Empire (11th of 90) -- Elizabeth and a New Economy

We have reached the end of the 16th century. 1603 saw the start of the Stuart dynasty. Ralegh and Dee suggested that Elizabeth might have an empire, but no one wrote anything that suggests to us that there was a plan to build a global constellation of colonies, which we would recognise as the British Empire. Ralegh had suggested in 1582 that colonies in America would make good bases to explore for a northwest passage to China but he had failed to set up a lasting colony in Virginia. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You will be able to listen again online to up to five most recent episodes of "Empire".)

Sir Humphrey Gilbert had established St John's Newfoundland, but perished at sea in his forties. Investors had explored the idea of settlements along the west coast of Africa, but black slaves remained the most profitable cargo from that continent.

There were now two interesting areas of trade: pepper and sugar. Here were the granules from which the empire would be built. There was a huge domestic need for spices, as the establishment of the Guild of Pepperers showed. Also much of the imports were lucrative re-exports.

The second craving of the English was sugar. Look at the later portraits of Elizabeth I and note the black teeth. In his description of Elizabeth, the German traveller Paul Hentzner in about 1598 wrote that "...her lips narrow and her teeth black ... a defect the English seem subject to from their too great use of sugar..."

A letter from John Whithal in Brazil to Richard Staper in London caused enormous financial interest in the City. In it, Whithal said that he and his Brazilian father-in-law intended to "...make a good quantity of sugar every year, which sugar we intend to ship for London..." By 1603, it was increasingly clear that British exploration would for the foreseeable future, be financed for the search of peppers and sugar.