Professor Parry has written just the sort of book one would expect: learned, lucid, and a little bit labyrinthine. His stated purpose is “to trace in outline the development of the European maritime Empires in the eighteenth century; to define the factors which stimulated the expansion of European commercial and political influence outside Europe; and to describe briefly the consequences, both for Europeans themselves and for the peoples of the areas where they operated.” Happily his purview encompasses not the short eighteenth century, 1715-1789, but the long one, roughly 1689-1815. And felicitously, his thematic focus of trade and dominion—their subtly shifting relationships, sometimes unanticipated, oftentimes by design—is recurrent but controlled, explanatory without being forced. Parry’s sure judgment with respect to his unifying themes brings to mind an observation made by the late Richard Pares in 1935: “Historians must never give up the struggle to make sense of history, but they must also guard against making too much sense. They must allow most of all for vagueness and uncertainty in the history of colonization and exploration, where most of all had to be left to ignorance and chance.”
Because this book is at once suitable for scholars and general readers, advanced undergraduates and graduate students (one hopes that it will soon be available in soft covers), it would be well to indicate its organization and contents. Given the breadth and diffuseness of his materials, matters of structure and flow must have presented Parry with serious problems; but he has mastered them to a remarkable degree. Trade and Dominion is at once solid with data yet fluid in its conciseness and course; there is no gas. There are brilliant introductory and concluding essays which offer fresh, bold, and sophisticated generalizations. In between there are four large sections: “The Areas of Operation,” “Collisions and Mutinies [a curious euphemism for political rebellions],” “The Second Age of Discovery,” and “Alterations of Course.” Clearly the volume, or vessel, is controlled by nautical metaphors; and there are admirable chapters on ships and sailors, charts and navigators, as well as voyages, which contribute significantly to the history of science, cartography, and marine architecture.
While much of the narrative will be familiar to one or another specialist, precious few will have this larger, integrative view, or the masterful control of diverse details, the sure understanding of economics, the innovative use of neglected sources such as pictures of sailing ships, descriptions in Admiralty passes, and inventories which accompanied Admiralty court appraisements. Many discriminating comparisons are made, not only between various imperial circumstances, but also between “the second age of discovery,” the age of Cook, and the earlier Age of Reconnaissance (1450-1650) which Parry knows equally well. There are also meaningful contrasts drawn between European colonies in the New World and trading posts in the Far East and southern Pacific.
There are a few features one might question, and some scholars will. Parry’s orientation is centrifugal, with western Europe as the center, rather than centripetal. His perspective is primarily from the metropolitan bases, rather than from the outlying satellites; and he is occasionally (albeit unintentionally) pejorative toward native peoples: somewhat more inclined, for example, to note the North American Indians’ “traditionally barbarous methods of fighting and of torturing prisoners” than the brutality of Europeans toward indigenous societies. But all in all, a superb synthesis in the best sense: imaginative, rebable, with terms well-defined, masterful exposition in both the narrative and analytical passages, flashes of wit, 90 fine illustrations and 7 maps. This is a rewarding work which I felt privileged to read and review.
