Elcano and the First Circumnavigation of the World
Copyright© 2024 by Mark West
Chapter 19
As we sailed along the Atlantic coast of North Africa, I asked Sean what plans he had for the future after I sold the Santa Maria in Getaria or other port in Euskal Herria. His reply made me consider my own plans.
“I have experience of shipping wine from Portugal to England, and I think that I would like to do something similar in future. However, I will only have the 25 ducats you promised me and that is not enough to fund my own business. But if you and your brothers were willing to invest along with me, I believe that we could find a profitable cargo that we could buy in Spain or Portugal and sell in England.”
I asked him what cargo would be in demand in England as he had experience of that country. He promised that he would consider the matter and give me an answer shortly. With that, I left the issue of what to do in future and turned my attention to the voyage back to Spain while making sure that all hands kept a lookout for pirate ships. Fortunately, none were sighted, and once more we reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda without incident.
Here, I gave the crew permission to go ashore as they were eager to spend some of their dues on women and other ways to waste their hard-earned money. Meanwhile, my brothers, Sean, and I spent time aboard and planning possible future ventures. First, we considered the wine trade. Sanlúcar de Barrameda is famous for a type of fortified wine which is called Xerxes. The wine from Portugal can also command a high price in England as that country does not produce wine. However, the transport of wine is not easy. First, it must be shipped in large wooden barrels, and these are bulky and can also be affected by sea water. The precious cargo can be spoiled if the barrels are breached in any way. A second problem is that we would have to buy the wine because only shipping on behalf of a merchant would not produce a large profit after the expenses of the crew, and our resources were limited. A further problem is that the Santa Maria was not a large nao, so we could not carry many of the large barrels that wine was transported in.
Therefore, wine was not an option to trade.
However, Sean explained that there was one cargo that was cheap and available close to where we were anchored, and which commanded a high price in England. This was oranges which were an abundant crop in Sevilla. Oranges could be stored in small wooden barrels and piled high; they would not spoil during the 10 days from Sevilla to England; and they were cheap to buy but expensive in England as they did not grow in that country unless they were protected from frost and snow in specially constructed buildings. Sean also suggested that we should buy some young orange trees and attempt to sell them to nobles who would value the opportunity of demonstrating their wealth by growing such an exotic plant even in the coldest weather.
So, it was agreed that we would plan to ask the crew if they were willing to sign on for this venture to England when they returned to the nao having spent most of their money ashore. We also agreed that we did not need the men-at-arms for this voyage, so they would be discharged from service in Sevilla. This would reduce the expenses of the venture to England.
We waited in Sanlúcar de Barrameda for a week until most of the crew had returned. Sean and I spent time with the carpenter and his caulker helper examining the timbers of the ship to make sure that it was seaworthy after its tempestuous maiden voyage. The inspection revealed that the Master-builder of Zumaia had constructed one of the finest naos we had ever sailed on as there were no leaks and the only sea water in the bilges had come from water entering through hatches on the deck during stormy weather. The pumps were in good condition, so we were confident that a cargo of oranges would not spoil as we sailed to England.
By the time we were ready to sail to Sevilla, 3 of the sailors had not returned to their duties, so we sailed without them as we knew that we could replace them in Sevilla. The voyage up the Guadalquivir River passed without incident and soon we were moored in Sevilla where we discharged the men-at-arms with what dues remained after they had taken an advance to spend in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
Now, it was my turn to go ashore with my brother Martín Pérez, Sean and 4 sailors to carry the parrots, the dried fruit, and the rare stones from the Maya. They would also help to carry oranges we were able to purchase. My brothers, Sean and I all contributed most of our dues from the last voyage as a fund to purchase oranges in addition to whatever we could obtain by selling the goods we carried.
At that time, the court was in Sevilla, so we knew that there would be many nobles in residence as they always had to be close to the king, either looking for advancement or for fear of a rival gaining the affection of the king. Therefore, there should be many opportunities to sell the parrots and some of the rare stones. And this is how we managed to fund the purchase of oranges, and the supplies needed for our first venture as merchants.
The nobles lodged close to the royal residence, so I gave the task of selling our wares to my brother and Sean as I was still out of favour with the king on account of selling my father’s nao to the Savoyard merchants. I did not want to risk his wrath which might have seen me incarcerated while he decided what my fate should be. In the end, the parrots almost sold themselves as they were so colourful and so vocal that they easily attracted the attention of the retainers of a number of nobles. Sean had a shrewd business head, and he organised an auction of each parrot instead of attempting to sell for a fixed price. In addition, by selling one, he created a desire among other nobles to acquire one of these exotic creatures for themselves. In the end, the price that we obtained from these parrots was almost half of what we had sold the miserable French slaves for. 20 ducats for each parrot was an enormous price to pay for a creature that might die at any moment, but nobles thought only in terms of their standing amongst their peers. In fact, I learned later that all 8 parrots were presented to the king by the nobles who hoped to gain advancement from the king by these gifts. I did not learn what the king thought of these exotic birds or whether they lived or died. In either case, I was pleased to learn that we had a large sum of money to support our new business.