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Duke University Press Economy, Ecology, and Utopia in Early Colonial Promotional Literature Author(s): Timothy Sweet Source: American Literature, Vol. 71, No. 3 (Sep., 1999), pp. 399-427 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2902734 Accessed: 27-10-2015 17:25 UTC

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Timothy Sweet

Economy, Ecology, andUtopia inEarly Colonial Promotional Literature

W e owethefirstrecordedmomentofecological insightin BritishNorthAmericato StephenParmenius,intended ofSirHumphrey ill-fated secondvoyageof1583.1 chronicler Gilbert's Gilbert, originally hopingtoestablisha colonyinwhatis nowNewEngland,stoppedoffforprovisions at St. John'sharbor, Newfoundland, to wherean international fishing fleethad madeitsbase. According of his of the on theterms territory patent,Gilberttookpossession had establisheddryingstationsand let these whichthe fisherman landsback to themas his tenants.Anxiousto searchforores and otherresourcesthatcouldsupporta colonythere,Gilbertandcomin a letter to get inland.Parmeniusreported, panyfoundit difficult RichardHakluyt, thatthethickwoods"so hynder the totheyounger sighteoftheLande,andstoppethewayofthosethatseeketotravell, viewand thattheycan goe no whither.2 To gainan unobstructed ParmeniusurgedGilbertto burnthewoods, entryintotheinterior, butGilbert refused, forfeareofgreatinconvenience thatmightthereof insue:foritwas reportedand confirmed by veriecrediblepersons,thatwhenthe likehappenedby chancein anotherPort,thefishnevercame to theplaceaboutit,forthespaceof7.wholeyeereafter, byreasonof androsenofthetrees, thewatersmadebytter bytheturpentyne, whichranneintotheryversuponthefyring ofthem.3 We can now inferthatit was not pine sap but soil erosionfrom theburned-off shorethatpollutedtheestuaryforsevenyears,until innewgrowthstabilizedthebanks.4Gilbertandhis crew,however, AmericanLiterature,Volume 71, Number 3, September 1999. Copyright(C 1999 by Duke UniversityPress.


400 AmericanLiterature

in a interaction terpret this"veriecredible"storyofenvironmental commodities amongthe different way,seeingthereina relationship ofthe New World.They imagineso muchsap beingreleasedin a firethatit cannotburnoffbutinsteadrendersenormousamounts and a by-product of distilla"turpentyne," ofits primary distillate, ofthesecommodities coursesdown tion,"rosen."5The superfluity andobstructing theharvestof thewater"bytter" thebanks,turning fish. another commodity, we imaginewhat letterfromNewfoundland, ReadingParmenius's interaction-butwe Gilbertimagined-a narrativeof environmental

alertsus itscausalmechanism Thisdifference understand differently. intheeconomicdimension ofenvironmental interest repto Gilbert's understanding resentation. EconomyentersGilbert'senvironmental whichtohimmeansbotha specific underthecategory ofcommodity, due measure,fitness, or congoodor resourceand,moregenerally, venience.As theyoungerHakluytwouldarguein the"Discourseof thatareliketo WesternPlanting"(1584),the"manifolde comodyties discoveries lately growetothisRealmeofEnglandebytheWesterne fullemployment, tradewith includedeconomicrecovery, attempted" ofa Northwest discovery passage,geopolitical indigenous Americans, relative toSpainandotherEuropeannations, theextension advantage thegloryoftheCrown,and so on as wellas parofChristendom, newpossibilities forcommodity ticulargoods (0, 2:211).Promising in the mostgeneralsense,the Americanenvironment invitedthe one thattheoEnglishto developa newmodeofpoliticaleconomy, rizedeconomicsintermsofenvironmental capacityina waythatthe had notyetdone.This economic then-dominant mode,agrarianism, was a primary concernofthepromotional literature ofthe theorizing latesixteenth shapingitsgeneric century(andbeyond),significantly andmotivating work.6 conventions itscultural fundamental Promotional literature's linkageofeconomicsandthe us to read the environment invites genrein termsof steady-state Whilerecentyearshave seen the or sustainableeconomictheory. literary riseofboththe"neweconomiccriticism" and ecocriticism, in detailthe interrelation criticshave been slow to investigate of In thesocialandbiologicalsciences,however, andecology.7 economy the interdisciplinary fieldof steady-state or sustainableeconomics has emergedpreciselyto theorizethisinterrelation.8 Earlypromotionalliterature providesan occasionto bringto bear thisfield's


EarlyColonialPromotionalLiterature 401

insightsandto openliterary studiesontothenexusofeconomyand ecology. Sustainableeconomicsworksin systemicterms,describingthe economyas an open subsystemof the ecosystem:the economy "tak[es]in useful(low-entropy) rawmaterialand energy"fromthe naturalenvironment while"givingback waste (high-entropy) materialandenergy"forthenaturalenvironment toabsorband,tosome extent,"reconstitute. . . into reusable raw materials."9Sixteenth-

century promoters ofcolonization addresseda similarsetofconcerns aboutinputs,outputs,and boundaries.Participating in the consolidationofeconomicsas a distinctfieldduringthe latterpartofthe sixteenth century, thepromoters beganto definetheEnglishnation as an economyandto understand it as a system.10 Theyarguedthat thewell-being oftherealmdependedon openingthissystemto New Worldenvironments and,tosomeextent, closingitofffromotherOld Worldeconomicsystems.1" In speculating on the expansion, boundaries,and limitsofthe economy, theyredefined existingeconomic termssuchas commodity, waste,andventinrelation tothecapacities ofthisnew environmental context.12 Withrespectto input,one of theprimary concernsofsustainable theearlypromoters economics, arguedthatmorecommodities-more morewine, oil,moretimber, moregold,and so on-had to be brought intotheEnglisheconomy, but fromNew Worldenvironments ratherthanEuropeantrading As foroutput,the earlypromoters couldnottheorizethe partners. ofantiproductive accumulation waste,sinceearlymoderntechnologies didnotstresstheenvironment's absorptive capacityin theway thattoday'stechnologies do.13 Evenso,bothinseeingtheNewWorld as an outletforonekindofwaste(people)andin speculating on the transformation ofthatwasteintoproductive thepromoters resources, economics'understanding oftherelation pointedtowardsustainable ofoutputtoenvironmental andtransformation. absorption Seen in thislight,earlypromotional textscompeltheattention of in a generalconsideration ofecocriticaland ecoanyoneinterested logicalissues,eventhoughtheyare notwhatwe wouldcall "green" On the contrary, texts.14 They are not,forexample,antigrowth.15 in a proto-Lockean thatwealthderivesfromthehuman recognition oftheenvironment, transformation thesixteenth-century promoters forthefirsttime,theparadigmofgrowththat articulated, arguably in politicaland economicdiscourse.16 has sincebecomenaturalized



Since sustainableeconomicsis primarily in determining interested the environmental limitson growth,it providesa usefultheoretical apparatusforunderstanding thecolonialpromoters' theorization ofgrowthand Americans'subsequenteconomicengagements with the environment. The earlypromoters describethe late-sixteenthcenturyEnglisheconomyas increasingly entropic, requiringnew capacitiesforinputand outputto achievea steadystatecharacterized by fullemployment and social stability; laterpromoters, from andbeyond,retained EdwardJohnson toThomasJefferson thiscommitment to growth.17 Sustainableeconomicsdefinespotential inputs and outputsas finite, arguingthatthe economycannotcontinueto growindefinitely but"maycontinue todevelopqualitatively" without growing.18 Whileonecritiqueofreadingtheseearlytextsthrough sustainableeconomics is obvious-it is notclearthattheearlypromoters recognized absoluteenvironmental limitsas such-this pointshould notpreventus fromthinking thepromoters' inthrough originating whichbecameinvisible tosubsequent sight.Thisinsight, economists untilsustainable economics itagainintoview,wastotheorize brought thelinkbetweengrowth(andeconomicquestionsgenerally) andthe naturalenvironment. Colonization Theory

Promotional textswritten by the elderand youngerHakluyts, Sir andothersduring thelatesixGeorgePeckham, Christopher Carleill, teenthcentury shareda particular economicnarrative regarding New Worldenvironments. tothisnarrative, According Englandwas sufferingfromanunfavorable balanceoftradecausedlargely bythedecline ofits textileindustry. Morerawwool and less finished clothwere beingexportedto uncertain anddiminishing whileimports markets, ofothergoodshad remainedsteadyor increased.Moreover, in the absenceofdiseaseandwar,thepopulation was increasing. The result was widespreadunemployment and unrest,and thegeneralimpoverishment oftherealm.Colonization wouldprovidea solutionto all theseinterlinked America'sindigenous problems. could population be inducedtotradeforfinished clothand/ora largeenoughcolonyof Englishsettlerswouldprovidesucha NewWorldmarket.In return forcloth,theNewWorldpromised to supplyallthecommodities that Englandwas atthetimeimporting orhopingtoimport fromenemies



or doubtful friends(Spain,Portugal, France,the Levant,Russia)and at cheaperrates.Some ofthepoorcouldbe transported to the colonies,wheretheywouldfindemployment in commodity production,whilethosewhoremainedin Englandwouldfindemployment in botha revitalized wooltradeandnewindustries based on adding valuetoimport commodities fromNewWorldenvironments. EarlymodernEngland'sfirsttheoretical texton colonization, Sir intheColumbian ThomasMore'sUtopia(1510),founditsinspiration and locateditsidealpoliticaleconomyin theNewWorld, discovery butit showedlittleinterest in thematerialspecificity ofNewWorld In one respectanticipating environments. thearguments ofThomas and Frederick Jefferson JacksonTurner,Moredevelopsan agrarian as the theoryofthefrontier as safetyvalve,describing colonization andthusa meansbywhichan ideal bestsolutionto overpopulation societycouldbe maintained. Whenthepopulation ofUtopiaexceeds a fixedquota,its citizenscolonizethe "nextelandewherethe inhabitaunteshaue muche waste and vnoccupiedgrounde"("agri ... cultuuacat")).19The Utopianeconomicbase (whichresemblesthatof

agrarianEnglandinimportant respects)is replicated onthis"waste" land. Such a view of colonization establishedan assumption that wouldbecomecrucialinlegitimating theappropriation ofindigenous Americans'land:thenativesare assumednotto cultivatetheland. Theycan eitherjoinwiththeUtopians, whowillmakethelandabunin whichcase theywillbe or resistcolonization, dantlyproductive, drivenoffby war,forthe Utopiansconsiderit just to wage warto bring"voydeandvacaunt"("inaneac uacuum")landintocultivation beforetheEnglish (U,67; CW,136).Whileitwouldbe overa century prosecutedsuch a war ofconquestin America,More'spassage on characterization ofNew World colonization registersthe important whichwas takenup bythe landas "waste,"eventhoughinhabited, latesixteenth-century promoters. forimport More'sUtopiansdo notcolonizeto gaincommodities or trade,sincetherealmproducesabundant quantitiesofall goods, whicharefreeforthetakinginthemarketplaces. comNevertheless, ofiron,gold,andsilversuggest plications introduced bytheirimport a conflict betweentwo ideologiesof nationalwealthin sixteenthand emerging mercancenturyEngland,the dominant agrarianism Like the nativesin More'ssourcetext,Vespucci'saccount tilism.20 oftheNewWorld,theUtopiansare supposedto regardgoldandsil-



veras valuelesswithintheirownsociety(CW,428).Theyuse these metalsto fashionchamberpotsand chainsforslaves,storingthem in theseformsin case theyshouldhave to pay tributeto avoida ofthese war.Yettheparadoxinvolvedin their"ritualdebasement" have pointedout,the metalssuggests,as numerouscommentators Thus while innatevalue.21 repression ofa desirefortheirevidently in the name of More advancesthe Utopiantheoryof colonization agrarianism-anideologyofuse valuein whichironis valuablebut ofpreciousmetalshints goldandsilverarenot-theUtopians'import an ideologyin whichtradeis the at, ifonlyby wayofprohibition, theironnecessaryforagriculsourceofwealth.Importing primary seemsless ideologically charged,butin one tureandmanufacturing econthattheiragrarian itindicates respectitis evenmorerevealing; dependenton trade,thoughthe Utopiansdo omyis fundamentally To pursuethe analoguesin Ennotfullyrealizethisdependence.22 practiceembodiedagrariantheoryduringmost gland:colonization in theeffort to colonizeIreland,whichthe ofthesixteenth century as a wasteregioninhabitedby an uncivilized Englishrepresented was beginning to describe people.23 Atthesametime,mercantilism theEnglisheconomy'sdependenceon trade,butithad notyettheorizedcolonialismas a meansof securinga new sourceof inputs. The mostimportant mercantilist text,A Discourse sixteenth-century (written 1549,revisedc. 1576,published1581), oftheCommonweal England.Yet identified a negativebalanceoftradein contemporary evenin thefaceofevidencethatSpanishgoldfromtheNewWorld cause oftheproblem, thistreatiseproposedpurely was a significant domesticmeansto correcttheimbalance, "first, bystayingofwares wroughtbeyondthe sea whichmightbe wroughtwithinus from ofourwoolens,tins,andfells, bystaying comingtobe sold;secondly, from andthirdly andothercommodities by passingoverunwrought," classes.24 Somecommodities instilling goodorderamongthelaboring "sincemenwillneedshavesilks,wine,and mustalwaysbe imported, wereto be sufficiently develspice,"butifEngland'smanufactures oped,theoverallbalanceoftradewithotherOldWorldnationswould economicrecovery.25 promote Input: Commodity

writersgraftedthisemergent Beginningin the 1570s,promotional mercantilist ideologyontothe existingagrariantheoryofcoloniza-



tionin orderto articulate, in a new literary genre,a new practice thatwouldaccountforthe importof "silks,wine,and spice" that was troubling England'seconomy. Theirfirstandmostobviousstep was to identify specificnewsourcesofinputs,a pointofno concern to More'sUtopians.Thus thememorandum thatthe elderRichard Hakluyt preparedin 1578forSirHumphrey Gilbert's first voyage-a textthat,briefas itis, establishescertainconventions ofthepromotionaltractgenre,suchas itsgeorgicimagination oflabor-advises prospective to"discover colonists al thenaturall commodities" ofthe country andproceedsto discussmeansofproduction (0, 1:118).26If, forexample,thereareflatsontheshoreandthesunis hotenoughto evaporatesea water,"thenmayyouprocurea manofskill"to make salt,"andso youhavewonneone noblecommoditie forthefishing, andfortradeofmarchandize." Or,"ifthesoyleandclymate bee such as mayyeeldeyoutheGrapeas goodas that"in Portugal, Spain,or theCanaries,"thenthereresteth buta woorkeman toputinexecution tomakewines,andtodresseResignsofthesunne"(0, 1:118). UnlikeMore'sUtopians, theHakluyts andtheircohortsee colonizable environments as bothemptyand full.The Utopiansreplicated theiragrarianpoliticaleconomyby colonizing the "waste,""voyde andvacaunt"landheldbyless civilizedpeoples.The promoters similarlyproposecolonizingwhattheycalled the "wasteContries"of theNewWorld(0, 2:319),buttheyemphasizenotthevacancybut the fullnessof these new environments. They regardthe indigenousinhabitants less as peopleto be conqueredthanas prospective tradingpartners.Theyvalue the physicalenvironment forwhatit producesnaturally as wellas forwhatit couldbe madeto produce. thetheoryofclimateadvancedinAristotle's Following Meterologica, thepromoters assumethatlatitudepredictsweatherand otherenvironmental termfor factors(climatabeingtheclassicalgeographic latitudinal bandsoftheglobe),so thatOld Worldenvironments can ontoNew.27 extantreportson simplybe mappedlaterally Surveying theselatitudesinhiscompendious "DiscourseofWesternPlanting," theyoungerHakluytargues"thatthiswesternevoyadgewillyelde untous allthecommodities ofEurope,Affrica, andAsia,as farras we werewontetotravell"inprevioustrading(0, 2:222).He beginsat 30 northto 63 degrees, degrees,Florida,and continuessystematically moreor less correlating commodities to climateacNewfoundland, in toOldWorldpatterns. The promoters werealso interested cording whatwas uniqueto theNewWorld,butless so in the earlystages.



forexample,butdoes notyet Hakluytdescribessassafrasat length, tobacco."AsforTobacco,"CaptainJohnSmithwouldlater mention recall,"weeneverthendreamtofit."28 werederivedfromMediterraManyofthe desiredcommodities thiscategoryin the summaryof his nean cultivars.Emphasizing soilingenassertsthattheNorthAmerican climaticsurvey, Hakluyt eralis "apteto beareolyvesforoile,all kindesoffrutesas oranges, raspis,pomiappij,melalmondes, filberdes, figges, plomes,mulberies, treesanddatetrees,Cipresses,Cedars, ons,allkindesofodoriferous bayes"(0, 2:232-33).Ifthefirstitemon Hakluyt'sliststrikesconreadersas especiallycurious,inhistimeitwas especially temporary forthereplacement oftradefor significant, servingas a synecdoche in generaland reachingto theheartof Mediterranean commodities woolfabrication. The woolhadto industry, England'smostimportant be cleanedwithlargequantitiesofsoap madefromsweetoil; soap made fromanimalproductsgave the finishedclothan unpleasant withvegetableoils-forexample, odor.29 Domesticexperimentation thustheelderHakluytnotedin rapeseed-hadnotbeen successful; 1582thatoil was stillthe one thingthatEnglandcouldnotsupply was of to its ownwoolindustry (0, 1:189-90).The Mediterranean coursethegreatestsourceofoliveoil,butto tradewith"Barbarye, to"inrytche remarked, Spayne,Portugale, [or]Italy"was,as Hakluyt ourdoubtfull frendesand infydelles as noweby ourordynary trade we doe" (0, 2:341). togiveup theirgoalofreplicatColonialpromoters werereluctant evenas theygainedmore ingOld Worldcommodity environments, experienceofAmerica.ThomasHariot'sA Briefeand TrueReport oftheNew Found Land of Virginia(1588) is a case in point. Having

Hariotcouldattendmorecloselythan spentsometimein Virginia, ofthe environment. He seemsquite theHakluytsto the specificity in interested tobacco,forexample,yethe does nottreatitinthesectionon "Merchantable commodities"; instead,he describesit in the sectionon "victuallandsustenanceofmanslife,usuallyfeduponby thenaturall as also byus,duringthetimeofourabode," inhabitants; andthelike.30 On thelookoutfor alongwithbeans,corn,pumpkins, familiar Hariotbeginshisaccountwith"Silkeofgrasse, commodities, or Grassesilke.Thereis a kindofgrassein the country, uponthe bladeswhereof theregroweth verygoodsilkeinformeofa thinglitby thefact teringskinto be striptoff."This promiseis confirmed



that"thelikegrowethin Persia,whichis in theselfesame climate as Virginia, ofwhichverymanyoftheSilkeworksthatcomefrom thenceintoEuropearemade."He describestheenvironmental transformation necessaryto fulfill thispromise:although"thereis great in manyplaces ofthecountrey storethereof growing naturally and wild,"yet"ifitbe plantedandorderedas inPersia,itcannotinreason be otherwise, butthattherewillrisein shorttimegreatprofit to the dealers therein.... And by the meanes of sowingand plantingit in

itwillbe farregreater, goodground, andmoreplentifull then better, it is" (68). Hariot'sdesireforOld Worldcommodities leads to some mistakes;whathe tookforsilkgrasswas probably Evenso, yucca.31 hisexperienceofVirginia andhisskillas a naturalist temperhisprojectionsto someextent,uniquelyamongtheearlypromoters. While he knowsthata sourceofoilis especiallyimportant, he doesnotproolivesas otherpromoters pose growing do. Instead,he goes to great lengthsto identify local substitutes, arguingthat"a commodity ... maybe raised"of"Oke-akornes" or"twosortsofWalnuts, bothholdingoile,"andreclassifying the"fatnesse" ofbears,which"becauseit is so liquid,maywellbe termedoile,and hathmanyspecialluses" (70). The mostenvironmentally sensitiveof all earlypromoters of American colonization, Hariotnevertheless maintains theirOldWorld frameof referencewhileenlargingtheirfundamentally economic characterization ofNewWorldenvironments.32 Waste Output:

Whilethehope ofreplacingOld Worldcommodity sourcesdefined therelation betweeneconomy andenvironment intermsofinput,the questionofoutputwas morecomplex.This complexity is evidentin theelderHakluyt's use ofthetermwaste.In his "Induceinnovative " written mentstotheLikingoftheVoyageintended towards Virginia, forSirWalterRaleghin1584,Hakluyt advisesthat sincegreatwasteWoodsbe there,ofOake,Cedar,Pine,Wall-nuts, andsundryothersorts,manyofourwastepeoplemaybe imployed in makingof Ships,Hoies,Busses and Boats; and in makingof Rozen,PitchandTarre,thetreesnaturall forthesame,beingcerteinlyknowentobe neereCape BritonandtheBayofMenan,and inmanyotherplacesthereabout.(0, 2:331,emphasesadded)



Thispassageencapsulates theEnglishhistory ofthetermwasteand in its conceptualtransformation it to both participates by applying environment thepotential ofthelandas commodity andthepotential ofpeopleas laborpower;thepassagethusrethinks wasteintermsof productive capacity. The discovery ofeconomicinputsin America's wastewoodsreminds us ofthediscovery oftheuntapped agricultural andfenswere capacityofEngland'swastelands,as commons, forests, enclosed,cut,or drainedduringthe era ofagrarianimprovement, theearlyseventeenth on.33 especially from century Morethandomesticprojectors, however, Hakluytvaluesthewoodspreciselyin their he wastestate,forin thatstatetheyyieldmanyofthecommodities is not,as in England, forests seeks.The wastestateoftheAmerican landuse. merelya stageonthewaytoagrarian reference to"wastepeople"is moreinnovative Hakluyt's still,forit ofoutput. InvitedbytheNewWorldcontext, his engagestheproblem similarusagesindomestically oriented texts. usagein1584antedates The OED recordsthefirstapplication ofwasteto peopleas Thomas Nashe's pamphlet, PiercePenilesse, publishedeightyearslater,in 1592.LikeHakluyt, Nasheis addressing an economicproblem(albeit one of providing betterremuneration the muchnarrower forprofessionalauthorslikehimself).He similarly identifies an excess of inEngland, whichleadsto"a certainewasteofthepeople population forwhomethereis no vse,butwarre";Nashesuggestsstagingmore playsas "somelighttoyesto busie theirheads withall"to prevent In theseventeenth theirbecomingdisruptive to thestate.34 century, suchas GervaseMarkham(in TheEnglishHusagrarianimprovers bandman,1613) began to referto "wastepersons"as a domestic The management ofthislaborpower-thetranssourceoflabor.35 formation ofthepoorintotheworking class-became increasingly ineconomicanalysisoverthecourseofthecentury.36 important ofcircumstances A conjunction andattitudes to compelledHakluyt thepooras waste.It was a commonplace ofthetime conceptualize thatEnglandwas overpopulated. One explanation, givenby Nashe andnumerous others,was thattherehad beenno warsoflate.Thus ina prefatory SirGeorgePeckham's1583promopoemcommending tionaltract,JohnHawkinscitesa classicalprecedent forcolonization todealwiththissurpluspopulation:37 The Romainswhenthenumberoftheirpeoplegreweso great, As neither warrescouldwaste,norRomesuffice themfora seate.



troupes, toforraine lands byswarming Theyledthemforth amaine

diversColonies,untotheRomaineraigne.38 Andfounded "wastepeople"werethosewhocouldbe "wasted"bywar,if Hakluyt's use ofwasteas a in ourvernacular necessary(a sensethatcontinues forkill).The senseofwasteas economiclossorlackofgain synonym pooras exto Hakluyt's labelingoftheunemployed also contributed Carleillrefers to"ourpooresorteof cess,"wastepeople." Christopher altogethere unprofus,livyng people,whicheareveriemanyamongst itable,andoftentymesto thegreatdisquietofthebettersort,"and tracts.39 promotional similarformulations appearin all contemporary thisclass ofpeopleas expendcharacterized The earlypromoters They without producing. able,a waste,becausetheywereconsuming as a meansofexpellingthiswastefromthe proposedcolonization resource. andtransforming itintoa productive Englisheconomy Vent Boundary:

inEngland, Someofthewastepeoplemighthavefoundemployment theearlypromoters argued,butforthedeclineofEngland'sprimary It is tellingthatdespitetheirassumption industry, woolfabrication. oftheOldWorld, oftheNewWorld'spotential toproduceeverything thepromoters neversuggestwoolas a colonialproduct.EvenPeckhopedto founda colony ham,who (unlikemostotherpromoters) as well, settlement devotednotonlytotradebuttoextensive agrarian to colodoes notm(ention good pasturageamonghis inducements nization.40 True,the countrywas mostlywooded,butwoodscould soonerbe converted topasturethanto olivegroves,as Peckhamand othersrepeatedly propose,or to fieldsofsilkgrassor woad,as the of moremoderateHariotwouldsuggest.However,the importance ofEngland'snational to themercantile construction woolproduction as a in the promotional literature its treatment imagedetermined inneedofa NewWorldvent,ormarket. commodity locusforthe becamean important The crisisin thewoolindustry a motivefor questionofeconomicboundariesnotonlybyproviding input(such as oil and dyecreatingcheap sourcesof commodity merchants to lookfora new ventforthe butby impelling stuffs), century, to themid-sixteenth cloth.Fromthemid-fifteenth finished AntEngland'sexportsofwoolclothdoubled,mostofitsoldthrough



inthesecondhalfofthesixteenth werp.However, century, financial andpoliticalcrisesresulting fromSpanishcontrol oftheNetherlands madeexportdifficult, andtheclothtradeexperienced a depression. Tradewas developing withmoredistantmarkets, suchas theBaltic regionand Russia,butthesewereuncertain marketsand involved distantor difficult routes.41 Thus all ofthe 1580spromotional tracts speculatestrongly on a New Worldwool trade.Fourthamongthe elderHakluyt's "Inducements" forRalegh'sVirginia project(rhetoricallysubordinate onlytothegloryofGod,theincreaseofChristians, andthehonoroftheQueen)is a visionof an ampleventin timeto comeoftheWoollenclothesofEngland, especiallythoseofthecoursestsorts,to themaintenance ofour to therealme:and poore,thatels sterveor becomeburdensome ventalso ofsundryourcommodities uponthetractofthatfirme land,andpossiblyinotherregionsfromtheNortherne sideofthat maine.(0, 2:327) Hakluytprojectsmarketsamongbothtransplanted Englishlaborers andindigenous peoples,buthe remainsrather vagueaboutthenature ofthesemarkets. anddevelopment Peckhamworksoutmoreclosely thelogisticsoftheprojected wooltrade.The indigenous Americans, he argues, so soone as theyshallbeginbuta littleto tasteofcivillitie, will in takemervailous be it never so simple.... delight anygarment The peoplein thosepartes,are easilyreducedto civilitiebothe in mannersand garments. Whichbeeingso, whatventeforour Englishclotheswilltherebyensue,and howegreatbenefit to all suchpersonsand Artificers whosenamesare coatedin themarWolmen.Carders.Spinners.Weavers. gent [sidenote:"Clothiers. Fullers.Sheremen. Diers.Drapers.Clothiers. CappersHatters.etc. I doo leave to thejudgeAndmanydecayedtownesrepayred."], mentofsuchas arediscrete.42 AnEnglishtrading colonywouldthusmarktheboundary between the Englisheconomyand its outsides,otheras yet undeveloped economieswhosesourceofinputswouldbe directly fromNewWorld nature.Inputand outputwouldbe mediatedthrough thisboundary. Here it is significant thatdespiteHawkins'sinvocation of Roman inthepoemprefacing Peckham'stract,Peckhamdoes not precedent



promotean imperialvision.Ratherthanencompassing the world, as the Romaneconomyhad attempted to do, the Englisheconomy woulddevelopwithinlimitsmarkedbytrading outposts. Thislimitationmarksa conflict withinPeckham'stextandbeyondit,a conflict betweenideas abouttheeconomicsofcolonization andtheversions ofnationalism impliedin thoseideas. For the merchants, colonizationwas a meansofopeningtheeconomy, ofcreating permeablebut distinct boundaries; fortheagrariangentry, colonization impliedthe extension ofempire,thefullsubsumption ofNewWorldlandsunder Englishlaw andpractice.Onlyin his addressto themerchant class doesPeckhamconcernhimself withthelogisticsofthevent,foronly therecanhe thinkintermsofa clearlydefined insideandoutside. In late-sixteenth-century promotional literature generally, theterm ventbringstogether etymologies ofsale (vendere, vendare)andoutlet (ventus). To pursuetheseetymologies fullythrough theOld French - a pursuitcomplicated to theirLatinorigins by the factthatit is "adventurers" (tocome,to chance,venire)whospeculateonthevent ofcommodities -could involve us ina Nabokovian gameofwordgolf. It is enoughhereto identify theconvergence ofvendere and ventus, whichindicatesbotha boundarypiercedby an openingand sales seenfrom thepointofviewoftheseller-a logicofsupplyandoutflow ratherthandemandandinflow. The otherfrequent terminthisliteraturefortheexportsale ofcommodities, orutteraunce uttering ("out"), carriessimilarconnotations. commodities seemnatuFullywrought rallytoseekan outlet,an emptyspaceintowhichtheymightbe sent. In thisrespect,Englishgoodswanting ventareliketheEnglishwaste as a colony'spotentiallabor peoplewhomthe promoters identify supply:bothneed an outlet,whichcan be providedby New World environments. In thiscontext, theelderHakluytuses thetermto developa conIn the 1584 ceptuallinkbetweenexcess peopleand commodities. he envisionsa "largeand ampleventenotonlyof "Inducements," ourwolleynClothesofEnglandebutalso ofthelaborofourpoore peopleat homebysale ofHattes,Cappes,anda thousandekyndeof otherwrought warethatin tymemaybe broughtin use amounge thepeopleofthoseCountryes of to thegreatreliefofthemultitude ourporepeople,andtothewounderfull ofthisRealme," inrytchinge andhe goes on to describenumerous otherproductive tasks,under morethantwenty foremploying thepoorin the New subheadings,



World(0, 2:343).He concludeswithan appealurging"notonlyethe marchaunts and Clothiersbutalsoe all othersortesand degreesof ournacionto seeke newedyscovereyes ofpeopledregionsforvente in shourtetymemanymischeifs ofourIdle people,otherwise maye ensue"(0, 2:343,emphasisadded).Whilethisseconduse of"vente" oftheidleorwastepoorto the refersexplicitly to thetransportation uses ofthe termto refer colonies,it resonateswithcontemporary bothto thecommodities to be wrought bythepoorat homeand to the laborthat,as an abstractquality,wouldbe embodiedin those commodities. Englishproducts, Englishlabor,and eventheEnglish areallpoisedtotakeadvantage oftheventoffered peoplethemselves the English by NewWorldenvironments, simultaneously supplying withgoodsandridding itofitsexcesses. economy andNostalgia Entropy

WheretheelderHakluyt wrotehispromotional textsprimarily forthe merchant adventurers hisyounger cousinhadtheopporthemselves, to reshapethegenrefora largeraudience.Commissioned tunity by Raleghto organizeinformation on NorthAmericaandarguments for colonization intoa formthatwouldenlisttheCrown'sactivesupport, theyoungerHakluytproducedin 1584"A Particuler DiscourseconcerningetheGreateNecessitieandManifolde Comodyties ThatAre Liketo GrowetothisRealmeofEnglandebytheWesterne Discoveries LatelyAttempted," nowgenerallyknownas the "Discourseof WesternPlanting." Perhapsitwas thechallengeoflocatingthemerchantadventurers' concernsin relationto Englishnationalidentity andpolicythatdrewhim,in a keymoment, backto More'smeditationson theseissues.In thedebateconcerning England'ssocialills in Book1 ofUtopia,thecompany particularly addressthemselves to the increasein crimeattendant on widespreadunemployment and risingprices.Theyaredrawnintothisdebatebytheitinerant lawyer Raphael'srecollection ofa paradoxofcrimeandpunishment notedby onewho,ina dinnerconversation withtheArchbishop, andbusilytopraysethatstrayte andrygorous begandyligently iustice,whichat thattymewas thereexecuteduponfellones, who,as he sayde,wereforthemostepart.xx. [20] hangedtogether vpon one gallowes.And,seyngso feweescapydpunyshement, he sayd



he couldenotchewsebutgreatly wonderandmaruell, howeandby whateuillluckit shouldso cumto passe,thattheuesneuertheles wereineueryplaceso ryffe andranke.(U,11-12) Raphaelarguesinreplytheeconomiccausesofcrime,untiltheArchbishoprathertediously turnstheconversation backto themoreabstractquestionofjustice.The company, however, aremoreinterested in thantheArchbishop politicaleconomy, andso theyask Raphaelto describeUtopia. of England'ssocial ills movessimilarly Hakluyt'sconsideration fromtheanimating topicofcrimeandpunishment tolargerconcerns ofpoliticaleconomy. Incorporating an economicexplanation ofcrime thatRaphaelwouldhave approvedintoa scene of executionthat alludestoMore'stext,Hakluyt pointsoutthat wee are growenmorepopulousthanever heretofore:. . . yea many thousandesofidlepersonsare wthinthisRealme,wchhavingeno

wayto be setton workebe eithermutinous and seeke alteration inthestate,orat leasteveryburdensome tothecommonwealthe, andoftenfalltopilfering andthevinge andotherlewdnes,whereby all the prisonsofthe landeare dailypesteredand stuffed fullof them,whereeithertheypitifully pyneawaye,orels at lengtheare miserably hanged,evenxxti.at a clappeouteofsome one Jayle. (0, 2:234)

Abundanceofpopulationand skillturnto excess,waste,and conofresources:"So thatnowethereare of everyarteand sumption scienceso many, thattheycanhardlylyveonebyanother, nayrather as thievery becomestheir theyare readieto eate uppone another," onlyeconomicactivity(0, 2:234). Hakluytarguesthatthereis not intosupport thisunproductive, enoughwealthinEngland'seconomy deedsubtractive In suchan entropic activity. situation, state-imposed deaths,a scoreat a timeon one gallows,seem to providethe only fora system regulation thatcannotregulate itself. More'sRaphaelhad identified domesticsolutionsto theproblemsofpoverty and crime, suchas legislation beforetransporting thereader againstenclosure, to a New Worldsocietyin whichpoliticaleconomyis organizedto theseproblems. Justas More'sUtopiansestablishcoloniesto prevent drawofftheirsurpluspopulation, Hakluytarguesthat"yfthisvoythesepetythevesmighte be condempned adgewereputinexecution,



forcertenyeresin the westernepartes."The crucialdifference is thatthispopulation wouldworknotso muchto supportitselfas to producenumerous andvariedcommodities forEnglishimport, andit wouldalso serveas an exportmarketforEnglishgoods (0, 2:234). subtraction or consumption Hakluytthusreconfigures as outletand linksit to input,elaborating theconceptualtransformation ofwaste envisioned byhiseldercousin. Explicitly citingthelegalandpenalcontextinvitedbyhis engagementwithMore,Hakluytpresentsthenationwithtwoalternatives: Englandwillcontinueto be a land ofcriminals, jails,and gallows, or it willbecomea landoffullemployment and increasing wealth. In addressing he needsan argument theCrown,however, thatdoes morethanbalance law and economy.The argument he develops in the concluding sectionofthe "Discourse"proposesa primarily ofEnglishnationalidentity. economic-environmental understanding Here Hakluytreturnsto anotherof More'stopics,the importance of the wool industry forEngland'snationalwell-being, givingit a In Book1 ofUtopia,Raphaeldescribes quitedifferent interpretation. the effectsof enclosure,a practicenecessaryforthe expansionof woolproduction: sheep have devouredthepeopleand depopulated thecountryside, cultivated landintowilderness. As turning formerly one shepherdreplacedseveralplowmenon estateafterestate,the becamea standard resulting unemployment themeintheliterature of ofwhichMore'spassageis themostfamousexagrariancomplaint, Historicalevidencecomplicates thistheme,however. Some ample.43 ofthepopulation forcedoffthelandbyenclosurefoundworkin the districts thatbeganto growup in thelatefifteenth cloth-producing as thewoolindustry on century, expandedandfoundexportmarkets thecontinent.44 Evenso,the"nostalgic vision"ofMore'scomplaintitsimplicit appealto an idealizedset ofsocialrelations disrupted by economictransformation -had greatemotional power.45 It is therefore somewhatsurprising thatHakluytshouldrepresentthewoolindustry valued itself,theveryemblemofnegatively in More'stext,as an objectofnostalgiain hisconcluding modernity Yetthisnostalgiais strategically locatedina hypothetical arguments. futurethatEnglandmightavoidthroughcolonization. In thisway, Hakluyttapsthepowerofnostalgiawhileskirting anyadmissionof loss.England,he says,"noweforcertenhundreth yereslastpassed" had byvirtueofwoolproduction "raisedit selfefrommeanerstate



to greaterwealtheandmochehigherhonor,mighteandpowerthen before"(0, 2:313). However,withtheincreaseoftheSpanishwool tradeintheWestIndies, thewollesofEnglandandtheclothemadeofthesame,willbecome base, and everydaymorebase thenother,wchprudently weyed, ytbehoveththisRealmeyfitmeanenotto returne to former olde meanes[meanness]andbasenes,butto standein presentandlate honorgloryeandforce, former andnotnegligently to andsleepingly toforeseeandtoplanteat Norumbega orsome slydeintobeggery, likeplace,wereitnotforanything elsbutforthehopeoftheventof ourwollindraped, theprincipall andineffecte theonelyenrichinge naturall commoditie ofthisRealme.(0, 2:314) contynueinge a synecdocheforEngland's Makingthe stateofthe wool industry nationalidentity, as otherpromoters had done,Hakluytintroduces temporal complications thatenablemultiple readingsofthatfigure. He comparesa "former olde"stateto a preferable "lateformer" one, buthe has alreadydescribedthe value ofwool as "everyday"bethe coming"morebase thentheother."Thesecomplications identify presentmomentas a balancepoint,a criticaljuncturefromwhich Englandmightormightnot"negligently andsleepingly ... slydeinto " beggery. The growthof the wool industryduringthe fifteenth century, whichHakluyt viewsnostalgically fromthehypothetical perspective ofan increasingly had requiredan economicandenentropic future, vironmental transformation ofthesortthatHakluytis nowinspired to proposeon a largerscale forthe New World.In the earlyto mid-fifteenth to agricultural century, largelandholders, responding as the wool industry had expandedsheep production; depression, declinedin areaspreviously devotedto tillage developed, population butincreasedinnewcloth-producing Thatis,thegrowth of districts. thewooltradetransformed landuse fromsubsistence to commodity A center-periphery production. organization emerged,in whichthe countryside suppliedwool to be workedin the towns.For agrarians such as More,thisreorganization was the targetof nostalgic the ForHakluytit suggesteda paradigmforrevitalizing complaint. nos"decayedtownes"thatwerethe objectsofhis ownmercantile talgia(0, 2:235). IfEnglandwas poisedon thebrinkofirreversible, mischefehangingeoverourheades," entropicdecline,"ymmynent



the onlyhope ofrecovery was openingtheEnglisheconomyto the wastesoftheNewWorld, wherethenativeinhabitants stillproduced atsubsistence levelsbutwheretheenvironment's capacity forgreater inputandoutputheldthepromiseofsystemic balanceforEngland's economy(0, 2:314). andEcology Economy

The earlypromoters' NewWorldspeculations tookplaceina critical afterwhichmoderneconomicand environmenhistorical moment, taldiscoursesgradually to reconverge diverged, againonlyrecently. The largerpattern was to someextentanticipated ofthisdivergence andsubsequentdepression bylocalresponsesto economicrecovery in the earlyseventeenth century. Analystsofthe period,in thinking aboutthe economy, lookedonlyto the Old Worldand thought oftheclothindustry onlyofmoney.Afterthestagnation duringthe hadpredicted), treatieswithSpainandFrance 1590s(whichHakluyt ventsforthecloththatHakluyt wouldhave openedup Mediterranean directedtowardthe New World.(This is one reasonwhyEngland was relatively slowto colonizetheNewWorld.)Forthesenewmarless durablewoolens, kets,manufacturers beganto producelighter, whichprovided thanhadtheheavier, greateremployment traditional goods because morelaborwas requiredper poundofwool.Soon, in thesemanufactures however, foreign competition increased,and the resulting declineof England'sexporttradeusheredin the depressionofthe 1620s.In response,economicanalystsformulated a monetarist approach,arguingthatthereadilyobservableoutflow of therealm'streasurewas causedby an unfavorable balanceoftrade, to theorizetherootcauses oftheimbalance.Concentratbutfailing theeconomists inginsteadon pricingandcurrency valuation, ofthe 1620signoredtheenvironment, givingmercantilism itsnow-familiar monetarist character.46 Viewedinlargerhistorical thedivergence ofeconomic perspective, and environmental discoursefollowedthisgeneralpattern.Agrariin More'sUtopiaand elsewhere, anism,as articulated had assumed a closedsystemin whichwealth,understood as rightsto landand its produce,was finite(and,as the sixteenth-century literature of The paradigmof agrariancomplaintargued,unfairly distributed). growthsuggestedbythecolonialpromoters beganto be realizedin



suchas Newfoundthe1630sand 1640s,as NewWorldcommodities landfishand Chesapeaketobaccoprovideda basisfortheeconomic recoverythatwoulddevelopfullyafter1660.This paradigmwas formalized in theeighteenth-century classicaleconomicmodelsdewho velopedby AdamSmith,David Ricardo,and the Physiocrats, anddescribedgrowth criticized theseventeenth-century monetarists resources.47 Underas requiring an increasedinputofenvironmental standing resourcesprimarily as agricultural land,theclassicaleconomistsarguedthatresource-based growth wouldbe subjectto diminishingreturnsovergreaterinputsof laborand capital.Thus their to manufacturing, followers soonturnedtheirattention which,since constant machinescouldbe replicated andimproved, orinpromised Neoclassicalthrough creasinggrowth. Keynesianeconomicmodels, assumingthe paradigmof growth, focusedon exchangerelations, analyzingthe production-consumption cycle and surplusvalue in considerwaysthatclosedoffeconomictheoryfromanysignificant ationoftheenvironment.48 theorists ofexchange,such Postmodern as Jean-Joseph Goux,have extendedthislogicto all aspectsofthe social,without, however, theorizing anyrelationbetweenthesocial theneoclassical-Keynesian andwhatis outsideit,ineffect extending oftheeconomy as a closedsystem.49 description whileeconomictheoryincreasingly excludedthephysiIronically, cal environment fromits domainofanalysis,modernenvironmental sciencecame to drawon economicmodelsto workouteighteenththattheremightbe an "economy"of nature centuryspeculations itself,representing natureas an interrelated systemofproduction, ofthe andexchange.Butonlywiththefulldevelopment consumption, ofnaturein termsof conceptoftheecosystem-theunderstanding economiccategories-could energysystemsratherthantraditional environmental scienceoffer economicsa significant paradigmin reof the economyis a subsystem turn.50 to thisparadigm, According on the ecosystem, dependent conceptually separablebutmaterially the ecosystem'scapacitiesto providelow-entropy inputand absorb whichdescribe high-entropy output.Morerecentecologicaltheories, the naturein termsof disequilibrium or chaos,have complicated tocalculatethevalues systems-theory model,makingitmoredifficult ofsustainable inputsandoutputs.51 andtheircohortdevelop The promotional oftheHakluyts writings a suggestively similarposition.Thatis, in certainrespectstheyre-



turnus to ourpresentcrisis.Theydescribean economythreatened must withentropic decayandsee thatthereversalofthistrajectory withthephysicalenvironment that comefroma directengagement commodity, involvesconsiderations ofinput,output,and boundary, intheory. areuncertain waste,andvent,evenifthoseconsiderations Theyproposethatthe healthofthe economydependsonlyon the theselimits. limitsofnature,eveniftheycannotfullyconceptualize Sincewe feelwe are muchcloserto nature'slimits(andhavemore science)thanthey,it is easyto criticizethemfora failureofinsight as I hopeI havedemonstrated, inthisregard.It is moreinteresting, themontheirownterms.We mightgo on,then, totrytounderstand hisofthatunderstanding forliterary to considersomeimplications environmental and practicalenvironmental theory, toryand theory, problems. AlthoughI have chartedthe historicaldivergenceof economic in the thesestrandsremaininterwoven and environmental thought, In the late eighteenth century, forexAmericangeorgictradition. andless familiar writers such Franklin, ample,Crevecoeur, Jefferson, as JaredEliot,BenjaminRush,JohnSpurrier, JohnFilson,andJohn ofvariousfarming methodsandlanduse Loraindebatedtheeffects in the and sociopolitical stability, patternson economicstructure contextofwestwardexpansion.52 Mappingtherelationbetweenthe analysisof the sixteenth-century political-economic-environmental ofAmericancolonization and these laterconfigurations promoters We might, intoAmerican couldprovidenewinsights history. literary forexample,developa historyof the categoryof wastefromthe ofthewordin termsofproductive resources Hakluyts'redefinition and labor,throughLeather-stocking's land ethic ("Use, but don't meditation onwasteinUnderwaste"),5toDonDeLillo'smultifaceted world;such a historywouldneed to recoverthe JaredEliotsand Rushesofitstrajectory as well. Benjamin Morebroadly, to thepromotional attending genre'sgeorgicorieninspecificenvironmental tationanditsinterest capacitiesmighthelp in literary to reanimate thequestionofreferentiality As Lawtheory. renceBuellargues,where"ourtraining conditions us to stressthe betweentextand referent," ecocriticism valuesthe"exdistinction orreferential Yetinhisbriefreading aspects"ofliterature.54 periential ofWendellBerry's"On theHillLate at Night,"Buelldemonstrates



howevenconcreteimagerysuchas Berry'scan lead a readeraway fromthephysicalworld.55 The poem'srootsin thepastoral -a mode historically devotedto ruralleisureand contemplation-invite such in a distancing. By contrast, pursuinga similarsense ofdistancing georgic(a modeconcernedwithlaborratherthanleisure)such as Berry'sessay"AGoodScythe"wouldruncounter toourexperiences ofbothmodeandtopic-if, thatis,we havesuchexperiences todraw SincemostmodernAmericans' on.56 experienceofnatureis pastoral ratherthangeorgic,readingthatreminds us ofoureconomicrelation ourcommonunderstanding totheenvironment couldhelptoreorient ofbothliterature andnature. We mightalso use the earlypromoters'(partial)insightsas a indistinguishing modesofenvironpointofdeparture amongcurrent mentalunderstanding. Forexample,we mightcomparesustainable economicswithdeep-ecological orneopastoral Fromthe approaches. latterperspectives, environmental analysisintermsofeconomicsand energysystemsdoes notseem to offerus a paradigmof communionwithnature,"thearcadiandreamoffellow-feeling" promised by a constructsuch as Gaia, our latestmanifestation of Utopia.57 Yet beyonddeep ecology'sexhortation thatwe recognizeanthropocentrismas the rootcause ofthe environmental crisisand "'work'on [our]selvesto cultivatean 'ecologicalconsciousness,"'it is hardto in a practicalprogram.58 imagineits tenetsmanifested Sustainable in contrast, is fundamentally humanist andtakesa more economics, activeapproach, thetheoretical workbegunbythecolonial extending Renaissancemenwhoadvisedlooking"withArguseies" promoters, attheenvironment "tosee whatcommoditie"-that is,whatmeasure ofusefulness-"byindustrie ofmanyouareabletomakeittoyeeld" (0, 2:333). LikeParmeniusand Gilberton theNewfoundland coast, sustainableeconomicsassumesthe authority to make managerial decisionsregarding theenvironment to thinkthrough and attempts theoutcomesofthosedecisions.LikeArgus,itis evervigilant. Like thecolonialpromoters, it is sometimesmistaken-yetbyno means always.If Gilbertand Parmenius, learningwhattheycouldofNew Worldecologicalhistory fromtheir"veriecredible"sources,had decidedtoburnthewoodsanddisturb thefishafterall,theywouldhave in assumedthatboththewoodsandthefishwouldrestore themselves sevenyears'time.Thatis,theywouldhaveimagineda humaninter-



waste,and renewal. ventionintoan ongoingcycleofconsumption, On the otherhand,iftheychose simplyto let naturealonein this instance, theycouldnotdo so inall instances. andfollowing a provisional distincFroma humanist perspective, tionbetweenpastoraland georgic,we mightmapthe interrelation To takewhatis arguments. ofaestheticandeconomicenvironmental are appalledat mounforme a localexample:ManyWestVirginians inwhichcoal operators blastoffthetopofa taintopremovalmining, Ourobjections togetatthecoalseambelow.59 mountain mayoriginate in aestheticrevulsion-mountaintop removalis ugly-butgiventhe ofsophisticated reclamation coal operators techniques, development inthelongrun.Infact, canpresenttheircourseofactionas beautiful has ofmountaintop removal, ArchCoal Inc.,theleadingpractitioner andtelevision readvertisements depicting beenrunning newspaper claimedsurfaceminesas perfect, middlelandscapes pretechnological This and describingthese landscapesas primewildlifehabitats.60 whileworthcombating on its owngrounds, aestheticpropaganda, removal distractsfromhumanand economicissues. Mountaintop fewjobs,and thoseonlyforthe shortterm.It generatesrelatively sources,and causes flooding. acidifiesstreams,destroyswell-water It damageshomes,forcessome peopleto moveout ofvalleysthat values.It diminishes willbe filledwithrubble,andreducesproperty a local economyincreasingly dedevotedto tourismand therefore Sincemountaintop mineswere pendentonenvironmental protection. Actof exemptedfromtheSurfaceMiningControland Reclamation willendup funding environmen1977,stateandfederalgovernments tal repair.Noneofthisis to denythebasic importance ofaesthetic which it is onlyto remindus thateconomicarguments, arguments; alsoplaya keyrole. withthesixteenth-century originated promoters, I havenotheardanyonequotingThoreau,muchless Gilbertor the inthesearguments, buttheirwordsresonateforthosewho Hakluyts, canhearthem. WestVirginia University

Notes 1

Parmeniuswas a Hungarianscholar,educated at Oxford,whose connectionto colonialventurescame by way ofthe youngerRichardHakluyt,



2 3

4 5 6

withwhom he shared rooms in ChristChurch.Parmeniusintendedto writea fullchronicleofthe expeditionbut,like Gilbert,was killed in a shipwreckon the voyagehome. See David B. Quinnand Neil M. Cheshire, The New Found Land of StephenParmenius:The Life and Writings 1583 of a Hungarian Poet, Drownedon a VoyagefromNewfoundland, (Toronto:Univ.ofTorontoPress, 1972). For an accountof Gilbert'svenMaritime tures,see KennethR. Andrews,Trade,Plunder,and Settlement: Enterpriseand theGenesisoftheBritishEmpire,1480-1630 (Cambridge, Eng.: CambridgeUniv.Press, 1984),183-99. Quinn and Cheshire,New FoundLand, 175.The translationis Hakluyt's and was firstprintedin the 1589PrincipallNavigations. Ibid.,175-76.TranscribingParmenius'sletterin the "Discourse ofWestern Planting,"Hakluytadded a marginalnoteclaimingthat"afterwardes they sett the woodds on firewch burntethree weekes together"(The 2 vols., and Correspondence OriginalWritings oftheTwoRichardHakluyts, ed. E. G. R. Taylor [London: HakluytSociety,1935], 2:231); hereafter this editionis cited parenthetically as 0. As faras I am aware,there is no otherrecordofthis act. Edward Hayes's accountof Gilbert'svoyage does not mentionit; see Richard Hakluyt,The PrincipallNavigations, & DiscoveriesoftheEnglishNation,10 vols. (London: Voyages,Traffiques, J.M. Dent; New York:E. P. Dutton,1927), 6:1-38. Quinnand Cheshire,NewFoundLand, 183-84. intothese Hakluyt'stranslationexpands Parmenius'snoun,terebynthina, two commodities. Whereas the related literarygenre of the voyage (forexample, Hakluyt'sPrincipallNavigations)definedEngland as an economyrelatedto other nationaleconomies,the promotionalgenre worked out the relation between the English economy and extra-economicspace. On the voyagegenre,see RichardHelgerson,FormsofNationhood:TheElizabethanWriting ofEngland (Chicago: Univ.ofChicago Press, 1992), 151-91. Conventionsof the early promotionalgenre include a utilitariantone, an emphasis on labor, and a rhetoricalstructurecharacterizedby figures of blockage or indirectionwhen the text addresses Europe and figuresof openness or expansive vision as it turns toward the New World. See Wayne Franklin,Discoverers,Explorers,Settlers:The Diligent WritersofEarly America (Chicago: Univ.of Chicago Press, 1979), ofAmerica:Excep87-94; Jack P. Greene, The IntellectualConstruction tionalismand Identity from1492 to 1800 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1993), 34-46. This figuralstructureoriginatesin the systemicunderstandingof the English economyand its relationto the New Worldenvironment.Such figurespersist,forexample,in Thomas economy:whereas land in Jefferson's promotionofan agrarian-capitalist " Americahas "an immensity Europe is "lockedup againstthe cultivator, of land courtingthe industryof the husbandman"(Noteson the State


422 AmericanLiterature of Virginia,ed. Frank Shuffleton[New York: Penguin, 1999], 170). As late as the 1910s,promotersused such rhetoric-now largelydetached fromeconomictheorization-to lure prospectivehomesteadersto eastern Montana; see JonathanRaban, Bad Land: An AmericanRomance (New York:Vintage,1997). 7 In general, ecocriticismis more aware of economics than vice versa, yet economic concerns oftenremainperipheral.One exceptionis Lawrence Buell's attentionto the georgic dimension of Thoreau in The and theFormation Imagination:Thoreau,NatureWriting, Environmental ofAmerican Culture(Cambridge:Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), 129-30. For a sense ofthe rangeofeach criticalapproach,see TheNewEconomic Criticism:Studiesat theInterfaceofLiteratureand Economics,ed. Martha Woodmanseeand Mark Osteen (New York:Routledge,1999); The EcocriticismReader: Landmarksin LiteraryEcology,ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Athens:Univ. of Georgia Press, 1996), especially WilliamHowarth,"Some PrinciplesofEcocriticism,"69-91. Economics:TheEconomicsofBiophysi8 See HermanE. Daly,Steady-State cal Equilibriumand Moral Growth(San Francisco:W. H. Freeman,1977); and "Steady-StateEconomics:A New Paradigm," NewLiteraryHistory24 (autumn1993): 811-16;HermanE. Daly and JohnB. Cobb,For theComtheEnvironment, monGood:Redirecting theEconomyTowardCommunity, and a SustainableFuture,2d ed. (Boston: Beacon, 1994). 9 Daly, "Steady-StateEconomics," 811. The flowof solar energyintothe ecosystemultimatelylimitsthe flowofenergyfromthe ecosysteminto the economy.The ecosystemcan absorbonlya limitedoutflowofmatter and energy-that is, waste-from the economywhile sustaininghuman life;thislimitis ultimatelydeterminedbytheplanet'scapacityto transfer heat energyto space. 10 The economic definitionof nationalidentityofferedby the voyage and projectedby other promotionalgenres competedwithotherdefinitions such as the Crown,the landed gentry,the law, and culturalformations, the church;see Helgerson,FormsofNationhood.On the systematization centuryonward, ofEuropean economicthoughtfromthe mid-sixteenth particularlyin terms of the principleof the balance of trade, see The CambridgeEconomicHistoryofEurope,ed. E. E. Rich and C. H. Wilson, 7 vols. (Cambridge,Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1941-1978),4: 498-500. 11 See David B. Quinn,"Renaissance Influencesin English Colonization," in Explorersand Colonies:America: 1500-1625 (London: Hambledon Press, 1990), 106-7. While this model of the economics of colonization wouldbecome dominant,itwas notthe onlyone available.Gilbert'sfirst voyage intendedto establish a colonyonly as a pretenseforcapturing Spanish,Portuguese,and Frenchshipping;see Andrews,Trade,Plunder, and Settlement, 187.AlthoughSir WalterRalegh's Roanoke projectwas



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primarilymercantile,his later reporton Guiana disdains trade in favor ofconquest in orderto establishmilitarybases againstSpain and exact tributefromthe natives,for"where thereis store ofgold, it is in effect needless to rememberothercommoditiesfortrade" (SelectedWritings, 1984], 119). ed. GeraldHammond[Manchester:Carcanet-Fyfield, is one aspect of the general linguisticencounter This transformation with the New World that William Spengemannposits as "the single most importantevent in the historyof the language" (A New World EarlyAmericanLiterature[New Haven: Yale Univ. of Words:Redefining Press, 1994],43). One modern problemof outputis the managementof nuclear waste, whichmustbe containeduntilit will release energyat a rate no greater than the ecosystem can safelyabsorb and transfer.Accordingto the of manufacturing processes did OED, the sense of wasteas by-products notdevelopuntilthe eighteenthcentury. Early texts such as these have seldom been discussed in ecocritical contexts.At an MLA session arrangedby the Associationforthe Study of Literatureand Environment,Scott Slovic reportedthat PMLA had rejected a proposal fora special issue on ecocriticismpartlybecause of a disciplinaryperceptionof ecocriticism'snarrowfocus: "the [Editorial] Board feared . . . a flood of essays about Emerson, Thoreau, etc." and littleelse ("Ecocriticism:TrajectoriesinTheoryand Practice," paperpresentedat the annualmeetingofthe ModernLanguage Association,San Francisco,29 December 1998). However,Slovic noted,recent projectssuch as RobertTorrance'sEncompassingNature:A Sourcebook (Washington,D.C.: Counterpoint,1998) and Michael Branch's forthliterature(Univ.of cominganthologyofpre-Thoreauvianenvironmental GeorgiaPress) indicatea broaderscope. see Neil EvernTo this we could add the charge of anthropocentrism; den,"BeyondEcology:Self,Place, and the PatheticFallacy,"in Glotfelty and Fromm,EcocriticismReader,92-104. Yet Buell describes just how it is foreven the mostcommittedecocentristto decenterhuman difficult Imagination,143-79). subjectivity(Environmental As HowardHorwitzpointsout,whereastheAristoteliantraditionviewed economicsas a matterof"manag[ing]resourcesreadyto hand," Locke's SecondTreatise"redefinedvalue as the productofhumanlabor modifyingnature"(BytheLaw ofNature:Formand Valuein Nineteenth-Century America [New York: OxfordUniv.Press, 1991],7). For examples of the naturalizationof the "growth"paradigm,one need onlynote that Commerce Departmentreportsofleading economic indicatorsare routinely analyzedforevidence of"growth." In Wonder-Working Providenceof Sions Savior in New England (1651), EdwardJohnsonnarratesthegrowthofa stablemarketeconomy,hoping to encourageemigrationand economicdevelopment,whichhad slowed



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with the success of the Puritanrevolutionin England. On Jefferson's commitment to the growthofan agrariancapitalisteconomy,see Joyce Appleby,"The 'AgrarianMyth'in the EarlyRepublic,"in Liberalismand Republicanismin theHistoricalImagination(Cambridge:HarvardUniv. Press, 1992), 253-76. Daly,"Steady-StateEconomics,"814. Thomas More,Sir ThomasMore'sUtopia,ed. J.ChurtonCollins (Oxford: Clarendon,1949), 66-67, emphasis added; hereafterthis editionis cited parentheticallyas U; More, The CompleteWorksof St. Thomas More, 14 vols., ed. Edward Surtz and J. H. Hexter (Yale Univ. Press, 1963), 4:136. Volume4 is hereaftercited parenthetically as CW. I have quoted fromRalph Robinson's 1551 translation(ed. Collins), in which More of course had no part, in order to presentthe topic in contemporary language. Althoughthe firstofficialpronouncementon England'sbalance oftrade came in 1381,the conceptdid notreallycatch on untilthe sixteenthcentury.Mercantilismwas notfullyrecognizedas an economictheoryuntil it became an object ofcritiqueforthe Physiocratsand Adam Smith;see Lars Magnusson,Mercantilism:The Shapingofan EconomicLanguage inthevery (London:Routledge,1994), 9. I am here using"mercantilism" generalsense ofthe promotionofa favorablebalance oftrade. RichardHalpern,ThePoeticsofPrimitiveAccumulation:EnglishRenaissance Cultureand the Genealogyof Capital (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell Univ. Press, 1991),45. More wouldhave concludedfromVespuccithatironwas notabundantin the New World.He probablyalso knew thatthe increasingdemandfor ironin Englandhad to be metwithimports(CW,427). See Quinn,"Renaissance Influences,"108-9. In translatingMore's "continenteproximo"as "nexte lande," ratherthan nearby mainlandor a similarphrase,Robinsonseems to pointmid-sixteenth-century English colonialthoughtdirectlytowardIreland(U, 66). A Discourseof theCommonwealof This Realm ofEngland,Attributed to ThomasSmith,ed. Mary Dewar (Charlottesville: Univ.Press ofVirginiaFolgerShakespeare Library,1969), 126. Ibid. In particular,the "pragmatictone" ofthese notes"set a patternforthose tractsthatfollowed";see New AmericanWorld:A DocumentaryHistory ofNorthAmericato 1612, ed. David B. Quinn,5 vols. (New York:Arno, 1979),3:23. See AlfredW. Crosby,EcologicalImperialism:TheBiologicalExpansionof Europe,900-1900 (Cambridge,Eng.: CambridgeUniv.Press, 1986), 108; Karen OrdahlKupperman,"The Puzzle ofthe AmericanClimatein the EarlyColonialPeriod," AmericanHistoricalReview87 (December 1982): 1265-68.


EarlyColonialPromotionalLiterature 425 28 Travelsand Worksof Captain JohnSmith,2 vols., ed. A. G. Bradley (Edinburgh:JohnGrant,1910),2:928. 29 Kupperman,"Puzzle oftheAmericanClimate,"1267. 30 Thomas Harriot,A Briefeand TrueReportoftheNew FoundLand ofVirginia, in TheEnglishLiteraturesofAmerica,1500-1800, ed. MyraJehlen and Michael Warner(New York:Routledge,1997), 68, 72,hereaftercited parenthetically. 31 Jehlenand Warner,EnglishLiteratures, 68n. 32 Subsequent promotionaltexts,fromRobertJohnson'sNova Britannia (1609) throughJohnSmith's GenerallHistorieof Virginia (1624) and beyond, reiterateda particulardesire for Mediterraneancommodity environments.Even Jefferson tried,unsuccessfully,to introduceolive cultivationto America; see Charles A. Miller,Jefferson and Nature:An Interpretation (Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniv.Press, 1988), 222. 33 See AndrewMcRae, GodSpeedthePlough:TheRepresentation ofAgrarian England, 1500-1660 (Cambridge,Eng.: CambridgeUniv.Press, 1996), 135-68. 34 Thomas Nashe, PiercePenilesse,His Supplicationto theDivell, ed. G. B. Harrison(New York:E. P. Dutton,1924), 85-86. 35 McRae, GodSpeedthePlough,168. 36 See JoyceAppleby,EconomicThought and Ideologyin Seventeenth-Century England (Princeton:PrincetonUniv.Press, 1978), 129-57. 37 Peckham had bought land rightsin NewfoundlandfromGilbert,the originalpatentee,and wrotethe TrueReportoftheLate Discoveries... by... Sir HumphreyGilbertin 1583 to attractinvestorsand settlers;see Quinn,NewAmericanWorld,3:34. 38 Ibid.,3:36. 39 ChristopherCarleill,A Breefand SommarieDiscourseupontheEntended Partes ofAmerica,in Quinn,New American Voyageto theHethermoste World,3:31. 40 See Peckham, True Reporte,in Quinn,New American World,3:35-60. Edward Hayes's accountofGilbert'ssecond voyage notesthatthe Newfoundlandfishingfleet"have caried sheepe thitherforfreshvictualland had them raised exceeding fatin lesse then threeweekes," but Hayes does notmentiontheirpotentialforwool production(Hakluyt,Principall Navigations,6:22). 41 See B. E. Supple,CommercialCrisisand Changein England,1600-1642: A Studyin theInstability ofa MercantileEconomy(Cambridge,Eng.: Cambridge Univ.Press, 1959), 23; Andrews,Trade,Plunder,and Settlement, 6-9. 42 Peckham,TrueReporte,in Quinn,NewAmericanWorld,3:49-50. 43 See McRae, GodSpeedthePlough,9-10, 23-24, 43-44. 44 See E. F. Jacob,TheFifteenth 1399-1485 (Oxford,Eng.: ClarenCentury, don,1961),346-85.


426 AmericanLiterature 45 WilliamC. Carroll,"'The NurseryofBeggary':Enclosure,Vagrancy,and Sedition in the Tudor-StuartPeriod," in EnclosureActs:Sexuality,Property,and Culturein Early ModernEngland,ed. RichardBurt and John Michael Archer(Ithaca,N.Y: CornellUniv.Press, 1994), 35. 46 See Supple, CommercialCrisisand Change,135-62, 197-224. 47 See Paul P. Christensen,"HistoricalRoots forEcological EconomicsBiophysicalversusAllocativeApproaches," EcologicalEconomics1 (February1989): 17-36.Christensenarguesthatintheirattentionto resource inputs,classical models provide an unrecognizedstartingpoint for a biophysicalperspectiveon economics,but that these models must be extendedto include both a recognitionof solar energyas the primary inputand a considerationofwaste output. 48 Daly and Cobb arguethatthe neglectofthe categoryofland orresources has been symptomaticof this ever-increasingassumptionof systemic closure.As concernfortheproductivecapacityofphysicalnaturehas become increasinglyperipheralwithinthe economic subdisciplineofland economics,land economicsitselfhas become moreperipheralto general economic analysis. Neoclassical models assume that "capital is a near perfectsubstituteforland and othernaturalresources" (FortheCommon Good,97-117,196). 49 Jean-JosephGoux, SymbolicEconomies:AfterMarx and Freud, trans. CurtissGage (Ithaca,N.Y.:CornellUniv.Press, 1990). Jennifer 50 Donald Worster,Nature'sEconomy:A HistoryofEcologicalIdeas, 2d ed. (Cambridge,Eng.: CambridgeUniv.Press, 1994), 291-311. 51 Ibid.,388-420. 52 See TimothySweet, "AmericanPastoralismand the Marketplace:EighIdeologies of Farming,"Early AmericanLiterature29 teenth-Century (spring 1994): 59-80. In retrospect,I would distinguishgeorgic from pastoralin thisliterature. 53 JamesFenimoreCooper,ThePioneers(New York:Penguin,1988), 248. 54 Buell, EnvironmentalImagination,10, 36; see especially 83-114 for a muchmorenuancedtreatmentofthe issue thanI can give here. 55 Ibid.,10. 56 WendellBerry,"A Good Scythe," in TheGiftofGoodLand: FurtherEssays Culturaland Agricultural(San Francisco:NorthPointPress, 1981), 171in his poetryand 75. Buell notes Berry's insistenceon referentialism argues fora recoveryofthe georgicdimensionofThoreauvianpastoral; see Environmental Imagination,102-3, 129-30, 379-81, 391-94. 57 Worster,Nature'sEconomy,315.Worsterremainscriticalofeconomistic tendencies,arguingthat "communalismmust find another source of intellectualsupportthan the New Ecology" (315). However,Daly and Cobb specifythe primaryconcern of sustainable economics as "the long-termwelfareof the whole community,"definingthe individualas "constitutedby . .. relationsto others";they a "person-in-community"


EarlyColonialPromotionalLiterature 427 argue that "there are approximationsto communityparticipationthat can and should characterizehumaninvolvement in the biosphere,"even thoughnonhumanmembersofthebiospheredo notpossess the "level of subjectivity"requiredto definethemselvesas membersofa community (FortheCommonGood,159,165,202). 58 Jeffrey C. Ellis, "On the Search fora Root Cause: EssentialistTendencies in EnvironmentalDiscourse," in UncommonGround:Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, ed. William Cronon (New York: Norton, 1996), 266. 59 For summarybackground and photographs,see Penny Loeb, "Coal ActivistsStir Up Dust in West Virginia,"US. News and WorldReport, 13 October1997,8; Peter Galuszka,"StripMiningon Steroids,"Business Week,17 November1997,70; Ken Ward Jr.,"Coal Miners' Slaughter," Sierra,November/December1998,16-17. 60 On the Americanideal of the "middle landscape," see Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (Oxford,Eng.: OxfordUniv.Press, 1964).
