Research:2018-12-19/Journal article/radiografía-de-un-fracaso-angloespañol-el-cáñamo-un-producto-que-debería-haber-llegado-de-américa-durante-los

Research record19 December 2018Journal article

Radiografía de un fracaso angloespañol: el cáñamo, un producto que debería haber llegado de América durante los siglos XVI–XIX

Manuel Díaz Ordóñez

Obradoiro de Historia Moderna · 2018

Comparative history of Spanish and British attempts, from the 16th to the early 19th century, to grow hemp in their American colonies and so reduce their dependence on hemp from the Russian Empire for naval rigging, sailcloth and matchcord. Díaz Ordóñez frames the question with Kenneth Pomeranz's concept of "ghost acreages" and works from Spanish archival documents, English pamphlets and the Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations. On the Spanish side he traces royal decrees from 1532 onwards and the hemp of La Ligua and Quillota in Chile, which stayed below 100 tonnes a year in the 17th century but supplied Peru and the ships of the Pacific. José de Gálvez's programme from 1777 sent farmers from Granada to New Spain, Venezuela and Louisiana with little result; Spanish California's harvests reached 100 tonnes in 1810. On the British side he covers plantings from Jamestown in 1611 onwards and bounties paid by colonies from 1671 and by Parliament from 1704; he records crops in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. He notes, citing 18th- and 19th-century authors, that hemp was absent from the native flora of the Americas. He concludes that British America grew far more hemp than Spanish America but neither met imperial demand. Both empires, he writes, still relied on Russian hemp into the mid-19th century. The article concerns hemp grown for fibre.

SourceDOIPDF

Record created 4 October 2026 · maintained by landrace.wiki editors · page history

Published19 Dec 2018

TypeJournal article

VenueObradoiro de Historia Moderna

Year2018

DOI10.15304/ohm.27.5138

SourceDOIPDF

2018-12-19 2026-10-04 Radiografía de un fracaso angloespañol: el cáñamo, un producto que debería haber llegado de América durante los siglos XVI–XIX Journal article Manuel Díaz Ordóñez Obradoiro de Historia Moderna 2018 10.15304/ohm.27.5138 https://revistas.usc.gal/index.php/ohm/article/view/5138 https://revistas.usc.gal/index.php/ohm/article/download/5138/6094 Comparative history of Spanish and British attempts, from the 16th to the early 19th century, to grow hemp in their American colonies and so reduce their dependence on hemp from the Russian Empire for naval rigging, sailcloth and matchcord. Díaz Ordóñez frames the question with Kenneth Pomeranz's concept of "ghost acreages" and works from Spanish archival documents, English pamphlets and the Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations. On the Spanish side he traces royal decrees from 1532 onwards and the hemp of La Ligua and Quillota in Chile, which stayed below 100 tonnes a year in the 17th century but supplied Peru and the ships of the Pacific. José de Gálvez's programme from 1777 sent farmers from Granada to New Spain, Venezuela and Louisiana with little result; Spanish California's harvests reached 100 tonnes in 1810. On the British side he covers plantings from Jamestown in 1611 onwards and bounties paid by colonies from 1671 and by Parliament from 1704; he records crops in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. He notes, citing 18th- and 19th-century authors, that hemp was absent from the native flora of the Americas. He concludes that British America grew far more hemp than Spanish America but neither met imperial demand. Both empires, he writes, still relied on Russian hemp into the mid-19th century. The article concerns hemp grown for fibre.