British Imperialism and its Legacies: Models of Merchant Ships
- Comments
-
Glasgow Museums has 156 ship models relating to the trading routes of the British Empire, within the wider ship model collection. Maritime trade lay at the heart of the Empire, which had its origins in sea-based trade routes and the search by private enterprise for new resources and markets.
English trading companies established maritime commercial outposts in America, Asia and Canada in the 1500s, and Scottish entrepreneurs attempted to do the same on the Isthmus of Panama at the end of the 1600s. Maritime traders concentrated on acquiring raw materials or high-value local products, with profit as their main concern. Little value was placed on local cultures or communities and co-operation soon shifted towards control and exploitation under the guise of colonial management. Dispossession of native peoples and settlement by emigrants changed the way lands were used and understood forever.
Merchant ships carried high-value cargoes such as Caribbean sugar, Indian tea and Australian gold, as well as bulk cargoes of oil, wool, grain and fertilisers to British ports, and returned to the colony ports with consumer goods, livestock, the engineering and technology required for empire-building, and hundreds of thousands of farmers, enslaved and indentured workers, soldiers, entrepreneurs, transported prisoners and administrators.
Shipbuilders based on the River Clyde in Glasgow came to specialise in building cargo and passenger ships of all types. The collection holds models of 55 sailing ships – such as City of Glasgow and Taitsing – and 111 steam ships – such as Viceroy of India, Rangitane and Chirripo – which were built for shipping companies directly involved in Empire trade.
- Broader term