Sebastian Cabot & the Voyage for Spice

The chapter begins in December 1524 when Sebastian Cabot, Robert Thorne, and five Genoese merchants agreed to raise funds to finance a voyage—to send a fleet to the Moluccas. The group were keen to find a passage to the source of spice that was easier and faster than Magellan’s route. The voyage exemplified how entangled Atlantic history can be. Although the voyage had the support of the Spanish Crown, it was initiated by a Genoese and English consortium and relied on funds, expertise, and labour from around Europe. The chapter examines the conflicting agendas that hampered the voyage from the beginning and looks at how Roger Barlow, the supercargo on the flagship, prepared. It charts the path of the fleet from April to June 1526; from when the four ships left San Lucar, stopping in the Canary Islands before crossing the Atlantic, and reaching Pernambuco on the Brazilian coast.

Electrical engineering · Spice · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Engineering · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History