Midday North and South 227 



ways a purely business venture, and, as such, it finally paid off hand- 

 somely, but never specifically in whale products. Calculable returns 

 actually included a world-wide empire, wealth and leisure to devote 

 to the pursuit of science and technology, and a series of devastating 

 wars. Had it not been for whaling, there would have been a great 

 deal less red on British maps at the beginning of this century. 



This was, of course, not foreseen by the directors of the South 

 Sea Company, and still less by Parliament and the Crown, but there 

 were a few individuals of considerable perspicacity connected with 

 the business who had a very real appreciation of the over-all trend of 

 history, and who were thus fully alert to the inherent possibilities. 

 These men were the merchants resident in the great ports of Eng- 

 land, who were not themselves seamen but shipowners, and most of 

 whom were primarily engaged in importing. They knew only too 

 well the value of the whale products that were purchased from the 

 Dutch and other foreigners, and the enormous volume of this one- 

 way trade distressed them mightily. They also knew much better 

 than any London financiers or politicians the worth of a deep-sea 

 whaling fleet both in peace and in war, and they were hearing daily 

 of new trade routes being opened up by the American colonists in 

 their pursuit of the sperm whale. Further, they also knew the inher- 

 ent weaknesses of the giant joint-stock companies chartered by the 

 Crown and backed by the government. 



These cautious men waited a long time, but they eventually started 

 building ships on their own, and they persuaded other citizens of 

 their townships to subscribe funds for fitting them out. Among these 

 enterprising merchants one family, that has traded for centuries under 

 the name of Sam Enderby & Company of London, stands out most 

 prominently. We shall hear a great deal of this firm later for, although 

 they were comparative latecomers in the whaling business, they de- 

 voted most of their attention to what was called the southern fishery. 

 The general policy adopted by these merchants, with regard to both 

 whaling and officialdom, was essentially the same as that instituted 

 by those merchants of London who had taken stock in the South Sea 

 Company about the middle of the century. 



All earlier efforts had been directed primarily towards the north- 

 ern, or Arctic, fishery, which is to say to those sea-countries opened 

 up by the Hollanders between Spitsbergen and Greenland and in the 



