Mutiny and Trade (Chris Yi)
In the age of discovery, the Pacific was the global center of adventure that allowed nations and individuals to experience the unknown and become successful. As identified by Reid in The Sea Is My Country, examining the Pacific shows how Europeans practiced a “variable distribution of resources” as they familiarized themselves with the abundant resources and opportunities in the Pacific.[6] By doing so, Europeans “fueled an extensive trade network” that became “one of the defining qualities” of the Pacific.[7] Reid’s analysis identifies how the trade and distribution of resources between native occupants and European settlers established itself as a staple of economic activity in the Pacific space. This is further supported by Yokota’s statement that “the development of transpacific trade propelled America from colonial periphery to neo-imperial center by taking advantage of its geographical location between two oceanic systems”.[8] Something about Pacific’s locational advantages and offerings were different – it was quickly realized that access and control of the Pacific was necessary for success. While Europeans had initially fantasized about the Pacific’s potential, Americans had a very different understanding of Pacific opportunity: “for them, the Pacific’s natural resources and trade opportunities were already a given rather than a possibility; whalers knew this from their decades of activity in the ocean”.[9] The Pacific represented something greater, serving as a barrier between America and whatever it dreamed of achieving. Igler identifies how “even some of the nation’s foremost opponents of territorial expansion lauded the Pacific whaling fleet as an advance guard of economic and political imperialism”.[10] To all global powers, controlling the Pacific meant an absolute domination of its trade enterprise. While the initial attractiveness of the Pacific was rooted in the eventual trade benefits, its terraqueous influence and geopolitical importance were what created its more modern influence and history.
As mentioned previously, it were the American and European whalers that were first to identify the Pacific’s greater circle of influence. In the 1830s, the bulk of “American maritime interests in the Pacific” were represented by “New England whalers”.[11] As noted by Michener in Rascals in Paradise, whaling was “the great American industry” and “its ramifications were manifold”.[12] The influence and growth of American whaling in the Pacific is best seen by following the story of Samuel B. Comstock, a harpooner from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Comstock “first saw the thundering expanse of the South Seas” through whaling - he realized then that the largest fortunes the world had ever seen “were made pursuing the largest of all mammals through the most distant oceans”.[13] As a “model young mariner”, Comstock quickly found himself at the center of the thriving whale trade: the demand for whale products had risen quickly as they became crucial commodities around the world.[14] The products of whaling – whale oil lamps, spermaceti wax candles, machinery lubricated by sperm oil, and whale soap and paints – created riches that changed lives.[15] Sam was instantly overcome with Pacific dreams of glory: he was convinced his whaling fortunes would make him king of some distant Pacific island. Seeing the extended impacts of whaling, Comstock experienced firsthand the Pacific’s greater influence - the benefits of whaling were critical to economic and global expansion. Sam’s realization had confirmed the American expansionists’ vision that the “far western lands” were “part of a continental destiny”.[16]
This was only possible because Comstock wasn’t the only whaler that recognized the Pacific’s greater influence. By “acting through their own private initiative”, the American whalers “beat the nation to what some people perceived as the end objective”.[17] Even before America as a nation decided to rule the Pacific, American whalers had done so mindlessly. While both the whale oil and fur trades were important in the Pacific, the extended importance of whaling contributed to the Pacific’s growth as the most important economic zone. Whalers recognized that their product was used regularly and that the areas available for whaling were limited – the demand for whale products was greater than the available supply. As the competition for whaling areas escalated, they served as demonstrations of power and wealth that escalated to a global scale. Knowing that the gains from whaling were key drivers of national development, and nations began prioritizing the Pacific for its abundant resources. Igler recognizes the eventual benefit of American Pacific dominance: as the Americans controlled the main trade routes, they were able to practice their new philosophy of free trade. America was able to “rationalize the nation's continental empire in the mid-nineteenth century”.[18] As American practice and policy shifted away from its imperial past, it initiated the creation of trade systems along the Pacific that promoted a “period of tremendous transformation” around the globe and in America.[19]
In the Pacific, land was deemed connected to the surrounding seas, and its domination over the whaling enterprises gave America control over the oceans and lands it operated in. American eagerness to dominate the whale trade had strongly correlated to their control over the Pacific seas, and subsequently the lands connected to and near them. This was exactly Sam Comstock’s reason for mutiny: he dreamt of “high adventure on the seas and sovereignty”.[20] In essence, Comstock’s desire to control a ship was no different than the American interests to control the Pacific. There was an eerie correlation between Comstock’s mutiny and the American near monopoly in the Pacific: both were “simple,” “straightforward,” and “completely practical”.[21] If Sam Comstock’s mutiny were to succeed, he would fulfil his end goal of becoming a king and ruling his own Pacific lands: the crew members of the Globe were already prepared and everything was in place to seize the ship and take over as Captain. Similarly, America’s eventual control over the Pacific seas would place the nation at the center of the world’s trade network and riches: the abundance of American whalers had already established control in the Pacific Ocean, and all was in place for American governance.
Eventually, American traders were able to achieve their commercial success: they were able to overcome their colonial past and the discouraging conditions that deprived them of opportunities. In So Great a Proffit, Fichter identifies the many advantages of “Americans’ mutual competition and more-effective organization” and how America added a “layer of economic self-interest” to the trade environment.[22] The self-interest added by the American whalers in the Pacific economy is in parallel to the introduction of American capitalism into the greater global economy. The correlation between the Pacific and world economy cannot be overlooked; Igler argues that the places where “the great hunt for marine mammals transpired... were only small and obscure in comparison to the surrounding world’s interconnected markets and production networks”.[23] Perhaps, the Pacific system of trade was a microcosm of the global economy and trade system, with America’s participation and influence in the Pacific having unforeseen effects in markets around the world.
Find Rascals in Paradise on Google Books: https://books.google.co.kr/books/about/Rascals_in_Paradise.html?id=YnkrAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
Bibliography
Bashford, Alison. “Terraqueous Histories.” The Historical Journal 60, no. 2 (2017): 253-72. doi:10.1017/s0018246x16000431.
Chang, David A. The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2016.
Fichter, James R. So Great a Proffit: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
Igler, David. The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Matsuda, Matt K. “The Pacific.” The American Historical Review 111, no. 3 (2006): 758-80.
Michener, James A., A. Grove Day, and Steve Berry. Rascals in Paradise. New York: Dial Press, 2016.
Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, an Indigenous Borderlands People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
Yokota, Kariann Akemi. “Transatlantic and Transpacific Connections in Early American History.” Pacific America, 2017. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824855765.003.0003.
[1] Chang, David A. The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2016, 20.
[2] Matsuda, Matt K. “The Pacific.” The American Historical Review 111, no. 3 (2006): 775.
[3] Bashford, Alison. “Terraqueous Histories.” The Historical Journal 60, no. 2 (2017): 262. doi:10.1017/s0018246x16000431.
[4] Bashford, Alison, 264.
[5] Igler, David. The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 125.
[6] Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, an Indigenous Borderlands People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018, 34.
[7] Reid, Joshua L., 34.
[8] Yokota, Kariann Akemi. “Transatlantic and Transpacific Connections in Early American History.” Pacific America, 2017, 36. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824855765.003.0003.
[9] Igler, David, 125.
[10] Igler, David, 125.
[11] Igler, David, 125.
[12] Michener, James A., A. Grove Day, and Steve Berry. Rascals in Paradise. New York: Dial Press, 2016, 3.
[13] Michener, James A., et al., 4.
[14] Michener, James A., et al., 2.
[15] Michener, James A., et al., 2.
[16] Igler, David, 125.
[17] Igler, David, 125.
[18] Igler, David, 23.
[19] Igler, David, 20.
[20] Michener, James A., et al., 2.
[21] Michener, James A., et al., 3.
[22] Fichter, James R. So Great a Proffit: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010, 28.
[23] Igler, David, 124.