The Weekly Quill — The United States of Corte-Real
The Quill Intelligence Guide to 2022 Global Trade
“For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”
Sir Walter Raleigh, 1829?
Italians and Colonial Dames bristle. The people of Portugal bask. Given Raleigh’s dictum, it’s perfectly plausible that it was not Columbus who discovered America nor the Pilgrims who first settled New England. After all, in the years between 1450-1530, it was the Kingdom of Portugal that ruled the seas and commanded reserve currency status. Why would it not be credited with discovering and colonizing the New World? As the alternative version of history goes, in 1473, an expedition to explore the North Atlantic beyond Greenland and Iceland was formed. Financing was jointly provided by the kings of Portugal and Denmark.
The launch point was Bergen, Norway, from whence the sailors made aim for Greenland via Iceland. Though men of many nationalities were aboard the vessel, the reports that made it back to Europe called the island encountered beyond maps’ end?Terra Nova do Bacalhau,?Portuguese for “New Land of the Codfish” as was?Jo?o Vaz Cortereal, the one explorer given naming rights.?Indeed, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland are teeming with cod. As Knut Gjerset wrote of the forgotten history in 1933, “This land of the stockfishes could have been neither Iceland nor Greenland, for these countries were well known to Norwegian navigators and were always mentioned by name. It was undoubtedly Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, for among geographers of the sixteenth century the Terra do Bacalhao always denoted Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, and the adjacent continent.”
At least one 15th?century Italian agreed. In 1497, Giovanni Caboto, who history calls John Cabot as he was commissioned by British King Henry VII, noted that he had made landfall at “Baccalieu,” referencing the already-named coast of Newfoundland. Moreover, though still the preeminent global power, King John II of Portugal dismissed Christopher Columbus when the famed explorer was seeking financing in 1484. As providence would have it, Pope Alexander VI was a Spaniard and thus inclined to issue a Papal Bull in 1493 that assigned all territory west of Cape Verde Islands to Spain, and east of Cape Verde to Portugal. The New World was a gift, one that history has validated…twice.
You see,?Jo?o Vaz Cortereal had sons with their father’s penchant for the seas. In 1501, Gaspar set sail for the land his father had discovered. Of the three ships that departed, however, only two returned to Portugal. Gaspar was never to be seen again, which left his younger brother Miguel unsettled. By the early summer of 1502, Miguel had reached the shorelines in which his brother had disappeared. The three ships split up to better conduct reconnaissance agreeing to rendezvous on August 20. Once again, the Cortereal brother was a no show. And once again, the two remaining ships made the return voyage home. Unlike his older brother, though, Miguel may not have perished. In 1690, Reverand Cotton Mather came upon a boulder in the Taunton River. Named for the Massachusetts town through which it flows, Dighton Rock was inscribed with “MIGUEL CORTEREAL V. DEI HIC DUX IND.” The Latin translation: “Miguel Cortereal, by the will of God, here leader of the Indians.” The date etched into the rock: 1511, nine years after Miguel vanished.
Though both Portuguese portrayals remain sources of controversy, one must wonder whether history books should solely recount the Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria and stories of the Mayflower Pilgrims who disembarked at Plymouth Rock. Another narrative that has been woven is that of the U.S. economy prior to Covid 19 washing ashore. The yield curve had inverted. The Federal Reserve was growing its balance sheet. And world trade had contracted for the full year, which has always landed the U.S. economy in recession. And yet, the economics community both inside the Fed and across the sell side roundly deny these events as if they never took place.
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Danielle DiMartino Booth is founder and Chief Strategist at?Quill Intelligence
Blockchain enthusiast, TEC observer, keen follower of what will shape our future world, lots of experience in the old world and missing the boat of the new one...??
2 年Delightful contextualisation of things. Congrats
Strategy advisor
2 年Excellent article and very true, Sir Walter Raleigh also said ''So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies'', at least that was the famous Elizabethan explorer and close friend of the Queen of England who passed away in 1618.
All things come to an end...