A fascinating late seventeenth-century commercial manuscript recording ships, masters and cargoes trading between England and Hamburg, together with a separate register of vessels arriving from Newcastle, providing valuable evidence for Anglo-German maritime commerce during the Restoration period.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Anonymous.
Title: "Names of masters and their ships wch. came from England to Hambourg 1682..." and "Names of masters of ships arrived from Newcastle..."
Date: 1682.
Format: Original manuscript bifolium in ink on watermarked laid paper, written on all four sides and docketed on the final page "1682 Ships from England coming to Hambg."
Paper Size: 35.5 × 23 cm.

Condition

Fair only. General wear to the paper with losses along the edges and lower central fold. Some manuscript entries are affected, with partial loss to three rows and details relating to approximately three or four vessels. General age-toning and light creasing. The docket panel is browned and dusty from prolonged exposure while folded, as commonly encountered with working commercial manuscripts of the period. Please ask if you require a more detailed condition report, or view gallery images closely.

Description

A rare and highly informative Restoration-era shipping manuscript recording merchant vessels engaged in trade between England and Hamburg during 1682, together with a second list documenting ships arriving from Newcastle. Prepared as a contemporary working record, the manuscript arranges the information in tabular form, listing the masters of ships, their vessels and, significantly, the nature of their cargoes.

Hamburg was one of England's most important commercial partners during the late seventeenth century, acting as a major gateway to the markets of northern Europe and the Baltic. English merchants exported a wide variety of manufactured goods, textiles, colonial produce and metals, while importing timber, naval stores, grain and other commodities essential to the expanding English economy. Documents recording the day-to-day operation of this trade survive in far smaller numbers than official printed records, making contemporary manuscripts of this kind particularly valuable.

The second section records vessels arriving from Newcastle, then Britain's principal coal-exporting port. Newcastle coal fuelled homes, industries and overseas markets throughout north-west Europe, and the movement of collier fleets formed one of the most important components of England's coastal and international trade. The manuscript therefore sheds light upon both overseas commerce and the domestic distribution networks that underpinned the nation's economic growth.

Although some losses occur along the lower fold and fore-edge, the great majority of the entries remain legible, preserving a wealth of information relating to individual ships, their masters and cargoes. As a working commercial document, it offers an unusually direct glimpse into the organisation of seventeenth-century maritime trade rather than the official summaries found in later published sources.

An excellent survival from the age of Restoration commerce, appealing equally as a manuscript document, a maritime record and an important source for the economic history of England's overseas trade.

Notes

A rare contemporary shipping record documenting merchant traffic between England and Hamburg, together with Newcastle shipping, during the reign of Charles II.

Particularly desirable for collectors of maritime history, shipping, merchant trade, Hamburg, Newcastle, coal trade, commercial manuscripts, Restoration England and seventeenth-century economic history.