Sir Joseph Banks's Provincial Turn

Abstract

The rise of global history has been a major development in historical studies in recent years, with the history of globalization a central part of that. But did the global matter as much to people in the past as to historians now? This article addresses that question with reference to Britain as viewed through some neglected aspects of the life of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820). He is usually remembered for his extensive global preoccupations. Yet his ability to be a citizen of the world, most famously on Cook's first voyage of exploration, rested on his considerable landed wealth. Indeed, as the years passed, he became more interested in improving both his own estates and the wider region, especially his beloved county of Lincolnshire in England. There, global pressures exerted some indirect influences, but local ones, especially environmental and legal, remained more important, often addressed by resort to parliamentary legislation.

Placing Joseph Banks in the North Pacific

“…In a recent paper on Banks's "provincial turn" Julian Hoppit rehearses how the "global turn" in historical inquiry of the last few decades has rejuvenated interest in histories of exploration, science and trade, and revitalised interest in figures such as Banks, whose commercial and scientific interests spanned the globe, and whose curiosity and patronage helped to make projects of collection, classification, cultivation and curation central to the economics and culture of empire. 23 Hoppit traces how, in a wider sense, "local, regional and national" histories have been reconceived in more expansive and relational terms, with a more explicit concern with global comparison and connection, and with a greater sensitivity to the modes and hierarchies of power and representation linking far-flung places and phenomena. It is not the case, Hoppit avers, that all history now is, or should seek to be, global (or world) history in design, scope or content.…”

“…Hoppit alights on how, within these global and postcolonial turns, Banks has been reconfigured as an 'agent of empire' but suggests that for all of his "extensive global preoccupations" and sense of himself as a "citizen of the world" (stemming from his participation in James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific), in later life he became more concerned with matters closer to home, and particularly with his Lincolnshire estate near Reasby (and engrossed in sheep and wool correspondence more than that over Indian and Pacific trade). 24 Hoppit suggests that recent literature exaggerates Banks's global connections "bypassing the national frame" and downplays his "provincial turn". 25 But there is a parallel danger here, and of which Hoppit aware: that in seeking to recover the 'provincial', a hoary and myopic provincialism of yesteryear, which was symptomatic of Britain's sense of its own global self-importance, might re-enter the frame.…”

“…24 Hoppit suggests that recent literature exaggerates Banks's global connections "bypassing the national frame" and downplays his "provincial turn". 25 But there is a parallel danger here, and of which Hoppit aware: that in seeking to recover the 'provincial', a hoary and myopic provincialism of yesteryear, which was symptomatic of Britain's sense of its own global self-importance, might re-enter the frame. 26 Hoppit thus raises important questions about the relative weight that should be accorded to 'the local' and 'the global' in Banks's affairs and archive, and the effects of doing so at a time of wider debate about how to 'play with scales'.…”

Edward Harrison (1759–1838): An overlooked advocate of EcoHealth and One Health in the early 19th century

“…Within his practice, his most distinguished patient was Sir Joseph Banks, whom he treated for gout. 3 Banks was not only a well-respected naturalist and President of the Royal Society but also a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner who took a keen interest in the well-being of the area 5 and acted as a patron for some of Harrison’s early scientific investigations. 3…”