When China's Trade all Europe Overflows: Edward Young's Naval Lyrics, Critical (Mis)Fortune, and the Discourses of Naval Power, Trade, and Globalisation
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This essay argues that Edward Young's naval lyrics - especially "Imperium Pelagi" (1730) - which have justly been regarded as poetic failures, can nonetheless be shown to be highly revealing documents in the eighteenth-century rivalry between the opposing trade philosophies of mercantilism and free trade. "Imperium Pelagi" is revealed to be highly conflictive in that it oscillates between celebrating trade as being beneficial to all, and a proto-nationalist discourse of competition and British naval power. In contrast to Young's professed originality in treating this topic, the texts are shown to be part of an ongoing discourse. Moreover, "Imperium Pelagi" is shown to contain what appears a prescient anticipation of Chinese dominance in international trade. In discussing these issues, the essay argues that historicising and presentifying approaches must by no means be mutually exclusive if the roots of present-day concerns can be traced to intellectual contexts of the text in question.