1715 / c. 1732 Herman Moll Map of South America (South Sea Company)

Encouraging the first recorded Bubble Economy.

This is Herman Moll's 1711 / c. 1726 map of South America and its strategic Spanish ports, produced to promote the South Sea Company from its inception, and which remained in print during and well after the debacle of the South Sea Bubble (1711 - 1721).  Moll's map illustrated the sphere of influence and goals of the South Sea Company, lending the scheme both his own authority and that of Sir Edmund Halley. It is the best cartographic representation of the ambitions of the South Sea Company, which, via such promotions as this, was able to inflate the value of its stock wildly until the 1720 collapse of stock prices in the ruinous stock bubble for which the Company is now primarily remembered.

A Closer Look

The map is assembled from two separate sheets, printed from four plates, joined for binding in Moll's atlas. The main, lower portion of the map represents the portion of the work first printed in 1711.  Centered on South America, this main map covers from Florida to Tierra del Fuego and from an insular California to the coasts of Africa. The map includes Edmund Halley's measurements of magnetic variation. Arrows indicate the prevailing trade winds. A dotted line roughly three hundred leagues out from the coast marks a region from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata south of Brazil, extending around Tierra del Fuego, and up the West Coast of both South America and North America (embracing the great island of California). This line represented the proposed sea limit of the South Sea Company's activities. The map also depicts the sailing tracks taken by John Narborough (c. 1640 - 1688) to the Strait of Magellan in 1669, and by William Dampier (1651 - 1715) to Cape Horn in 1684. Inset maps detail points of specific interest within that sphere of influence: the Straits of Magellan (derived from Narborough's report), the Bay and Isthmus of Panama; the Gulfs of Nicoya and Fonseca; and the Mexican port of Acapulco. Insets detail the Galapagos Islands and the Island of Juan Fernando in the Pacific; another illustrates the imaginary Pepys Island in the Atlantic near the Falkland Islands. In the upper right, a general map of the Atlantic illustrates the route from the British Isles to South America, while emphasizing the proximity of the Guinea Coast of Africa to South America.

The upper sheet presents three further charts, printed from separate plates; the attachment of this sheet appears to have begun in and around 1717. These charts, sourced from 'the Newest Spanish Draughts', present the harbors of Valdivia in Chile; the Chilean Chiloé Archipelago, and the harbor of Guyaquil, in Peru. All of these harbors and islands would have been crucial to British trade had the proposals of the South Sea Company come to fruition.

The South Sea Company

The South Sea Company was a British joint stock venture chartered near the end of the Spanish War of Succession (1702 - 1714). Ostensibly, Britain, which was beginning to gain an upper hand over Spain, founded the South Sea Company to disrupt and ultimately seize control of Spain's trade wealth in the Americas. Under John Blunt and Robert Hartley, England's Lord Treasurer, the South Sea Company was granted exclusive trading rights to all commerce in Spanish America. The trading rights granted to the South Sea Company presupposed a British victory in the war, which did not occur until several years later in 1713. Though not as grand or extensive as originally hoped, the 1714 Treaty of Utrecht granted the South Sea Company limited trade rights in Spanish America as well as the coveted Asiento, the contract to supply enslaved Africans to the Spanish colonies.

Right from the beginning of the scheme in 1711, at Jonathan's Coffee House (early London version of Wall Street), Moll's circle of influential financiers, educated pirates, and talented promoters launched a campaign of propaganda in support of the South Sea Company. By mid-1720, despite engaging in little or no commerce, rabid speculation had pushed the per-share value of South Sea Company stock to over £1000, creating the world's first recorded stock bubble. Around September, the bubble burst. The stock price plunged to under £100 per share, causing a rash of bankruptcies. Moll himself is not known to have earned any money from directly speculating on the South Sea Company, but no doubt his timely issue of illustrative maps and other publications turned a handsome profit. The possibilities suggested by the map were tantalizing: Moll's map offered the possibility of South Sea Company privateers crossing into the Pacific via the access points at Panama and the Straits of Magellan; the newly charted islands could serve as bases to aid in the control of the ports charted on the map. From these ports, the British could not only dominate the internal trade but also harass the Spanish Pacific fleets sailing from the treasure port of Acapulco. The possibilities would have seemed rich.

The sub-context of Moll's map of the South Sea Company can be read in the light of the Asiento, or slave trade. With the coast of Africa appearing at the right and trade winds clearly indicated, one could follow the slave route from Europe to the coast of Africa, to the mining and agricultural ports in South America that most needed slave labor. In the course of roughly 30 years of trade, the South Sea Company transported some 34,000 enslaved African people to South America, a tragic number though far short of the mandate proposed by the Company in its promotions.

Cartographically, Moll's South Sea Company map is loosely based on Edmond Halley's chart of magnetic variation, whose isogonic lines appear. The general shape of South America is drawn from Mount and Page, who published a chart of South America based on a projection prepared by Edward Wright. A few of the insets Moll extracted from his own earlier work, publishing the journals of his gentleman pirate friends, including Dampier, Funnell, Hack, and others. Some of the more interesting charts, including the three large maps at the top of the page, were added in this, the second edition of the map. These maps, as well as the map of Acapulco and the Galapagos, were extracted from manuscript maps copied from Spanish charts seized by the privateer Captain Sharp from the Spanish ship Santa Rosario. These were copied by Moll's coffeehouse friend, the pirate William Hack. Though commanded by the king to keep these documents secret, lest a rival nation use them to their advantage, the presence of these maps on Moll's chart clearly indicates the difficulty in keeping cartographic information under wraps.

Publication History and Census

Moll initially published the lower portion of this map in 1711 as the frontispiece for his pamphlet, A View of the Coasts, Countrys, and Islands within the Limits of the South Sea Company. That first state lacked the 'Sold by Herman Moll' imprint appearing north of New Mexico, and contained a different text below Tierra del Fuego than here. The latter states of the map were included in Moll's atlas, The World Describ'd, which enjoyed a long print run. A second state appeared in about 1717, including the new 'Sold by Herman Moll' imprint and a new text below Tierra del Fuego, consisting largely of Moll's diatribe against 'the very erroneous French Map' published by De l'Isle in 1703. A third state appearing in 1726 and remaining in print at least until 1732, included a note emphasizing the agreement of the map with those of Edmund Halley. The upper sheet began to appear attached to this map, coinciding with state three as noted above, first (a) without and then (b) with an imprint reading 'Sold by H. Moll and by J. King at ye Globe in the Poultrey near the Stocks Market.' The present example corresponds to the third state, variation b. Early states are particularly rare. The map appears on the market from time to time. Perhaps a dozen examples of the latter states of the map are cataloged in OCLC.

Cartographer

Herman Moll (1654 - 1732) was an important 18th century map publisher and engraver based in London and Holland. Moll's origins are disputed with some suggesting he was born in the Netherlands and others Germany - the Moll name was common in both countries during this period. Most likely Moll was a German from Bremen, as his will, friends, and contemporaries suggest. What is known for certain is that he moved to London in 1678, possibly fleeing the Scanian War, where he worked as an engraver for Moses Pitt and other London map publishers. Around the turn of the century, Moll set up his own shop where he produced a large corpus of work known for its high quality and decorative flair. As a new émigré to England, Moll made himself more English than the English, and through his cartography proved a fierce advocate for his adopted nation. Most of Moll's early maps were issued as loose sheets that would be bound to order, however, he did publish several important atlases late in his career. Moll is said to have made the bold claim that without a doubt "California is an Island" and that he "had in [his] office mariners who have sailed round it." While California may not be an island (yet), it is true that Moll had talent for attracting interesting friends and acquaintances. He frequented London's first stock exchange, Jonathan's Coffeehouse at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. At the time Jonathan's was known as "a place of very considerable concourse for Merchants, sea faring Men and other traders" (Erleigh, The Viscount, The South Sea Bubble, Manchester: Peter Davies, Ltd., 1933, 21). Eventually this activity attracted the interest of stock brokers, who inspired by sailor's tales, sponsored the ill-fated South Sea Company, the world's first stock bubble. Moll's close circle, mostly from the Coffee House, included scientist Robert Hooke, the writers Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) and Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), the pirates William Dampier, William Hacke and Woodes Rogers, and the archeologist William Stukeley. Herman Moll's work was highly regarded for its decorative beauty and was pirated, most notably by the Irish publisher George Grierson, both in his lifetime and after his 1732 death at St. Clement Danes, London.   Further Details...

Source

Moll, H., The World Described; or a New and Correct Sett of Maps, (London) 1711-33.    

Herman Moll's The World Described; or a New and Correct Sett of Mapps Shewing the Several Empires, Kingdoms, Republics, Principalities, Provinces etc. in all Known Parts of the World is the most English atlas of the early 18th century, both for its cartographic content and for its unusual and evolving publication history. First issued c. 1715, the atlas was not conceived as a single, fixed-volume publication, but rather as a composite work assembled over time, reflecting the dynamic and commercial nature of the London map trade. Moll issued the atlas in parts, with new maps engraved, updated, and added incrementally across multiple printings extending to about 1754 (well after Moll's 1732 death). The earliest iterations of The World Described emerged during a period of intense interest in geography, trade, and imperial expansion. Moll capitalized on this demand by producing large, separately issued maps that could be sold individually or collected into bound atlases according to a purchaser's preference. As a result, no single 'standard' collation of the atlas; instead, surviving examples vary in content and arrangement. The maps themselves often bear the imprint 'Sold by H. Moll over against Devereux Court in the Strand,' and many are dated between roughly 1715 and the early 1720s, though dates are frequently absent, complicating bibliographic reconstruction. The World Described includes Moll's most influential maps, including large-format representations of North America, the Caribbean, and the British colonies. These maps are notable for their political and commercial emphasis, highlighting English territorial claims and trade routes. Moll's work also drew upon contemporary sources, including information from explorers, merchants, pirates, and private correspondents, lending the atlas both topical relevance and a degree of authority. Following Moll's death in 1732, the atlas passed into the hands of other London publishers, who continued to issue updates. Among these were Thomas Bowles, John Bowles, and later Robert Sayer. These publishers reissued Moll's plates, sometimes with updated imprints or minor revisions, extending the life of the atlas into the 1750s. There is also a famous pirated edition of The World Described issued in Dublin by George Grierson.

Condition

Fair. Trimmed to border with some areas of loss, some reinstatement of margins and some manuscript reinstatement of borders. Else very good.

References

OCLC 224333936. Rumsey 9729.014. McLaughlin, G., The Mapping of California as an Island: An Illustrated Checklist, 181, state 2. National Library of Australia, 1726 MAP RM 109. Shirley, R., Maps in the Atlases of the British Library vol I, T.Moll-4b, 12. Hutchinson, G., 'Herman Moll's view of the South Sea Company,' Journal for Maritime Research, 2003. Reinhartz, D., The Cartographer and the Literati: Herman Moll and his Intellectual Circle. Boston Public Library, Leventhal Collection, G5200 1711 .M65.