Synopses & Reviews
If one had looked for a potential global city in Europe in the 1540s, the most likely candidate would have been Antwerp, which had emerged as the center of the German and Spanish silver exchange as well as the Portuguese spice and Spanish sugar trades. It almost certainly would not have been London, an unassuming hub of the wool and cloth trade with a population of around 75,000, still trying to recover from the onslaught of the Black Plague. But by 1700 Londonand#8217;s population had reached a staggering 575,000and#8212;and it had developed its first global corporations, as well as relationships with non-European societies outside the Mediterranean. What happened in the span of a century and half? And how exactly did London transform itself into a global city?and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Londonand#8217;s success, Robert K. Batchelor argues, lies not just with the well-documented rise of Atlantic settlements, markets, and economies. Using his discovery of a network of Chinese merchant shipping routes on John Seldenand#8217;s map of China as his jumping-off point, Batchelor reveals how London also flourished because of its many encounters, engagements, and exchanges with East Asian trading cities. Translation plays a key role in Batchelorand#8217;s studyand#8212;translation not just of books, manuscripts, and maps, but also of meaning and knowledge across culturesand#8212;and Batchelor demonstrates how translation helped London understand and adapt to global economic conditions. Looking outward at Londonand#8217;s global negotiations, Batchelor traces the development of its knowledge networks back to a number of foreign sources and credits particular interactions with Englandand#8217;s eventual political and economic autonomy from church and King.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
London offers a much-needed non-Eurocentric history of London, first by bringing to light and then by synthesizing the many external factors and pieces of evidence that contributed to its rise as a global city. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in the cultural politics of translation, the relationship between merchants and sovereigns, and the cultural and historical geography of Britain and Asia.
Review
andldquo;In the course of a tumultuous seventeenth century, London changed from an energetic newcomer on the fringes of old Europe to a global center of trade, power, and interactive knowledge. In a work of amazing erudition and ambition, Robert K. Batchelor shows how new forms of organization and knowledge of more Asian histories and languages shaped this transformation.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Robert K. Batchelorandrsquo;s elegantly written and lavishly illustrated book is a remarkable achievement. He explains how changes in East Asia made London into a global city. In so doing he forces us to recalibrate our notions of the coming of modernity. Modernity in Batchelorandrsquo;s hands emerges not from Europe but on a global scale and through translation rather than European imposition. This is an immensely learned and stimulating book that will provoke widespread reflection and debate.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Robert K. Batchelorandrsquo;s
London renews the andlsquo;origins of modernityandrsquo; debate. The time when Londonandmdash;rather than Englandandmdash;was a rising power saw a furor of translation and adaptation, long chains of influence visible only at their ends, and a degree of institutional creativity we can envy. With detail, passion, and curiosity Batchelor reconstructs the multipolar world of the first half of the seventeenth century, as plotted by men for whom knowledge was power.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In this stunningly detailed, engaging, and polyglot study, Robert K. Batchelor plots us a map of the early modern English encounter with Asia, triangulated among the intimately related enterprises of translation, cartography, and commercial and colonial expansion. Following the circulation of manuscripts and maps alongside merchants, missionaries, and marauders alike, this book finds a strikingly complex genealogy not only of John Seldenandrsquo;s remarkable map of Chinaand#160;but of the development of Londonandmdash;and even modernity itselfandmdash;in a seventeenth-century global context.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;[F]ascinating. [Batchelor] shows how the skein of shipping routes on the Selden map were connected with the rise of London as a global city.and#8221;
Review
"Robert Batchelor argues in this lively and provocative book [that] the early modern Londonerand#8217;s view of the world was cosmopolitan enough to induce vertigo. . . . Batchelor tells his story with great elan. He deftly directs a vast cast of characters and vividly describes a vast range of texts, maps, and other bearers of information. Vignettes give his fast-moving story density and interest. . . . Most dazzlingand#8212;but also most worryingand#8212;is Batchelorand#8217;s vivid historical imagination. . . . . Both in its originality and in its overstatements, London is reminiscent of the work of Frances Yates."
Review
"Both in its originality and in its overstatements, London is reminiscent of the work of Frances Yates. Like her, Batchelor will have his critics, but that's a modest price to pay for changing the way we do history."
Review
"A palimpsest of layers of predominantly English and Asian history mediated through the libraries and map collecting of East Asian, especially Chinese material, by Europeans and especially in London and Oxford during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The result allows the author to describe the emergence of the city of London as the centre of global networks of financial and other exchanges. . . . Robert Batchelor has shown us new avenues of research in this field and has demonstrated its significance to oceanic and global history."
Review
andquot;Unapologetic in its claims and exhaustive in its research. . . . Batchelor has issued an important challenge to his field, and historians of England cannot but take it up.andquot;
Review
andquot;Batchelor builds a solid case for English success in translating the Asian world as an indispensable factor in Londonandrsquo;s growth as a global entrepandocirc;t for goods and knowledge alike. The Selden map in particular emerges as a key repository of information on the deep structures of Asian geography and commerce as they existed in the first centuries of European seaborne contact. We are indebted to Batchelor for translating its profundities to us.andquot;
About the Author
Robert K. Batchelor is associate professor of history at Georgia Southern University. He lives in Savannah, GA.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Translating Asia
The View from the Library
The Global City
The Question of Translation
The Subject of the Book
and#160;
1. The Global Corporation
1553: The Joint-Stock Company
Redefining the Translator
The Cosmographic Break
Asian Demands: The Emerging Silver Cycle
and#160;
2. National Autonomy
1588: Reading a Chinese Map in London
Translating and#147;Chinaand#8221; and and#147;Giapanand#8221;
Exchanging Chinese Maps
The State and Sovereign Space
and#160;
3. The Value of History: Languages, Records, and Laws
1619: John Selden, Hugo Grotius, and East Asia
Legal Relations: Opening London to Asian Trade
Asian Libraries in London, Oxford, and Cambridge
The Selden Map
and#160;
4. The Image of Absolutism
1661: Taming the Rebellious Emporium
Asia and the Problem of Restored Sovereignty
Absolutism and John Ogilbyand#8217;s World Picture
Brokering the Absolutist Image: Interventions from Bombay and Taiwan
and#160;
5. The System of the World
1687: Global Revolutions
The Search for New Translation Methods
The Newtonian System
and#160;
Conclusion: Asia and the Making of Modern London
Acknowledgments
A Note on Manuscripts
Notes
Index