) was a fabric of fine, light texture, whereas sayes (or sayette) was a blend of silk and cotton. This suggests that Defoe realized (unlike some of his contemporaries) that thick, heavy woolen fabrics would not be in high demand in the warmer, South American climates. Serges and perpets (or perpetuana) on the other hand, were both durable woolen fabrics mostly used in hangings and bedding, thus they too would have been desirable to the people of New Spain.370 As for the commodities which New Spain exported to Europe, the foremost was ―PLATE or Silver, in Bullion… chiefly from Mexico and Peru,‖ which was minted into coins ―call‘d Pieces of Eight, or Bars of Silver‖ before being shipped to Cadiz.371 Defoe goes on to exclaim that the silver was then brought over to Europe ―in so great Quantity, that one ship has been ordinarily known to bring into Cadiz above 400 Ton Weight of Silver.‖372 Along with the vast amounts of silver, there were also considerable quantities of gold being mined in Spanish America.373 Bullion was of the utmost importance for the British economy, as it was for European economies in general, given that gold and silver were the mediums by which trade imbalances were settled. As ―world trade expanded during early modern times, three areas with large export surpluses became clearly defined: the Baltic region, the Levant and the Asian markets. The increasing European deficits were ultimately made good by deliveries of gold and silver.‖374 These outflows made Spanish and Portuguese coins ―essential nutrients, without which the complex trading of the English Atlantic would have been stunted.‖375 Defoe, like many of his contemporaries, clearly recognized this fact, and for this very reason advocated the trade to the South-Seas, as it could

369 Ibid., 171b. 370 OED Online. 371 Review, VIII, 175a. 372 Ibid., 175a. 373 Ward Barrett, ―World Bullion Flows, 1450-1800,‖ in The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350-1750, James D. Tracy, ed., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 224-226. 374 Artur Attman, American Bullion in the European World Trade 1600-1800 (Göteborg: Kungl. Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället, 1986), 5. 375 Daniel A. Baugh, ―Maritime Strength and Atlantic Commerce: The uses of ‗a grand marine empire‘,‖ in An Imperial State at War: Britain From 1689 to 1815, Lawrence Stone, ed., (London: Routledge, 1994), 199. 76 potentially prove to be a tremendous source of much needed bullion for the British trade in Asia and the Baltic.376 But the accounts circulating in Europe about the vast quantities of bullion exported from Spanish America led Defoe to be somewhat exuberant in the language he employed in describing the mines of Potosi. This is most visible in the language Defoe used to describe the ―warehouses pil‘d to the roofs with Bags and Bars of Silver,‖ and the ―rivers of gold‖ which flowed ever so freely into Spanish coffers.377 These are telling examples of an occasion in the Review where Defoe succumbs to his overly optimistic, romantic hopes for a trade to the South-Seas, but this is not surprising, given that commentators as far back as Sebastian Cabot and Roger Barlow wrote exuberantly about the ―grete aboundance of gold and sylver‖ to be found in the Americas.378 In addition to bullion, the other major exports of New Spain were ―Cochineal… Indico… Cocoa, Snuff, and very many Valuable Drugs… Valuable Gums, and Dyers Wood, and Earths. Pearl… Jewels, such as Diamonds and Emeralds,‖ and finally ―Sugar, This they can bring in great Quantity, but they esteem it too mean a Return.‖379 In Defoe‘s estimation, all of these commodities would be of value in England, as the demand for such exotic commodities was strong amongst those with the means to afford them.380 The Spanish also had a lucrative trade to the East Indies (particularly Japan and the Philippines) via Acapulco, and this provided the residents of Mexico access to a wide variety of exotic Asian commodities. As Defoe explained: ―this is a trade from Acapulco in the Empire of Mexico, to the East-Indies, to the Philippine Islands and Japan; this Trade is carried on chiefly by about four Ships, who set out from Acapulco Yearly, one every Year, and crossing those vast Seas which they call the Pacifick, or which the Dutch call the Mare del Zur, they come to the Philippines in the East-Indies to Japan, and so on to China; from hence they bring to Mexico a vast Treasure in Spices, Coffee, Tea, Silks, Callicoes, and all kinds of East-India goods, which adds to the Glory of the City of Mexico, which boasts of having their Houses set with

376 For estimates of the ―flows from Europe‖ into Asia and the Baltic, see Barrett (1990), 250-253. 377 Review, VIII, 174a, 170a. 378 Roger Barlow cited in Kenneth Andrews, Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480-1630 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 136. Andrews later cites a 1577 plan for a voyage involving Drake and others to the Straits of Magellan, in which it is asserted that this region presented ―great hoepe of gold, silver… and divers other speciall comodities.‖ Ibid., 142. 379 Review, VIII, 175a-b. 380 Ibid., 170b. See also Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth Century England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 77

China Ware, and their Chambers hung with Japan Pictures, above any Place in the Christian World…‖381

It would seem then that Defoe had a relatively extensive understanding of the operations of the Acapulco-Manila trade and the commodities it introduced into Spanish America, although his estimate of four ships a year might have been mildly inflated.382 The west coast of America thus offered not only access to American commodities, but also provided a link to eastern trade routes and access to highly valuable Asian commodities. The establishment of a South-Sea trade, according to Defoe, could thus open up ―several new Scenes of Commerce in the World, which never yet were thought of, both for venting our Manufactures from hence, and opening a Trade from our Colonies in North America for their Provisions.‖383 For Defoe then, the South-Sea trade offered greater possibilities than simply a trade to Spanish America, as it also offered the possibility of opening up new avenues of trade to regions of the world not yet known to the British. From his writings in the Review, it would seem that Defoe had an extensive understanding of Spanish America and the trade thereto. Defoe would provide his reader with a relatively extensive general overview of the region, its people and the possibilities for a trade to the region, in order to exhibit how he thought this trade should function and what potential profits it offered both individual investors and the British nation as a whole. But despite being well-informed, Defoe was, like many of his contemporaries, very optimistic about the South-Sea trade, and this would in turn come to affect his use of language in his writings on the subject. *************** The fact that the initial proposals for an English trade to the South-Seas were made toward the end of the War of Spanish Succession, a bloody conflict that engulfed most of continental Europe and parts of the Atlantic world for the better part of twelve years, is of central importance for understanding both the uncertainty which surrounded the trade and the scheme that Defoe would propose in the Review.

381 Review, VIII, 175b. 382 William L. Schurz estimates that the number of ships varied yearly between one and four, but points out that a 1593 decree of Philip II restricted ―to two the number of ships that might cross yearly and the tonnage of each ship to 300.‖ See The Manila Galleon (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1939), 193. 383 Review, VIII, 203b. 78

In general terms, the context of war is important first off because ―war subjects men and women to extreme uncertainties and propels them to seek information that will ease their anxieties…armed conflict intensifies the exchange of information, triggers the dissemination of rumours, and opens alternative channels of communication.‖384 Initiating a trade to a region that was hitherto largely unknown under such conditions of ―extreme uncertainty‖ would obviously be fraught with difficulties, and would clearly propel individual investors to seek out reliable information about the developments in warfare, as this would have a direct bearing on the success of a trade to the South-Seas. Naval warfare in particular would have a significant impact on the environment in which overseas trade occurred, as it would introduce additional risks in shipping and could potentially upset established trade routes.385 Naval warfare was also extremely costly, for ―maintaining a strong and well-prepared navy has always entailed unusual demands upon a state,‖ even in times of peace.386 Given that the British were increasingly reliant on their naval power in waging war, it is not surprising that Defoe lamented toward the end of the War of Succession that: ―Now we see our Treasure lost, our Funds exhausted, all our publick Revenues Sold, Mortgaged, and Anticipated; vast and endless Interests entail‘d upon our Posterity… We find our Great Navy spread the Seas to the Expence of above Three Millions Yearly.‖387

From this statement it is clear that Defoe was trying to convey the tremendous costs associated with the maintenance of a substantial navy to his reader, and while his estimate of more than three million pounds yearly was probably inflated, the underlying sentiment was nonetheless insightful. This is not to say, however, that Defoe thought the maintenance of a navy was a waste of British resources, as he definitely believed it was of central importance for the maintenance of British power. His hope was that the British could establish and maintain their ―Mastery of the Seas,‖ but he also realized that the French ―flying Squadrons and Privateers‖ could very well undermine this project, and

384 Yael Sternhell, ―Communicating War: The Culture of Information in Richmond During the American Civil War,‖ Past and Present 202 (2009), 177-178. 385 S.D. Smith, in referring to the impact of the War on Barbados sugar planters, explains that the ―disruptions to shipping during the conflict led many planters to sell in local markets rather than risk consigning crops to Britain.‖ See ―The Account Book o Richard Poor, Quaker Merchant of Barbados,‖ William and Mary Quarterly 66 (2009), 607. 386 Baugh (1994), 186. 387 Daniel Defoe, Reasons Why This Nation Ought to put a Speedy End to this Expensive War (London, 1711), 5. 79 thus make the investment either fruitless or more costly than it otherwise would be.388 Defoe was not alone in worrying about the ―failure of the [British] navy to destroy‖ the French ―power in the South Seas‖ in the early years of the war, for this matter was ―loudly lamented‖ by many ―English merchants and colonials.‖389 In addition, the context of war would also lead to the establishment of embargoes and high duties on certain imported goods by the various powers embroiled in the conflict, again altering established patterns of overseas trade. One example of this was the extremely high duties in England on French goods. In the Review, Defoe would initially advocate against open trade with France, particularly with respect to the wine trade, as he firmly believed that it was unpatriotic to support the enemy during times of conflict, especially through the trade of a superfluous luxury item like French clarets.390 Once the war began to wind down however, Defoe would argue for the reestablishment of open trade with France, albeit still a regulated trade, as he thought it would inevitably result in a favourable balance of trade for the English.391 The War of Spanish Succession itself would see Spain and France on the one hand, pitted against the Grand Alliance, composed of England, the United Provinces, Portugal and the Austro-Prussian empire, on the other. The primary point of contention was the installation of Philip V to the throne of Spain, as he was the grandson of France‘s King Louis XIV. While the possibility of a union of the two kingdoms under Philip had the potential to upset the balance of power in Europe, both the English and the Dutch were particularly ―committed to intervention‖ because ―of their concern for the future of the Indies trade, and their first military operation – an attack on Cadiz – betrayed the

388 Review, I, 402a. 389 William T. Morgan, ―The Origins of the South Sea Company,‖ Political Science Quarterly 44 (1929), 21. 390 In 1705, Defoe would comment on the ―16 Years Prohibition‖ against French wine and how this had ―fix‘d the English People into Portugal wines.‖ The problem, however, was that the ―Extravagant Price‖ of French clarets made them more desirable than the ―common Draught‖ of Portugal. Review, I, 362a. 391 See Review, I, 361a-362b, where Defoe also claims that during times of peace, the balance of trade between England and France favoured the former. See also Defoe‘s 1713 tract Some Thoughts upon the Subject of Commerce with France (London: 1713), in which Defoe defends himself against Whig attacks that charged ―he had formerly opposed the Anglo-French trade‖ in the Review. The main point he makes here is that a regulated trade with France would result in a positive balance of trade and thus would be of benefit to England. For a further discussion on this tract, see Laura Ann Curtis, The Versatile Defoe: An Anthology of Uncollected Writings by Daniel Defoe (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979), 151-157. 80 interests of the maritime powers in controlling traffic to America.‖392 The threat of the French gaining control over the trade to Spanish American was thus one of the main impetus‘ for British intervention in the conflict, and this is made obvious in Defoe‘s writings in the Review and his elaborations on the scheme for a trade to the South-Seas, as he would continually emphasize the necessity of defeating the French both in Europe and in the Americas.393 The paper‘s original title, A Weekly Review of the Affairs of France, is suggestive of both the importance Defoe placed on British competition with the French, particularly in the expansion into Spanish territories in the Americas, and Defoe‘s belief that there was a ―wisdom in studying and learning from one‘s enemies.‖394 The French were of such grave interest to Defoe because, as John Carswell explains, the ―French were an organized business enemy; and formidable not only because they were organized… France was the biggest, most homogeneous, most populous nation state in Europe.‖395 The French were also the most important British enemy because they were the only other European power that possessed a navy rivalling that of Britain, given that a significant portion of the Spanish navy had been destroyed at the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702.396 Throughout the Review, Defoe continually returned to the subject of French naval power, again indicating that he thought they were Britain‘s foremost competitor in the battle for colonial dominance. For example, in volume one of the Review, Defoe digresses at length ―on the Success of the French Affairs in the Seas of America.‖397 This digression makes

392 Kamen (1969), 9-10. 393 In one indicative passage in the first volume of the Review, Defoe would express his discontent about the ―Success of the French Affairs in the Seas of America‖ Review, I, 135a [137a]. 394 P.N. Furbank and W.R. Owens, A Critical Bibliography of Daniel Defoe (London: Pickering and Chatto, 1998), 243. J.H. Elliot also suggests that early-modern Englishmen recognized that there was wisdom in studying the enemy, but in this case, he is referring to ―Spain as a source of hypnotic fascination‖ for the English. See chapter 2 (―Learning from the Enemy‖) in Elliot (2009), 28-29. The Review was inaugurated, according to Defoe, so as to prove to the English people ―the Greatness of the French Nation.‖ Review, I, 9. In the next issue, Defoe claims that France had become the ―‖Terrour of Europe‖ and this was the result of the ―Growing Power of France.‖ Review, I, 17. 395 Carswell (1960), 4. 396 See Henry Kamen, ―The Destruction of the Spanish Silver Fleet at Vigo in 1702,‖ Historical Research 39 (1966), 165-173. 397 Review, I, 135a [137a]. 81 it abundantly clear that Defoe‘s scheme for a trade to the South-Sea was thoroughly linked to his understanding of the war itself.398 While there were a number of important political changes at the beginning of the eighteenth century that radically altered ―French competition with England in the commercial world of the West,‖ the most important factor by far was the decline of Spanish commercial power in the Americas.399 Spanish American trade was in decline, according to Henry Kamen, for two main reasons; the degeneration of Spanish naval forces and the ―increasing volume of European goods unloaded on to the American market by English and Dutch interlopers.‖400 This decline in the American trade was devastating for Spain, because as Defoe pointed out, this trade was how the Spanish ―be said really to Subsist.‖401 The French would take advantage of this degeneration of Spanish naval power and would begin to infiltrate their holdings in the South-Seas at a rapid pace with the onset of the war. As Dampier reported upon returning from his voyage in 1703, there were numerous ―French trading vessels along the Pacific coast [at this time],‖ and this was indicative of a wider pattern, given that ―in the years between 1695 and 1706 no fewer than 168 French merchant ships were fitted out for the South Sea.‖402 The increased support given by the French metropole to the sugar-producing island of Saint Domingue after the ratification of the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 would also result in a further increase in French activity in the Caribbean basin.403 The substantial gains made from this colony would in turn give rise to a greater emphasis by French authorities on expansion into the South-Sea region and in the America‘s more generally. This French expansion in the Americas was again part of a wider problem for Defoe, as the ―safety‖ of British power in the Americas, and British wealth at home, was

398 On the Anglo-French competition for commercial dominance in the Americas, see Charles Andrews, ―Anglo-French Commercial Rivalry, 1700-1750: The Western Phase, II,‖ The American Historical Review 20 (1914-15), 761-780. 399 Andrews (1915), 761. 400 Kamen (1969), 31. The illicit British trade Spanish America during this period was primarily based out of Jamaica, and consisted of trade in ―provisions, manufactured goods, and slaves.‖ This trade was valued by the British because the Spaniards paid for these commodities in silver and gold coinage. For a further discussion on this illicit trade, see Curtis Nettels, ―England and the Spanish America Trade, 1680-1715,‖ Journal of Modern History 3 (1931), 1-8. 401 Review, VIII, 183a. 402 Williams (2005), 120. 403 Andrews (1915), 761. 82 dependent on their ―being Masters of the Sea,‖ a position which seemed increasingly under threat to him throughout the war.404 For while the British had ―spread the ocean with vast Navies, and asserted [their] dominion of the Seas,‖ it was unclear how, if this was the case, the ―French with their flying Squadrons and Privateers have carryed on all their designs abroad and insulted our Trade as effectually as if they had been Masters of the Sea.‖405 Defoe would bemoan this, as he thought British forces ‖might easily have landed in America‖ and brought back ―whole Freights of Silver and Gold,‖ as the French had done ―during the last war…infinitely to our loss and to our dishonour.‖406 Through the further development of a trade to the South-Seas in this current conflict, the French had established what Defoe would call a ―Golden trade,‖ as there were ―Real gains‖ to be made in an open trade to New Spain, although it was clear to him that the British could not operate in the same manner as the French.407 It is evident that Defoe was aware of the potential benefits of a free trade, but he would repeatedly make the point to his reader that the possibility of Britain enjoying such a trade to the South-Seas was not possible. The primary reason for this difference between the British and French situations was that Louis XIV had, upon the accession of Philip to the Spanish throne; ―sent over Officers, Engineers, (and gradually Soldiers also) to the Spanish West-Indies, alledging at first, the Necessity to put the Spaniards there in a Posture of Defence, but after that, alledging the need of Maintaining the Coast against the Threatened Depredations of the English and Dutch— By this Artifice, the French are at this time in Garrison at Cartagena, at the Havana, at Portobello, at Panama… But at Lima, the French have a Formal Possession… Here the French have planted, many Families live in the Country round, and from hence along the Shoar of Peru and Chili, they have seiz‘d

404 Review, I, 130b. William Morgan would later claim that the ―lack of concrete advantages gained in the South Sea areas‖ led some contemporaries, like Defoe in this instance, to reflect on ―the inefficiency of the English navy.‖ See Morgan (1929), 22. 405 Ibid., 131a. In a 1713 tract on the British trade with Europe, Defoe argued that the French naval power had increased chiefly by the enlargement of their fishing fleets, as this was their primary ―Nursery of Seamen.‖ As a result, the French had become, in Defoe‘s opinion, ―so much stronger… by Sea, than either we or the Dutch alone.‖ Daniel Defoe, The Trade with France, Italy, Spain and Portugal Considered… (London, 1713), 8-9. 406 Review, I, 131b. By the ―last war‖ Defoe was referring to the War of the Grand Alliance, a conflict which ran from 1688 to 1697. For a complete discussion of the numerous commercial implications of this conflict, see G.N. Clark, The Dutch Alliance and the War Against French Trade 1688-1697 (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1923). 407 Review, IV, 402a. 83

several little Ports, where they are Settled and Fortify’d, and perhaps too strong to be easily dismiss‘d from thence.‖408

The French had, according to Defoe, taken advantage of the unique opportunities presented by the war to encroach upon Spanish possessions in the South-Seas, and in his opinion, the British could not realistically expect to do the same. It was for this reason that Defoe would insist that there was ―a manifest difference between [the British] Design… and the manner with which the French carry on the present Trade,‖ and if it was proven that there were no difference, he claimed he would then ―openly declare… That our Projected Trade to the South Seas would be impracticable in itself, destructive to the Interest of King Charles, and impossible to be continued beyond a PEACE.‖409 It was, in Defoe‘s estimation, ―most true, and we cannot help it, that our People run away with a Notion… That you are to have a Free Trade with the Spaniards.‖ The problem with this understanding of a South-Sea trade, according to Defoe, was that ―not a Word of the Spaniards Consent to this Free Trade is thought of in all this,‖ even though their consent was absolutely necessary for such a trade to take place.410 In pointing this out, Defoe in no way intended to ―discourage this New Undertaking,‖ which he believed was a ―very happy Design,‖ but rather hoped to ―Correct these wild Notions.‖411 He hoped to prevent the reader from ―filling [their], Heads with Notions of Things that are not, amusing yourselves at Home‖ and from ―alarming [their] Friends abroad with [these] Strange Things.‖412 These ―gross Errors‖ could be removed by time however, as a ―little Experience‖ might have the effect of opening the peoples ―Eyes about it.‖413 Defoe saw his writings in the Review as a means to remove the ―Scales from [the peoples] eyes,‖ and

408 Review, VIII, 178b. See also Ibid., 182b, where Defoe explains how 12 ships were ―fitted out at Rochell and other Ports that Year for the South-Seas, in which, not only greater Quantities of Goods were shipped than usual, but abundance of Cannon, Mortars, Bombs, Bullets, Arms, Ammunition, &c. As if they were preparing for a Campaign in America.‖ Defoe went on to describe the ―300 Passengers‖ which set out on these ships, including ―Officers… Merchants… Planters… Soldiers,‖ and explain how these people were ―dispers‘d in the Several Ports of the Kingdoms of Chili and Peru, as they found convenient.‖ 409 Ibid., 182b, 183a. 410 Ibid, 191a. 411 Ibid, 191b. 412 Ibid., 198a. For example, see Anon., A Letter From a Merchant in Amsterdam to a Friend in London... (London: 1712). 413 Ibid., 198b. 84 put ―plain Things in a plain Form,‖ in order to allow ―all‖ to come to a common understanding of the matter.414 Since the British would never be afforded a free trade with Spanish America as the French had established, it was thus necessary for the British to settle and fortify a colony in the region so as to carry out a South-Sea trade. There was, in Defoe‘s opinion, a ―manifest difference between carrying on a War in America and carrying on Trade there,‖ and his scheme for the trade would take this point into account. For although Defoe recognized that there were possible gains to be made ―without adding one cubit of earth‖ to the empire that the British ―already enjoy,‖ he also realized this was not necessarily a possibility after the war had subsided. Instead, Defoe thought the ―increase of [the British] colonies in America‖ should be encouraged ―by all possible methods,‖ as it was the most likely way of penetrating the region and the seemingly lucrative trade thither.415 It was for this reason that Defoe would complain about the failure of the Company of Scotland‘s Darien colony. In describing this project, which was launched in 1695, Defoe would write: ―The Isthmus of Darien, which joins North and South America together, and is but a few Leagues North of Darren, where our Brethren of Scotland fix‘d a Colony, which if we had Encourag‘d, might by this Time have been an excellent Footing for the South-Sea Trade.‖416

The failure of the this project was in large part due to a lack of provisions and a want of support, and this was for Defoe, a loss that could ―perhaps never be retrieved.‖417 In spite of his disappointment about this loss, Defoe would nonetheless point out that much could be learned from this (and other) prior attempts at infiltrating the region, arguing that the information to be garnered from these expeditions was ―of too much Service [in the present context] to be Contemn‘d.‖418

414 Ibid., 199a. 415 Ibid., 401a; I, 136b. According to Defoe, it was evident that the ―best possession we can desire of any country in Europe, Asia or Africa… is to have a free trade thither… The greatest Blessing Britain can enjoy, is to have peace, a quiet possession of that part of the World they do enjoy, and an open uninterrupted commerce with the rest.‖ Review, IV, 402b. But in the case of the Spanish Americas, Defoe thought the possibility of establishing such a trade was highly unlikely. 416 Ibid., 174b. 417 Ibid., 174b. 418 Ibid., 203b. As previously noted, Defoe‘s library contained a collection of Tracts Relating to the Colony of Darien. See Heidenreich (1970), 67. 85

Defoe would in turn propose that a colony be established on the Pacific coast of South America, for as he saw it, a colony located in this region would not infringe upon Spanish dominions, as they had not established any significant settlements in the area. As Defoe explained to his reader, it was his opinion that on the Pacific coast there was ―room enough… for us to Fix, Plant, Settle and Establish a Flourishing Trade‖ without encroaching upon the property or commerce of the Spaniards.419 Furthermore, this colony would be legally justified by the ―Sixth Article of the Second and last Treaty, call‘d the GRAND ALLIANCE,‖ which allowed for this type of territorial acquisition.420 Interestingly, Defoe calls this article the ―Legal Foundation of our new Undertaking to the South-Seas‖ and goes on to note the he ―thought it convenient to make [this article] Publick, for the information of those, that would Enquire upon what Ground we go, in an undertaking of this Nature.‖421 In utilizing a legal argument to justify British claims of a right to trade in this region, Defoe was in a sense legitimating his proposed scheme to his reader in the burgeoning legalistic language of his day. In addition to not infringing upon Spanish dominions, the ―Notion of a [British] Trade to the South-Seas‖ as Defoe understood it, and which he claimed ―the Nature of the Thing guides‖ all to understand it, could in fact could be beneficial for the Spanish, as it could possibly deliver them ―from the Encroachments of the French.‖422 For Defoe, it remained a ―stated Maxim in this Case, That the French must be remov’d from their Possession in America; That the Spaniards will not remove them till the War is over, and perhaps may not be able afterwards.‖423 By removing the French from the region during the war, the British would thus eliminate the possibility of the latter point about the French becoming so firmly entrenched that it would not be possible for the Spanish to remove them. And if the French were not removed, but instead were ―permitted to go on thus,‖ Defoe thought they would continue ―the War to the End of the World,‖ and if they eventually managed to overtake the Spaniards and came possession of Spain‘s American colonies, Spain would end up being a ―Nation not worth conquering, not worth Fighting

419 Review, VIII, 198b. 420 Ibid., 233a. Defoe would also note that the seizure ―of a Port or part of the Continent, which now by the Grand Alliance you are empowr‘d to do, and which, on a Peace, must be conceded to you by the Spaniards, has so many Consequences in it, Fruitful of infinite Advantages…‖ (emphasis added). Ibid., 203a-b. 421 Ibid, 233a. 422 Ibid, 199a, 198a. 423 Ibid., 183b. 86 for.‖424 The removal of the French from the South-Seas would thus not only advance Britain‘s own interests, but would also be a service to the Spanish as well. Arguing along similar lines, Defoe would note in a later Review, many of the Spanish merchants involved in the American trade, ―as soon as they came a little to be at liberty form French Influence,‖ began to represent to ―King Philip the Necessity his kingdom Stood in need of the English trade.‖ The reason for this was the fact that in spite of ―all their boasts,‖ the French could not take the same volume of Spanish exports as the British could.425 It was thus in Spain‘s best interest to engage in a trade with Britain, more so than with France, for Britain could absorb far greater quantities of Spanish American exports. While it was, according to Defoe, undeniable that there were going to be ―Difficulties in the work‖ of removing the French from the South-Seas, he suggested that these difficulties were not ―to be taken for Discouragements, for every Difficulty is not a Discouragement.‖426 Though the task of removing the French from South America was going to require a concerted effort on the part of Britain‘s navy, Defoe thought it was wholly necessary if the British trade to the region was going to be successful, as there could be ―no Trade… no Commerce without it.‖427 And while the information Defoe provided his reader suggested that the French had become relatively entrenched in their positions, Defoe nonetheless repeatedly argued that their removal remained a real possibility. The scheme Defoe proposed for a trade to the South-Seas was thus highly contingent on the outcome of the war, in the sense that the advances the French had made into the region would have to reversed, and the establishment of a British colony on the Pacific coast of Spanish America would have to take place. At the time of his proposing his scheme in the summer of 1711 however, the war remained ongoing and thus the outcome remained uncertain, particularly amongst Defoe‘s readership, who would not have had access to reliable information about the outcomes of the conflicts on the European continent or the diplomatic negotiations between the major powers. This uncertainty would undoubtedly affect these people‘s expectations of the trade, as would

424 Ibid., 183b. 425 Review, VIII, 371b. 426 Review, VIII, 213a-b. 427 Ibid., 213b. 87 the uncertainty arising from the prospect of a peace treaty that eliminated the possibility of establishing a colony. It was for this reason that Defoe advocated to his readers not rushing into a peace, as he believed the prospects of a South-Sea trade might ―be in a better Condition for a little longer continuance of the War, than a speedy Peace.‖428 Interestingly, Robert Harley, head of the Tory ministry, in whose service Defoe was employed, seems to have wanted a peace at any cost.429 Defoe, on the other hand recognized that this might not be the most beneficial course of action for British interests, and despite his relationship with Harley, he would remain an advocate of the continuance of hostilities throughout the fall of 1711, for in his mind, Britain had to win the peace, and not just the war in order to establish a successful trade to the South-Seas. *************** By the fall of 1711, the war was slowly coming to a conclusion, and unbeknownst to the majority of Britons, secret negotiations for the settlement of a peace were well underway in Europe.430 In Britain, the debates about the terms of a peace would take place in a domestic political environment fraught with severe partisan tensions, as the Sacheverell affair had led to the fall of the Whig ministry and the rise to power of Robert Harley and his Tory party.431 These domestic political tensions would come to introduce additional uncertainty into the market environment, a point which is important for understanding contemporaries evaluations of the prospects for a South-Sea trade. As Bruce Carruthers has previously argued, the joint-stock company was a ―pillar of public finance‖ and as such was ―directly implicated in the very political process of helping to pay for two expensive and controversial wars.‖432 This would lead to partisan tensions being expressed in the domain of commerce and trade, as the joint-stock companies were, according to Carruthers, ―as much political organizations as they were economic ones.‖433 Since the South-Sea Company was a Tory-backed endeavour, Defoe would claim that members of the Whig party would attempt to undermine the project by

428 Ibid., 342a. 429 Virginia Cowles, The Great Swindle: The Story of the South Sea Bubble (London: Collins, 1960), 26-32. 430 Paul Kléber Monod, Imperial Island: A History of Britain and Its Empire, 1660-1837 (Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 119. See also James W. Gerard, The Peace of Utrecht (New York: J.P. Putnam‘s Sons, 1885), 209. 431 Monod (2009), 118. 432 Carruthers (1996), 137. 433 Ibid., 25. 88 manipulating the market price of the Company‘s stock through the dissemination of rumours and misinformation.434 In addressing these partisan tensions in the Review, Defoe would complain that Britain had turned into a ―miserable divided Nation… for many Years past,‖ as both the Whigs and the Tories were so consumed by their desire to ―Overthrow one another‖ that they placed this goal before the nation‘s wider interests, something he found deeply lamentable.435 A resolute advocate of moderation, as previously mentioned, Defoe would repeatedly claim in the Review that he could never be ―frightened by Parties, or brib‘d by Persuasions.‖436 And although today it is possible to accuse Defoe of hypocrisy, given our knowledge of his employment by Harley, in his day this was kept secret from his readership, although some of his Whig contemporaries would criticize him for being a Tory hack, as they likely had heard rumours about his relationship with Harley.437 It is nonetheless possible that in advocating for moderation, Defoe was trying to persuade his reader that he was an independent and reasonable commentator who was above party, and whose authority could be relied upon. In addition, by attempting to appeal to the widest audience possible, regardless of their political affiliations, Defoe would have attracted more readers to his Review, obviously something he would hope to accomplish. Whatever his motivations for doing so, the Review does contain many appeals for moderation, particularly in times of social and political unrest, and this was especially visible in the fall of 1711. For example, in October, while addressing the negotiations of a peace, Defoe would appeal for moderation and the ―Defence of that True Interest of [his] Country.‖438 In addition, in late November Defoe would present his reader with a ―Useful Digression‖ in which he argued that nothing was ―more evident, than that whether Whig or Tory, Moderation is our great want in this Nation, I wish both sides more of it, before they learn it by their mutual Disasters.‖439 From these statements, it is relatively obvious

434 Virginia Cowles points out that the Bank of England ―was a Whig creation, whereas the South-Sea Company had been brought into the world and nurtured by Tories.‖ This would lead to significant competition between these two Companies for the contract to refinance of the government‘s outstanding floating debt. Cowles (1960), 84. 435 Review, VIII, 489a. 436 Ibid., 413b 437 John J. Richetti, The Life of Daniel Defoe (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2005), 126. 438 Ibid., 413b. 439 Ibid., 425a-b. 89 that Defoe tried to encourage his readership to refrain from succumbing to the ―rage of party,‖ even though he was employed by Harley‘s Tory government, as he thought this ―rage‖ was contrary to the nation‘s wider commercial and political interests.440 Robert Harley‘s proposal to Parliament, which was first moved on 2 May 1711 and finally approved on 10 September 1711, had as its aim the establishment of a joint- stock company which would both refinance the governments‘ £9 million unsecured debt and have monopoly rights over all British trade in the South-Seas.441 In Carswell‘s estimation, this plan was ―politically speaking… a marvellous synthesis of finance, commerce, and foreign policy.‖442 But the scheme‘s ―marvellous synthesis‖ would also further fuzzy the nebulous boundaries between the ―Publick Credit‖ and the markets for stocks and other funds. Defoe in fact recognized this, and advocated for a clear separation between the Company‘s two undertakings.443 As Defoe repeated in both the Review and in his widely read Essay on the South Sea Trade, he ―heartily wish[ed]‖: ―1. That those Two likely and encouraging Prospects of the publick Good had not been thus unhappily join‘d. 2. That the Parliament man, if it pleases God so far to enlighten them, yet separate them, or rather restore them to their Independent Existence, which I doubt not would equally satisfie the People concern‘d, the First Proposer, and the whole Nation.‖444

Defoe recognized that there was a danger inherent in conflating the refinancing of the governments‘ debt and the trade to the South-Seas, as he thought that this could lead to a confusion between the ―South Sea stock‖ and the ―Parliament Fund.‖ This confusion in turn could provide partisan interests with ample opportunity to undermine the ―Publick Credit.‖ It would seem that Defoe, in explaining the distinction between these two distinct types of fund, and advocating for the separation of the Company‘s undertakings,

440 As previously noted, Furbank and Owens suggest that Defoe and Harley both shared a belief that the government should be ‗above‘ party. Furbank and Owens (2000), 22-23. 441 Carswell (1966), 54-56. 442 Ibid., 53. 443 Review, VIII, 281a. 444 Daniel Defoe, An Essay on the South-Sea Trade. With an Enquiry into the Grounds and Reasons of the present Dislike and Complaint against the Settlement of a South-Sea Company (London: 1712), 47. This tract circulated widely, as indicated by the fact that it went into multiple editions in a very short period of time. 90 hoped to show to his readers that a ―fall of the Stocks, simply consider‘d, is [not] any Fall of the Publick Credit.‖445 By October 1711, Defoe was resolutely focused on the questions surrounding the settlement of a peace in his writings in the Review. In fact, Defoe would digress on ―Witches and Witchcraft‖ in one Review late in the month, for he thought that his readers would appreciate ―some little Intervals in all Things of Length.‖446 In explaining his position on the peace to his reader in the Review of October 13, Defoe argued that both a ―Protestant Succession‖ in Spain and a ―British Commerce to the Spanish Dominion‖ must be secured by a peace treaty, and if these were ―not secur‘d, no Peace can be Safe or Honourable… If these are not effectually secur‘d, tho‘ you had Spain and all the Spanish Dominions, you have made both War and Peace to no purpose.‖447 It is clear that Defoe believed that a peace which did not secure a British trade to the South-Seas was unacceptable, and would result in the wasting of the resources, such as money, ships and men, which had been poured into the war effort. The peace that was eventually secured in 1713 did in fact secure a trade to the South-Seas, although it was to be a tightly-regulated trade. The Asiento treaty, as Carswell explains: ―was signed as part of the settlement of Utrecht on 26 March 1713…the contract for supplying negroes was of the unprecedented duration of thirty years… would furnish the Spanish colonies with 4,800 negroes a year under conditions of great elaborateness and complexity. In furtherance of the contract, the company was to be allowed establishments (but not, as had been hoped, extraterritoriality) at the seven ports of Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cartagena, Havana, Panama, Portobello, and Vera Cruz. Finally, they would be allowed to send on a direct trading voyage to one of these stations a ship of not more than 500 tons, one quarter of the profits being reserved for the King of Spain.‖448

While Defoe thought that the British acquirement of the Asiento was an acceptable settlement, which could provide access to the Spanish American trade, he argued that the only way to make this trade profitable was through the acquisition of slaves in Africa, and that this required the establishment of a new joint-stock company that would focus on

445 Review, VIII, 282a. As noted in the previous chapter, in Defoe‘s understanding the ―Publick Credit‖ was secure as the loan was extended by ―the People‖ to ―the People.‖ If these loans were not honoured, if ―the Parliament is not good,‖ the British people had more significant problems than the government‘s insolvency, as if this was the case, Defoe argued that ―your Banks, your Lands, your Lives are not secure.‖ Ibid., 281b. 446 Review, VIII, 361a. 447 Ibid., 352b. 448 Carswell (1960), 65. 91 this task. As he explained in February 1712, a year before the treaty was signed, an ―African Trade [was] absolutely necessary, to the Support and carrying on a Trade to the South-Seas,‖ for if a reliable and consistent source of slaves could not be established, it was ―not easie to say, how the Trade to the South-Seas can be carried on without it.‖449 It seems likely that the Defoe‘s readers would have been very uncertain about the outcomes of the conclusion of the war and the peace settlement in late 1711 and early 1712. This would have left them vulnerable to the influence of misinformation and rumour, and as Defoe repeatedly forewarned, this left the public credit at risk of being undermined by the machinations of partisan stock-jobbers. Defoe repeatedly warned his reader to be weary of these rumour-mongering partisans and not to let their expectations of a South-Sea trade get the better of them. In fact, Defoe would declare to his reader that his reason for addressing the South Sea trade and the Company‘s prospects in the Review was to ensure that they knew ―what they ought to understand by a Trade to the South Sea and what not,‖ in order to prevent the ―People‖ from growing ―big with bewildered Expectations from it.‖450 The term expectation was, in its early-modern usage, defined as a ―looking, longing, or waiting for,‖ and in this context referred to making speculative judgements about inherently uncertain future states of the world.451 For Defoe then, the formulation of expectations was inextricably linked to the act of ―Fore-Saying,‖ which in this context, referred to the act of prediction.452 Fore-saying was related to both ―French treating,‖ and its abridgement stock-jobbing, as ―all the old Subtilties of Trick, Cheat, Fore-saying and Back-saying are laudable receiv‘d‖ in these pursuits.453 Defoe thus drew a relation between the acts of fore-saying and prediction and the potential for dishonesty and deceitfulness, given that he associated these actions with stock-jobbing, trickery and cheating. Defoe evidently thought that the British people‘s expectations of the South Sea project could thus be manipulated by the spreading of false, dishonest and deceitful predictions, or in his own words, rumours, via the periodical and pamphlet presses, and this caused him grave concern. He repeatedly points out throughout the summer of 1711

449 Review, VIII, 559b. 450 Ibid., 191b. 451 Bailey (1731). 452 Review, VI, 111a. 453 Ibid., 111a. Treating, in the sense Defoe was using it here, referred to ―bribery and corruption by feasting.‖ See OED Online. The term could also mean ―to be upon a treaty or bargain; to compound for a debt.‖ Bailey (1721). 92 that Britons were ―intent on [their] new Adventures,‖ with Sir Hovendon Walker‘s expedition to New France underway and the trade to the South Sea beginning to take shape. Defoe claimed that these adventures had made Briton‘s ―eyes big with Expectations and promises of Success every where,‖ but he warned that they could soon find themselves ―all of a suddain,‖ in a ―Damp, or cold Sweat.‖454 Defoe claimed that in laying out his scheme for the South Sea trade in the Review, he would his reader ―to expect nothing but what is reasonable to expect,‖ and thus prevent them from raising ―Views and Prospects of Impossibilities and impracticable Whymsies,‖ thus discouraging their laying the ―Foundation of their own Disappointments.‖455 Unreasonable expectations, for Defoe, consisted in thinking: ―of nothing but seizing the Spanish West-Indies, that every Ship you send, must bring Home Potosi, and the Gold of the Andes… If you will propose immediately Shipping, the prodigious Glut of your Manufacture, &c. which now fills your mouth with bluster, and talk of nothing but bringing Home Freights of Gold and Silver—What does this all tend to but Disappointment, that Disappointment Discontent, that Discontent Murmuring and Reflection, and at last, downright Railery and Reproach at the Undertaking and the Undertakers, calling them Cheats and Deluders of the Nation, and a Thousand such Things?‖456

This statement suggests that Defoe recognized it was unreasonable to expect to reap enormous rewards from a South Sea trade in a short period of time. Rather, Defoe thought that it would take a certain amount of time to establish this trade and see a return on the investment. Importantly, Defoe also points out here how the formulation of unreasonable expectations had led some to feel a sense of disappointment, and as a result, they would wrongly, in Defoe‘s estimation, accuse all those who supported this trade of corruption and knavery. *************** While it is difficult to establish with any certainty what Defoe‘s underlying ideological point was in advocating a trade to the South-Seas, it seems that in large part, he hoped to influence his readers to develop what he deemed to be reasonable expectations of this venture, as he long recognized the danger posed to the public credit by the stock-jobbers and the unreasonable exuberance that could be initiated by their

454 Review, VIII, 201a. 455 Ibid., 214a. 456 Ibid., 203a. 93 rumour mongering. For while Defoe, like many of his contemporaries, was concerned with locating new sources of gold and silver, as he deemed these substances necessary for the continued expansion of British overseas trade, he thought it unreasonable to expect that the establishment of a South-Sea trade would lead to an immediate reduction in the ―prodigious glut‖ in British manufactures and a substantial influx of bullion. Rather, he thought it was reasonable to assume that it would take time to establish this trade and see a return on the investment. Defoe was very much concerned with the development of these unreasonable expectations, as he thought that they could lay the foundations for the people‘s disappointment. This disappointment in turn could undermine Britain‘s position in the wider international political context, as any contraction in available credit would restrict the government‘s ability to carry on hostilities, and thus force the acceptance of a peace on unfavourable terms. Related to this latter point was Defoe‘s profound concern for defeating the French in the competition for colonial dominance and the planting of the Americas, as he thought that the increase of French power in the Americas directly threatened Britain‘s overseas trade and the safety of the Protestant cause in Europe. It is also important to note that the information Defoe deemed relevant for determining the potential of a South-Sea trade was not quantitative, in the sense that he was not concerned with discussing the Company‘s share price with his reader. Rather, Defoe‘s emphasis at the time of the South-Sea Company‘s founding was on providing his reader with basic qualitative information about the region and a trade thereto. Defoe would provide his reader with information about the history of the region and its people, thus situating the British trade in a wider historical context of European expansion. He would also address the region‘s geography and demographics, conveying to his readers his understanding of the region‘s size and the location of the major ports and cities, so as to exhibit that his plan for establishing a colony on the Pacific coast was feasible. Finally, he would provide detailed information about the sorts of commodities the region exported and what sorts of British manufactures would likely be imported, obviously useful for understanding whether this trade had potential. This qualitative information was relevant, according to Defoe, because the Company‘s prospects were very much dependent on the establishment of a successful trade to region, and this could not be done without a solid understanding of these basic elements. 94

Conclusion In attempting to reconstruct an epistemological framework within which early- modern investors could have made financial decisions, and in order to come to an understanding of early-modern economic rationality and economic action, this paper has presented a close-reading of one emblematic source, Defoe‘s Review of the Affairs of the British Nation. Defoe‘s writings in the Review clearly show that the language in which certain contemporaries framed their discussions of commerce and trade was laden with providential, moralistic and naturalistic overtones. This language was infused with a deep sense of mystery, the result a belief that the ―Invisible hand‖ of God was actively engaged in the physical world, which indicates that in Defoe‘s understanding, mankind‘s agency was inherently limited. This language also shows that Defoe was addressing himself to a readership that he assumed was concerned with questions of morality, meaning they made judgements about actions in terms of certain qualities and principles, such as truthfulness, honesty and virtue. Finally, this language shows that Defoe assumed that his readership was reasonable, in that they made judgements about information and truth-claims regarding the natural world according to the ―rules of reason,‖ which were based on argument and proof.457 In a sense then, by framing his arguments in such language and in assuming these things about his reader, Defoe was advancing a conception of ―economic man‖ who acted in the domain of commerce and trade in accordance with a complex understanding of the world in which providential, moralistic and naturalistic elements were inextricably linked, albeit not in a systematized manner. This reading of the Review has also given rise to an appreciation for a point which certain scholars, such as Michel Foucault and Margaret Schabas, have previously recognized; early-modern conceptions of commerce and trade emphasized ―specific phenomena,‖ such as money and credit, rather ―than on an overarching system by which the pieces fit together.‖458 At the time of Defoe‘s writing the Review, the emergence of a conception of the economy as a distinct domain in which interactions can ―be explained as an act of exchange with an implicit price‖ had yet to occur.459 Rather, during this period, contemporaries acted according to a confused mess of ideas about exchanges

457 Bailey (1731). 458 Schabas (2005), 2. 459 Ibid., 1. 95 valued in monetary terms, and struggled to define and relate the basic elements of commerce and trade, such as money and credit. In addition, as Defoe‘s writings in the Review make apparent, during this period there existed significant overlaps between the various domains of knowledge production. This recognition is central for reconstructing the epistemological framework in which early-modern investors made decisions, given that these decisions were influenced by moral and political considerations in addition to considerations of financial gain. As for the many outstanding questions that this study has left unanswered, there are two in particular which could be fruitfully addressed in the future. First, while this study relies heavily on one textual source, and thus provides only a limited insight into the wider epistemological context of the period, it would be interesting to see whether or not the conclusions drawn from this reading of the Review would hold up to close- readings of other important sources of public information circulating in this period, such as the Tatler, the Examiner or the Spectator. Second, this study is also limited by its focus on a narrow period of time, and so it would also be interesting to see if the information Defoe deemed relevant for making investment decisions changed in the period between the cessation of the Review and the bursting of the Bubble in 1720. In summary, while this study has not conclusively determined whether investors in the South-Sea Company made rational decisions by purchasing shares in this venture, by investigating the epistemological framework within which contemporaries evaluated the truthfulness and reliability of the information available to them, this study has established that, contrary to what Shea and others have assumed, the financial world of the early-modern period is undeniably remote to the financial world of today.

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