British Discovery Literature and the Rise of Global Commerce

British Discovery Literature And The Rise Of Global Commerce Examines How, Between 1680 And 1800, British Maritime Travellers Became Both Friends And Foes Of The Commercial State. These Nomadic Characters Report On Remote Parts Of The Globe In The Twin Contexts Of An Increasingly Powerful Imperial State And An Emerging World Economy. Examining Voyage Narratives By William Dampler, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, James Cook, And William Bligh, Neill Demonstrates How The Transformation Of Travellers From Nomadic Outlaws Into Civil Subjects , And Vice Versa, Takes Place Against The Political-economic Backdrop Of Commercial Expansion. "British Discovery Literature and the Rise of Global Commerce examines how, between 1680 and 1800, British maritime travellers became both friends and foes of the commercial state. These nomadic characters report on remote parts of the globe in the twin contexts of an increasingly powerful imperial state and an emerging world economy." "Anna Neill explores how travellers who have drifted beyond the reach of state power are depicted as 'savage' creatures of a state of nature that knows little of government and even less of commerce. Examining voyage narratives by William Dampier, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, James Cook and William Bligh, the author demonstrates how the transformation of travellers from nomadic outlaws into civil subjects, and vice versa, takes place against the political-economic background of commercial expansion. Such narratives, Neill argues, can both illustrate the increasing sophistication of global capitalism, while also revealing how the very encounter with the non-European world provoked new expressions of resistance to commercial imperialism."--BOOK JACKET Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: Commerce, Society and the Sea Voyage....Pages 1-30 Buccaneer Ethnography: Nature, Culture and State in the Journals of William Dampier....Pages 31-51 International Trade and Individual Enterprise: Defoe’s Maritime Adventurers....Pages 52-82 Swift and the Geographers: Race, Space and Merchant Capital in Gulliver’s Travels....Pages 83-119 Roderick Random, Rasselas and the Currents of Fancy....Pages 120-148 South Seas Trade and the Character of Captains....Pages 149-179 Conclusion: Global Commerce and Homelessness....Pages 180-184 Back Matter....Pages 185-229