“Captured at Sea”: Maritime Conflict and the Circulation of Art in Early Modern Britain

Abstract War was an important, and underappreciated, force circulating global goods into and around early modern Britain. Capture at sea brought millions of pounds of merchandise into the British Isles, offering new groups of consumers new ways of participating in the expanding world of things. By tracing the presence in early modern Britain of paintings from colonial Spanish America, we better appreciate the economic, social, and cultural significance of maritime predation. We also identify new sources to explore the early modern world of goods, from the Admiralty records that document these captures, to literary celebrations of patriotic sea-dogs seizing Spanish treasure galleons, and family legends attributing a pirate provenance to Spanish American artworks. We should, in short, pay more attention to the role of war and violence in setting early modern goods in motion.