Picto Diary - 06 December 2018 - Deck Five
Above: Deck Five. Regent Seven Seas Explorer, eastern Atlantic Ocean. At sea.
15° 31' 2" N Latitude.
20° 16' 24" W Longitude.
Eastbound direction Dakar, Senegal...250 miles distant. Cape Verde 250 miles west, behind us.
Cognitive dissonance getting 7000 steps, walking deck five for an hour and a half...channeling Doobee Brothers via the antique IPod. Visioning ghost ships on the horizon...two sleek English and Dutch Indiamen racing one another to the Cape of Storms (later renamed for PR reasons to Cape of Good Hope).
Ghost ships of the 17th century. No wifi...no wireless...gone for two to three years... but, oh...so much wealth on return from Canton or Batavia to Amsterdam and London. 17th Century. Is that when men were men?
Less celebrated in these waters, but no less profitable than the spices, tea and silk, the, then legal, slave trade, headquartered only a short distance due east of us. Tomorrow, we visit ground central...Dakar, Senegal...to gain context for that pernicious activity.
Post the slave trade, Dakar became an important outpost of the French Empire. Think on a par with Beirut (where we lived for six months in the '70's) or Hanoi, where I motorcycled in 2006.
Think also French World Cup 2018 Champions...which wouldn't have happened sans a bunch of Senagalese origin French footballers.
Senegal and France remain close post Senagal independence. French is Senegal's national language. France maintains an airforce base and 20K French troops in Senegal...not to mention more than a few legionnaires.
Doobee Brothers. "Listen to the Music." "The people need something to make 'em happy!"
Above: Onboard ship lecture. Andy Jampoler. Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 06 December 2018.
17th and 18th Century trade routes between Europe and Asia.
Brits/Dutch start running out of specie. Change to opium to recompense the Chinese. Neutralizes China as a prospective world power with dope. Opium in pursuit of silks.
Blue lines Brits.
Red lines Dutch.
Above: Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 06 December, 2018
On board ship lecture. Andy Jampoler.
Dutch East India Company time line.
Big trading companies first public, joint stock corporations. No single source of capital was sufficient to finance the complex and risky spice, tea and silk trade. Capitalism is born.
Above: Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 06 December 2018.
On board lecture. Andy Jampoler.
Dutch East India Company.
British East India Company.
Image: Dutch East Indiaman.
So much risk. So much wealth. Innovation and capitalism set the tone in The West for the next four centuries.
Above: Regent Seven Seas Explorer. 06 December 2018.
Compass Rose Restaurant
Chandelier
Dinner.