Ralph Fitch: Difference between revisions
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{{for|the New Brunswick politician|Ralph Bruce Fitch}} |
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{{Infobox Person |
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|name = Ralph Fitch |
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|image = |
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|alt = |
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|caption = |
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|birth_date = ca 1550 |
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|birth_place = |
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|death_date = 1611 |
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|death_place = |
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|other_names = |
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|known_for = Travel via the [[Levant]] and [[Mesopotamia]] to [[India]] and [[Malacca]] (in Malaysia). (1583-1591) |
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|occupation = [[merchant]], [[explorer]] |
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|nationality = |
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}} |
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'''Ralph Fitch''' (ca 1550 - [[1611]]) was a gentleman [[merchant]] of [[London]] and one of the earliest [[England|English]] [[travel]]lers and [[Merchant|traders]] to visit [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Persian Gulf]] and [[Indian Ocean]], [[India]] and [[Southeast Asia]]. At first he was no chronicler but he did eventually write descriptions of the south-east Asia he saw in 1583-1591, and upon his return to England, in 1591, became a valuable consultant for the [[British East India Company]] <ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/208850/Ralph-Fitch Ralph Fitch] [[Britannica.com]].</ref><ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_12.shtml The Spice Trade, Episode 12] [[BBC Radio]].</ref> |
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==Career== |
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Fitch's place of birth has long been a mystery but recent research indicates that he was most likely born in All Saints' parish, Derby<ref>The Leathersellers' Review, 2007-08, pp 16-18: "An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller" by Jerome Farrell</ref>. The first known documentary reference to him is in the archives of the [[Worshipful Company of Leathersellers]], of which he was a Freeman and from which Company he received a loan of £50 for two years, 1575-77 <ref>The Leathersellers' Review, 2007-08, pp 16-18: "An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller" by Jerome Farrell</ref>. In February 1583 he embarked in the ''Tyger'' for [[Tripoli]] and [[Aleppo]] in [[Syria]], together with merchants John Newberry and John Eldred, a jeweller named William Leedes and a painter, James Story, all financed by the [[Levant Company]]. This was the latest in a series of English attempts to penetrate the trade of the Indian Ocean and Far East, going back to Anthony Jenkinson's travels in Central Asia in the 1550s. From [[Aleppo]] they reached the [[Euphrates]], descended the river from [[Birecik|Bir]] to [[Fallujah]], crossed southern Mesopotamia to [[Baghdad]], and dropped down the [[Tigris]] to [[Basra]] (May to July 1583). Here Eldred stayed behind to trade, while Fitch and the others sailed down the [[Persian Gulf]] to the Portuguese fortress and trading station at [[Ormuz]], where they were promptly arrested as spies (at Venetian instigation, as they believed, but the Portuguese were always jealous of their commercial monopoly in the Indian Ocean) and sent as prisoners to the Portuguese viceroy at [[Goa]] (September to October). |
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Through the sureties procured by two [[Jesuit]]s (one being [[Thomas Stephens (Jesuit)|Thomas Stevens]], formerly of [[New College, Oxford]], the first Englishman known to have reached India by the Cape route in 1579), Fitch and his friends regained their liberty. Story chose to join the [[Jesuit]]s, and the others managed to escape from [[Goa]] (April 1584). They travelled through the heart of India to the court of the Great [[Mughal Empire|Mogul]] [[Akbar]], then probably at [[Agra]]. The jeweller Leedes obtained a remunerative post with Akbar while Fitch continued his journey of exploration. Fitch did the first leg of that journey, from Agra to Allahabad, by joining a convoy 'of one hundred and fourscore boates laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge (asafoetida), Lead, Carpets and diverse other commodities' going 'downe the river jumna (Yamuna)'. He reached Allahabad sometime in November 1585, when work on Akbar's great Fort at Allahabad was nearing completion. In September 1585 Newberry decided to begin his return journey overland via [[Lahore]]. He disappeared, presumably being robbed and murdered, in the Punjab. |
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Fitch continued on, descending the [[Jumna]] and the [[Ganges]], to visit [[Allahabad]], [[Benares]], [[Patna]], [[Kuch Behar]], Hughli, [[Chittagong]], etc. (1585–1586). He then pushed on by sea to [[Pegu]] and [[Burma]]. Here he visited the [[Rangoon]] region, ascended the [[Irrawaddy River|Irrawaddy]] some distance, acquired a remarkable acquaintance with inland Pegu, and even penetrated to the [[Tai peoples|Tai]] [[Shan state]]s and the Tai kingdom of [[Lanna]] (December 1586 and January 1587). |
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Early in 1588 he visited [[Malacca]], another of Portugal's great fortresses and the gateway to the Far East, but found the security too strict to get passage into the China Sea. In the autumn of this year he began his homeward travels, first to [[Bengal]]; then round the Indian coast, touching at [[Cochin]] and Goa, to Ormuz; next up the Persian Gulf to Basra and up the [[Tigris]] to [[Mosul]] ([[Nineveh]]); finally via [[Tirfa]], [[Birecik|Bir on the Euphrates]], Aleppo and Tripoli, to the Mediterranean. He arrived in London on 29 April 1591, eight years after he had left. Since no news of him had reached his family and friends in that time he had been presumed dead after seven years and his will had been proved. He resumed his involvement with the Leathersellers' Company, serving as Warden in 1607 and joining the Company's Court of Assistants in 1608. His experience was greatly valued by the founders of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]], who consulted him on Indian affairs. |
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Fitch ranks among the most remarkable of Elizabethan adventurers. There is no evidence he ever married and the main beneficiaries of his final will in 1611 were eight nieces and two nephews. |
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== Impact and legacy== |
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* Fitch's journey is referred to indirectly by [[William Shakespeare]] in Act 1, Scene 3 of ''[[Macbeth]]'', where the first witch cackles about a sailor's wife: "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master of the Tyger." |
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* [[Mahabandoola Park]] in [[Rangoon]] was formerly named ''Fitche Square'' in his honour. |
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==Works== |
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*Aanmerklyke Reys van Ralph Fitch, Koopman te Londen, Gedaan van Anno 1583 tot 1591. Na Ormus, Goa, Cambaya, Bacola, Chonderi, Pegu, Jamahay in Siam, en weer na Pegu: van daar na Malacca, Ceylon, Cochin, en de geheele Kust van Oost-Indien. Nu aldereerst uyt het Engelsch vertaald. Met schoone Figueren, en een volkomen Register. Leyden, Van der Aa, 1706 {{nl}} |
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==See also== |
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*[[Chronology of European exploration of Asia]] |
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==Literature== |
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*John Horton Ryley: ''Ralph Fitch: England's pioneer to India and Burma ; His companions and contemporaries with his remarkable narrative told in his own words.'' London, 1899. [http://books.google.com/books?id=TuPPrNZak5EC&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=Ralph+Fitch+1611&source=bl&ots=5yXywZ6o-M&sig=EWCRxPwzx04PlOnLZa2zugVjbwo&hl=en&ei=sIy0SuuBB8bK8QbT_tm8DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Excerpts] |
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*Michael Edwardes: ''Ralph Fitch – Elizabethan In The Indies.'' London, England Faber and Faber 1972 |
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*Cecil Tragen: ''Elizabethan Venture.'' London H.F. & G Witherby Ltd. 1953 <!--Recounts the trading ventures to the Eastern World (India, Turkey,Persia) of two little-known Elizabethans-- John Newberry and Ralph Fitch. --> |
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*Jerome Farrell: ''An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller'', The Leathersellers' Review 2007-08, pp 16-18 |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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*{{1911}} |
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==External links== |
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* [http://www.archive.org/stream/ralphfitchenglan00rylerich/ralphfitchenglan00rylerich_djvu.txt Full text of "Ralph Fitch : England's pioneer to India and Burma : his companions and contemporaries, with his remarkable narrative told in his own words" ] |
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*[http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/travelogue.html Account of the Voyage of Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London. This part of the account pertains to the year 1583.] |
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* [http://warandgame.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/ralph-fitch-1550%E2%80%931611-english-merchant/ Image of Ralph Fitch, in a 16th century painting] |
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{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. --> |
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| NAME = Fitch, Ralph |
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| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = |
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| DATE OF BIRTH = |
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| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
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| DATE OF DEATH = 1611 |
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| PLACE OF DEATH = |
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}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, Ralph}} |
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[[Category:16th-century births]] |
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[[Category:1611 deaths]] |
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[[Category:English merchants]] |
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[[Category:16th-century merchants]] |
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[[Category:17th-century merchants]] |
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[[Category:English writers]] |
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[[Category:16th-century writers]] |
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[[Category:17th-century writers]] |
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[[Category:16th-century explorers]] |
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[[Category:17th-century explorers]] |
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[[Category:English explorers]] |
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[[Category:Explorers of Asia]] |
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[[Category:History of Burma]] |
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[[Category:People of the Tudor period]] |
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[[Category:People of the Stuart period]] |
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[[Category:Historiography of India]] |
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[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]] |
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[[de:Ralph Fitch]]KSKS |
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