England's Baltic Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century Trade: A Study in Anglo-Polish Commercial Diplomacy

England's relationship with the Baltic trading area has remained a generally neglected aspect of English commercial development in the seventeenth century. The spectacular colonial ventures have traditionally attracted more historical attention, although the Baltic trade in this period was more fundamental to the English economy: it supplied precisely those naval commodities, such as flax, hemp, timber, pitch and tar, which facilitated the creation of fleets for the colonial trades. Medieval English trade had been conditioned by a search for markets, and the predominantly agricultural economy of the Polish Commonwealth proved to be an ideal target for cloth exports. By the early seventeenth century, however, this traditional relationship was changing. The growing English fleets demanded steady supplies of naval stores which Poland was increasingly unable to supply, while the Polish economy, weakened by wars and entering a period of decline, could no longer afford the luxury of cloth imports from England. This book examines the critical period of adjustment and the responses by both English and Polish governments to a changing economic reality. Ultimately unable to preserve the privileges and trade of its chartered merchants in Poland, the English government was forced to acquiesce in an expanding search for naval commodities which took English merchants to the lands of the Baltic littoral conquered by Sweden. This book therefore demonstrates an important change which was taking place in the English economy during the period; and gives a concrete example of the economic implications and results of the struggle between Poland and Sweden for control of the Baltic Sea. It is a case study of the manner in which political and economic objectives interacted during the mercantilist era. -- from back cover J. K. Fedorowicz. A Revision Of The Author's Thesis, Cambridge University. Bibliography: P. 311-324. Includes Index.