Colonial Botany. Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World

Londa Schiebinger and Claudia Swan (eds.), Colonial Botany. Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. ISBN 0–8122–3827–3. 352 pp., 54 b. & w. illus. £36. Plants are a feature of all human social, economic, cultural and political activities, and the history of botany has been driven by economic and agricultural imperatives. Today, international agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, emphasize the central importance of plants to nation states. In the early modern period (defined here as 1500–1800), vessels of wood and hemp harnessed the power of the winds and the oceans to link disparate colonies, and transport botanical products and information to imperial capitals. However, the justifications for interest in plants, and the mechanisms by which plants were exploited, differed between colonial powers. The bloody history of plant exploitation made and destroyed fortunes, changed social structures and transformed landscapes....