Human Security
Transcription
Human Security
Historical Social Research Historische Sozialforschung Special Issue Cornel Zwierlein, Rüdiger Graf & Magnus Ressel (Eds.) The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte Mixed Issue Cliometrics No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 CONTENTS Special Issue INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTS Cornel Zwierlein & Rüdiger Graf The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History. 7 Christopher Daase National, Societal, and Human Security: On the Transformation of Political Language. 22 DOMESTIC SECURITY REGIMES Karl Härter Security and “Gute Policey” in Early Modern Europe: Concepts, Laws, and Instruments. 41 Rebecca Knapp Communicating Security: Technical Communication, Fire Security, and Fire Engine ‘Experts’ in the Early Modern Period. 66 Klaus Weinhauer Youth Crime, Urban Spaces, and Security in Germany since the 19th Century. 86 Achim Saupe Human Security and the Challenge of Automobile and Road Traffic Safety: A Cultural Historical Perspective. 102 PIRATES AND SECURITY OF THE SEAS Magnus Ressel The North European Way of Ransoming: Explorations into an Unknown Dimension of the Early Modern Welfare State. 125 Joachim Östlund Swedes in Barbary Captivity: The Political Culture of Human Security, Circa 1660-1760. 148 Erik Gøbel The Danish Algerian Sea Passes, 1747-1838: An Example of Extraterritorial Production of Human Security. 164 3 Leos Müller Swedish Shipping in Southern Europe and Peace Treaties with North African States: An Economic Security Perspective. 190 ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES, DISASTERS, AND HUMAN SECURITY Gerrit Jasper Schenk Human Security in the Renaissance? Securitas, Infrastructure, Collective Goods and Natural Hazards in Tuscany and the Upper Rhine Valley. 209 Dominik Collet Storage and Starvation: Public Granaries as Agents of Food Security in Early Modern Europe. 234 Cornel Zwierlein Insurances as Part of Human Security, their Timescapes, and Spatiality. 253 Uwe Lübken Governing Floods and Riots: Insurance, Risk, and Racism in the Postwar United States. 275 Melanie Arndt From Nuclear to Human Security? Prerequisites and Motives for the German Chernobyl Commitment in Belarus. 289 Thorsten Schulz Transatlantic Environmental Security in the 1970s? NATO’s “Third Dimension” as an Early Environmental and Human Security Approach. 309 Rüdiger Graf Between National and Human Security: Energy Security in the United States and Western Europe in the 1970s. 329 Mixed Issue CLIOMETRICS Maria Eugénia Mata Environmental Challenge in the Canning Industry: The Portuguese Case in the Early Twentieth Century. 351 4 Special Issue The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTS No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Cornel Zwierlein & Rüdiger Graf Abstract: »Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte«. Since the end of the Cold War, Human Security has become an important approach in international politics, law, and political science. In contrast to the so-called ‘Westphalian System’ that knows only states as subjects and objects of security, human security aims at the security of individual human beings if failed or failing states do not protect them nor provide for their basic needs. Thereby, such heterogeneous forms of security as security from war, food security, energy security or security from crime and traffic accidents become common problems of international politics. Developing this new concept of security, UN documents as well as some experts suggest that the extended concept of security is a recurrence of the premodern concept of security that prevailed before the clear-cut distinction between domestic and international politics and the evolution of the system of states. This introduction discusses contributions on the premodern and contemporary history of (human) security and tries to assess the heuristic potential of the concept for historical research. Keywords: Human security, History of security regimes, intertemporal comparison, interepochal comparison, new medievalism, Westphalian system, failing states. The concept of human security was introduced at the level of global politics and the United Nations in the 1990s and is intended to complement the traditional concept of state security, but can also stand in opposition to it. Human security demands that the policies of international organizations must be directed towards the protection of individual human beings, that their security and basic rights must be more than just a side-effect of the protection of borders, governments and the sovereignty of countries against external violence. Human security emerged as a central category in debates on security policies after the Cold War and often alludes to a new postmodern and postnational age. While social and political scientists as well as experts on international law intensively debate the concept and its policy implications, historians rarely touch on it. In this special issue of Historical Social Research, historians explicitly deal with “human security” as both an object of study and, to a certain Address all communications to: Cornel Zwierlein, Faculty of History, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätstraße 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Rüdiger Graf, Faculty of History, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 7-21 extent, a heuristical device of historical research combining the social and political sciences with specifically historical approaches. The Human Development Report of 1994, the first official UN document to introduce the concept, defined security as “safety from the constant threats of hunger, disease, crime, and repression. It also means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of our daily lives – whether in our homes, in our jobs, in our communities or in our environments”. Consequently it enumerated “job security, income security, health security, environmental security, security from crime” as the “emerging concerns of human security all over the world” – a catalogue that is broad but not exhaustive.1 The Human Development Report was intended as preparation for the Social Development Summit of 1995 and, consequently, tried to combine the new formula of development policy, “sustainable development”,2 with a new concept of security. Therefore, issues from the agenda of development policies were implicitly labeled as security issues. This process or strategy of the securitization of development issues (intentionally) raised attention to the threats to security in everyday life. A couple of years later, in 2003, the Commission on Human Security which had been formed in the meantime explained the shift towards “human security” as follows: The international community urgently needs a new paradigm of security. Why? Because the security debate has changed dramatically since the inception of state security advocated in the 17th century. According to that traditional idea, the state would monopolize the rights and means to protect its citizens. State power and state security would be established and expanded to sustain order and peace. But in the 21st century, both the challenges to security and its protectors have become more complex. The state remains the fundamental purveyor of security. Yet it often fails to fulfill its security obligations – and at times has even become a source of threat to its own people. That is why attention must now shift from the security of the state to the security of the people – to human security.3 Secure living conditions away from slums, security in the face of natural and human-made catastrophes, security against violence, criminality, the effects of civil war or even the effects of badly coordinated road traffic are objects of human security policy, of NGOs as well as of broader initiatives such as the United Nations Human Settlement Programme. Framing all these issues under the comprehensive concept of security allows the UN to assume responsibility; moreover, it increasingly blurs the once clear distinction between domestic and foreign policies. 1 2 3 Human Development Report 1994, 3. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987; “sustainable development” had been the main issue of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro 1992). Final Report of the Commission on Human Security 2003, 2. 8 Behind these definitions and the respective UN programs stand well-defined interests. In particular, some medium powers, such as Canada, Norway or Japan, try to use the human security agenda in order to play a major role in international politics; “human security” is a programmatic and, to a certain extent, even an ideological term. As a positive formula, human security corresponds to development policies and relies on – while simultaneously contributing to – the much discussed erosion of the old concept of undivided state sovereignty during the 20th Century:4 Human security is supposed to overcome state borders for the sake of people’s human rights and the security of their basic livelihoods when failing or failed states do not accomplish the function of protecting their citizens from harm and violence. Correspondingly, in international law the “responsibility to protect” has been developed, fostered once again by Canada and similar states, and first mentioned officially in a final resolution of the UN General Assembly in 2005.5 To a certain extent, “human security” is the positive complement to the negatively connoted idea that a hegemonic power or the UN should become a “world police” after the security architecture of the Cold War disappeared.6 But its political function does not prevent the term from having analytical implications; “human security” is the latest and apparently most successful term in a longer series of notions which have come up since the Second World War in order to describe changing security regimes: “extended security”, “common security”, “global security”, “cooperative security” or “comprehensive security”. All these new notions of international security try to incorporate political questions which used to be chiefly domestic into the realm of international affairs. Thus, to some observers, they seem to correspond to the erosion or end of the so-called “Westphalian System” of sovereign nation states. Official UN documents such as the above-cited report by the Commission on Human Security refer explicitly to an “obsolete Westphalian System”, thus positioning the present development towards human security as a development which ushers in a new era after classical modernity.7 What began with the doctrines of sovereignty by Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes and the classical concepts of civil rights since Hugo Grotius seems to find a swift end in the present day. From this perspective, classical modernity becomes an exceptional period of world history sandwiched between structurally similar premodern and postmodern conditions. Accordingly, the clear-cut divisions of internal and external security policies appear as an exception, historically appropriate only for the 19th and the first two thirds of the 20th century. Therefore, the current questioning of state 4 5 6 7 Cf. the select titles Biersteker 1999; Camilleri and Falk 1992; Krasner 1999; Walker 2003; Sassen 1996. Verlage 2009. A still worthwhile critical analysis for this point is Paris 2001. E.g. Final Report of the Commission on Human Security 2003, 2. 9 boundaries within the concept of human security also challenges our view of history and of the boundaries between epochs. As far as we can see, historians have only partially addressed this challenge. While transnational history and territoriality have emerged as important topics of historical research8 and migration, transnational flows of goods and ideas, as well as the constitution and maintenance of state borders have ranked among the most fashionable topics of historical inquiry,9 these studies only rarely deal explicitly with the concept of security. Studies of historical security regimes, on the other hand, still largely focus on the national and military security of nation states. The concept of “human security”, which has so far been neglected by historians, might thus provide the means to connect the new approaches to statehood, citizenship, and borders with security concerns and offer a coherent frame that can also deal with the classical concerns of nation states. In this way, “human security” could overcome the artificial divide between state-centered and transnational history, integrating both into a common framework while connecting them to highly relevant issues in contemporary international politics. This volume assembles initial attempts to assess the utility of “human security” for historical research. Its articles deal with the issue in two ways: 1) they historicize “human security” or corresponding notions of security, security policies and practices through time; 2) they explore the analytical and heuristic value of “human security” for historiography. 1. Historicizing Human Security Looking at the state of research on the history of security, at first glance the topic seems to be ubiquitous and to have belonged to the core of historical research for a long time; if we take a closer look, however, it is not that clear which studies should be included in such a presumably long bibliography. Even though Lucien Febvre called for a history of the “sentiment de securité” encompassing religious, economic, political, and social aspects of security production as early as 1956,10 curiously, that path has not been taken by many historians. In France, in reaction to his demand, on the one hand, a history of the spread of late Medieval and Early Modern maritime insurance business was published11 and, on the other hand, Jean Delumeau’s works on fear, punishment and culpabilization in Early Modern times appeared.12 Since fear is the mental and emotional counterpart to security, Delumeau focused on the inner subjective reactions to “fear” and how the different confessional cultures in Early 8 9 10 11 12 Geyer and Bright 1995; Maier 2006; Maier 2000; Conze 2004, 15-43; Osterhammel 2001. As excellent examples see Ngai 2004; Reinecke 2010. Febvre 1956. Boiteux 1968. Delumeau, 1978; Delumeau 1983; Delumeau 1989. 10 Modern Europe reacted to those fears. The broad research on the discourses and practices of “Policey” put the issue of “security” only very recently in the forefront.13 Insurance history remained enclosed for a long time in the narrow methodological and disciplinary frames of law and business.14 Only in the light of the history of knowledge and sciences did it come back in relation to the history of probability.15 The fast-growing field of the history of (natural) hazards and resilience seldom focused on the problem of “security regimes” but mostly looked at its objects of study from the other side of the coin, from the perspective of threat and risk.16 Histories of national security policies still mostly deal with military capabilities and preparedness, while studies on inner security discuss, above all, terrorist threats.17 Apart from some early efforts to establish “security” as a distinct theme of sociology that also contained short histories of security,18 it is only recently that some broader collaborative enterprises to write histories of security regimes have re-emerged, but these were discontinued and did not focus on human security.19 With the exception of one classical but now quite out-dated attempt by Werner Conze, we do not even have thorough research on the history of the word and concept of “security” in a long-term perspective.20 While the most recent conceptual history has been elaborated by Christopher Daase,21 for the earlier epochs, e.g. the Medieval era, there are only very vague assumptions that “securitas” was not a very frequently used concept compared to the prevailing notions of “peace”22 and “tranquillity”; we have no systematic attempt to describe the functionally equivalent and synonymous notions, or to give a detailed explanation of that absence of “security” apart from the obvious answer that the idea of internal and external security seems to be intrinsically connected to the notion and the practice of Early Modern state-building. The contribution by Gerrit Jasper Schenk takes up this task, concentrating on the exceptional example of the securitas fresco in the Palazzo Publico in Siena, which shows that the security/state liaison had its roots not in the later territorial states and big kingdoms but rather in the late Medieval Italian signories with their tendency to territorialize dominion and governance. The 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Härter et al. 2010; Lüdtke et al. 2008. Cf. only, as representative for a bulk of studies, Niekerk 1998; La Torre 2000; Koch 1998; Pearson 2004. Daston 1988; Hald 1990; Hacking 1975. Bennassar 1996; Favier 2002; Kempe and Rohr 2003; Gisler 2003; Schenk 2007; Favier and Remacle 2007; Favier 2000; Groh et al. 2001; Favier and Granet-Abisset 2005; Mercier-Faivre et al. 2008; Favier 2007. See for example Leffler 1992; Bluth 2002; Weinhauer 2004. Kaufmann 1973. Gerwen and van Leeuwen 2000. Conze 1984. See Christopher Daase’s contribution to this volume. For the late Medieval notion of peace in the international field cf. only Kintzinger 2000. 11 paper by Karl Härter follows chronologically and shows, for the Germanspeaking lands, how “security” became central to the 17th and 18th centuries’ discourse on Policey, that is the discourse on the administration and order of the territorial states. Here, as in the contribution by Rebecca Knapp on technical knowledge as a driving motor of security production, the authors do not stress the present notion of “human security” too much, but rather use a more general notion of “security”. Nevertheless, their papers contribute in important ways to our overall knowledge of the historical production of security. Moreover, this special issue contains a whole section on an important Early Modern security problem: the maritime security of Northern European sailors who were often captured by North African “pirates” during their Mediterranean journeys from the 16th century until 1830 (Ressel, Östlund, Gøbel, Müller). The North African Barbaresque cities (Tunis, Tripolis, Algier) never became real states, not even in the Early Modern sense. They remained under Ottoman suzerainty but nevertheless acted quite autonomously on the international scene. In particular, they negotiated many peace treaties with the European states. Capturing European ships and sailors and earning the ransom money was for centuries a main source of income and wealth for the corsair elite of these semi-states. Until 1830, many attempts by European sea powers to destroy the system of piracy by force were unsuccessful, so that insecurity was a continuing problem for the Mediterranean sea trade. Because of its steadiness, the European traders and sea powers adapted to this problem in various ways, inventing and institutionalizing new forms of security production. The contributions dealing with the contemporary history of security production cover very different thematic aspects of the broad term: threats to urban security by crime and youth violence (Weinhauer), traffic and road security at the conceptual border of safety and security – terms that can be differentiated in English but not in every other language – (Saupe), environmental security in a larger sense, especially with regard to natural and technical catastrophes (Arndt, Lübken, Schulz), and energy security (Graf). They exemplify how, after the Second World War, and especially since the 1970s, discourses on and conceptions of security widened long before the notion of “human security” was coined (Daase). They thereby deliver initial suggestions for a history of “human security” in a narrower sense as an important field of contemporary history and go beyond the hitherto rare attempts at such treatments of “human security”.23 Moreover, they enrich and nuance the currently expanding field of a political and cultural history of security in a broader sense.24 23 24 MacFarlane and Khong 2006, the only monographic attempt to this end, is mainly (143259) devoted to the period from the 1990s onwards. Conze 2005. 12 2. Human Security as a Heuristical Device The second mode of using “human security” in historiography would be as a heuristical device. This procedure implies complex problems which become obvious if we look at the division, intentionally produced by the editors of this special issue, between contributions concerning premodern (mostly Early Modern) and contemporary states of affairs. This juxtaposition of different periods of security regimes reflects the prevailing historical narrative in political science and politics: In the report by the 2003 UN Commission on Human Security which was quoted above, the preoccupation of UN politics with the new notion of security was framed within a historical narrative of a pre-Westphalian world, a modern Westphalian world of state security, and a (postmodern) 21st-century world of a yet-to-be-achieved reign of “human security”. This rudimentary historical narrative has been expanded by S. Neil MacFarlane and Yuen Foong Khong in their attempt to write a short – and very selective – critical history of the UN human security concept: They claim that in the case of human security “we are speaking more of the recovery of very old understandings of security rather than the generation of new ideas”.25 In their “archaeology” of the concept they take big steps through the European history of ideas, claiming that securitas in the classical and medieval periods “was [rather] an individual matter and was not used in reference to communities or states”.26 While the period of the Cold War “laid down important foundations for the subsequent architecture of human security in the internationalization of human rights norms” and was at the same time “paradoxically” a time of “a further strengthening of norms concerning sovereignty and nonintervention”,27 MacFarlane and Khong interpret the idea of “human security” as a return to the pre-Westphalian system, to premodern conceptions of universal ethical and spiritual principles which do not stop at state borders. Emma Rothschild sees the horizon of re-entry rather differently, arguing that “the new security principles of the end of the twentieth century constitute a rediscovery, of sorts, of […] late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century politics”, i.e. of late Enlightenment Liberalism from the 1770s to the 1820s.28 Similarly, the German historian Alf Lüdtke considers the increasing surveillance, controlling, and disciplinary activities of state police forces since the 1990s to be a return of the Early Modern universalistic concept of “Policey”.29 One could link that point with the former discussion by stressing that, in fact, the cameralist administrative sciences of Policey already 25 26 27 28 29 MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 19. MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 25, following Rothschild 1995, 61 – but Rothschild only refers to Cicero and Seneca. MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 262-263. Rothschild 1995, 65. Lüdtke 2006. 13 treated all of the above-mentioned “new” UN categories of threats to human security (crime, violence, tenure insecurity, natural and human-made disasters etc.) on the same categorical level. Thus, in many of the analyses by historically arguing political scientists as well as by historians, we find the idea of a “return to...” or of a structural similarity between premodern and “late” or “postmodern” conceptions of security. This implies that the time of “high modernity” and nation states can no longer function as the finally achieved standard against which aberrations are to be measured but that it appears rather as a comparatively brief historical exception. A similar and even more comprehensive mode of understanding the present as a “return to...” has been around for quite a while: As early as 1977, Hedley Bull developed the scenario of a “new medievalism”30 in which, unlike during the Westphalian System of states with undivided sovereignty, governmental, sub-, and non-governmental actors as well as hybrid regional-politically integrated systems might coexist.31 Until after the end of the Cold War this vision, to which Bull himself, after having developed it extensively, finally did not subscribe, received no positive resonance. Since then, however, there have been attempts in the political sciences – always developed without consulting historians – to further develop the metaphor or analogy of a “new medievalism”.32 There are many other analogous observations on the contemporary political world system which seem to fit in with these metaphorical schemes, such as pre-Bodin and post-Westphalian concepts of sovereignty; old and new asymmetric wars; old and new warlords etc. Finally, one could add another similar historical narrative which occurs in the studies on the counterpart of “security”: that is, “risk” and “hazard”: When, in 1986, Ulrich Beck wrote risk society in the aftermath of the Chernobyl catastrophe, his vision of the historical development of the concept of risk and uncertainty was still quite opaque. However, he postulated that the “risk society” of the present, in which the unintended consequences of industrialization politics rebounded on humankind, was a new epoch, a “second modernity”, which had to struggle with the heritage of the “first modernity”. Under the influence of François Ewald’s État providence of the same year (1986), risk sociology’s historical narrative consolidated and converged with that of Anthony Giddens, Barbara Adams and other time sociologists, now consisting of three steps: 1) premodern societies exposed to simple “threats”, handling them as strokes of fate, living within the horizon of a “closed future”; 2) societies of high or 30 31 32 No literature exists concerning Bull’s sources. Already in the 1930s, we can read some similar observations under this title: Nulle 1937. Bull 1977, 240-271. For some recent literature on “new medievalism” cf. Zwierlein’s contribution in this volume. Some even compare the competing universal powers of Pope and Emperor with today’s competing universalisms of the nation states and the transnational market economy: Friedrichs 2001. 14 “first” modernity calculating “risks” in the conceptual frame of an open future, “colonizing” the future by planned actions; 3) risk societies or societies of the “second or late modernity”, living in an extended present and forced to deal with the unintended consequences of first modernity’s planning efforts, confronted with new “uncertain uncertainties”.33 This historical vision – never precisely developed by Beck or Giddens, but deepened by Beck’s longtime colleague and collaborator Wolfgang Bonß34 – coincides with the three-step “archaeology of human security” mentioned above, even though risk sociologists seldom define the “second modernity” as a return of “premodernity”. While some sociologists deepen their theories with historical narratives as Bonß does, historians have started to deal with the problem and history of “risks” as well. Outside the field of research on the history of natural and human-made disasters – where current risk sociology is normally cited only cursorily –, a debate among historians about the historicization of the concept of “risk society” has begun only recently.35 Most of the talk of the “return” of a premodern condition is only metaphorical in nature and seldom thoroughly reflected; premodern and post- or late modern phenomena may, at best, look similar in certain respects, but they are certainly not identical. Paradoxically, part of the plausibility of the metaphor may derive from globalization and the dramatic revolutions in technological communications that have changed our ways of perceiving the world and dealing with our contemporaries. Sociologists and philosophers of time such as Helga Nowotny describe this as the immersion into an extended present which they distinguish from modern teleological or historicist conceptions of a linear time leading into a determinable or open future.36 The perception of the world in the mode of such an “extended present”, which replaces the open future of modern times, decreases the plausibility of classical modern categories (progress, perfectibility, nation-states as the “containers” of linear conceptions of growth) while simultaneously suggesting that other concepts (hybridizations, entanglements of “traditions” and (multiple) “modernities”) should take their places. Consequently, the autodescriptive discourse of post- or late modernity finds it plausible to play with mirroring itself in historical patterns that may even be labelled as “medieval”, the period from which modern thinkers were careful to distance themselves. How should historians react to this predicament? Does such thinking in rhetorical, but sometimes quite systematically developed, analogies produce any 33 Cf. Beck 1993. Bonß 1995; cf. similarly the historical narrative in Peretti-Watel 2000, 31-62. Cf. Fressoz 2007, who argues, as many do, that “risk society” is not really new but rather that the dialectics between planning, technology and unintended consequences can also be found in the 19th century. This argument can even be widened to yet earlier periods. 36 Rosa 2005; Nowotny 1989, 47-76. 34 35 15 new insights? Or is it just a way of mystifying the obvious, used by sociologists and philosophers while among practical, technological elites the modern categories of time- and self-perception are still in full swing? How big is its explanatory value – does it not create more problems than it solves? How do we deal with the highly contested notion of “modernity”37 which forms, as “pre-”, “post-” and “classical modernity”, the cornerstone of all reflections? This question is further complicated by modernity’s twofold relation to the study of security: On the one hand, we use “modernity” and its derivative concepts as simple temporal notions in order to structure our narratives or to develop arguments about regimes of security in Early Modern or Late Modern history. But, on the other hand, according to many accounts the notion of modernity itself depends on people’s changing relationship towards security. One only has to think of Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptualization of modernity by means of the gap opening up between the “space of experience” and “horizon of expectation”.38 As security – at least in its mental and emotional aspects – is a mode of anticipation, it is located exactly within this gap and is, thus, essential for understanding modernity. Moreover, although not referring to temporal horizons, the differentiation between certain regimes of fear and security is also an important element constituting Zygmunt Bauman’s distinction between a “solid” and a “liquid modernity”.39 If one were to use “human security” seriously as a heuristical device, one would have to start differently and enter the field of structural intertemporal comparative reasoning. It would be necessary to extract the structural dispositions that are associated with the notion today and to try to find similar patterns in history. The most important structural ingredient of “human security” is the shift from a perspective centered on the state to one centered on human beings, and this implies that one would have to focus specifically on all effects of the processes of growth or erosion of statehood, of the forming of individuality etc. Several articles in this volume offer arguments along these lines. While “food security” and the difference between availability and access to food constitute important elements of development policies and of human security today, reacting to capacity problems of states and societies at the threshold between the “first” and the “third” world, they appear to have had “striking” counterparts in the reflections and practices of food storage in public granaries in Early Modern states structurally positioned at the threshold of “modernity” (Collet). The production of human security via insurances also exhibits salient resemblances between Early Modern and contemporary practices that differ from the intermediate period of the “normal secure state” (Zwierlein). Papers on Barbaresque 37 38 39 For an instructive and skeptical assessment of its analytic potential see Cooper 2005, 113152. Koselleck 1995, 349-375. Bauman 2006. 16 piracy in Early Modern times are inspired by the recurrence of piracy around the Horn of Africa since the late 1990s. While piracy today lies rather at the margins of the human security approach, the best informed current analyses suggest that it is a consequence of unstable living conditions in the societies that host the pirates and, thus, of failed or failing states which are a paradigmatic human security problem.40 Intertemporal comparisons have to deal with the problem that Barbaresque city-states were far away from any forms of statehood even in Early Modern terms. Comparing the two phenomena might already suggest that they share enough common features in terms of security production, which, considering the differences, is highly doubtful. While many political scientists already do not hesitate to conduct such interepochal comparisons without waiting for a prior elaboration of a real method – comparing, for example, Ancient Rome, the Mongolian Empire, the USSR, and the USA as types of empires41 – many historians are more hesitant, searching for the explanatory value for specific phenomena as well as for a theory and methodology of intertemporal/interepochal comparisons which does not yet exist. Therefore, at the current state of historiographical reflection, we can leave the reader only with the suggestion that there is an important problem to be solved. While a full elaboration of a method of intertemporal comparisons of human security cannot be delivered in this volume, we hope that the juxtaposition of Early Modern and contemporary ways of thinking about and producing (human) security will establish the fruitfulness of this field of study for future research on security regimes and discourses, focusing on “human security” as a more specific and narrower object than merely “security”. This issue of Historical Social Research was prepared by a conference at Ruhr University Bochum on April 8-10, 2010, which was financed by the DFG project “Taming of Risk in Premodernity”. We thank the contributors for accepting a very tight deadline and quickly reworking their contributions and the DFG for financial support. Rebecca Knapp was central to the organization of the conference. Laura Sembritzki, Marianne Timpe, Sören Nolte, Anne Meißner, Sven Speek and Christine Schröder all contributed greatly to its success in various ways. 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Gestion sociale des risques naturels / Gestione sociale dei rischi naturali. Valle d’Aosta: Musumeci, 2007. Febvre, Lucien. “Pour l’histoire d’un sentiment: le besoin de sécurité.” Annales 11 (1956): 244-247. Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste. “Beck Back in the 19th Century: Towards a Genealogy of Risk Society.” History and Technology 23 (2007): 333-350. Friedrichs, Jörg. “The Meaning of New Medievalism.” European Journal of International Relations 7 (2001): 475-501. Gerwen, Jacques v., and Marco H. D. v. Leeuwen. Zoeken naar zekerheid: Risico’s, preventie, verzekeringen en andere zekerheidsregelingen in Nederland 15002000. Den Haag: Verbond van Verzekeraars, 2000. Geyer, Michael, and Charles Bright. “World History in a Global Age.” American Historical Review 100 (1995), 1034-1060. Gisler, Monika. Naturkatastrophen: Catastrophes naturelles. Zürich: Chronos Verl., 2003. Groh, Dieter, Michael Kempe, and Franz Mauelshagen, eds. Naturkatastrophen: Zu ihrer Wahrnehmung, Deutung und Darstellung von der Antike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Tübingen: Narr, 2001. Hacking, Ian. The emergence of probability: A philosophical study of early ideas about probability, induction and statistical inference. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1975. Hald, Anders. A history of probability and statistics and their applications before 1750. New York, NY: Wiley, 1990. Härter, Karl, Gerhard Sälter, and Eva Wiebel. Repräsentationen von Kriminalität und öffentlicher Sicherheit: Bilder, Vorstellungen und Diskurse vom 16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2010. Kaufmann, Franz-Xaver. Sicherheit als soziologisches und sozialpolitisches Problem: Untersuchungen zu einer Wertidee hochdifferenzierter Gesellschaften. Stuttgart: Enke, 1973. Kempe, Michael and Christian Rohr, eds. Coping with the unexpected – natural disasters and their perception. Isle of Harris, Scotland: White Horse Press, 2003. Kintzinger, Martin. Westbindungen im spätmittelalterlichen Europa: Auswärtige Politik zwischen dem Reich, Frankreich, Burgund und England in der Regierungszeit Kaiser Sigmunds. Stuttgart: Thorbecke, 2000. Koch, Peter. Geschichte der Versicherungswissenschaft in Deutschland. Karlsruhe: Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft, 1998. 19 Koselleck, Reinhart. “Erfahrungsraum und Erwartungshorizont – zwei historische Kategorien.” In Vergangene Zukunft: Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten, edited by Reinhart Koselleck, 349-75. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995. Krasner, Stephen D. Sovereignty: Organized hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1999. La Torre, Antonio. L’assicurazione nella storia delle idee. Milano: Giuffre, 2000. Leffler, Melvyn P. A preponderance of power: National security, the Truman administration, and the Cold War. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992. Lüdtke, Alf. “Zurück zur ‘Policey’? Sicherheit und Ordnung in Polizeibegriff und Polizeipraxis – vom 18. bis ins 21. 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L’invention de la catastrophe au XVIIIe siècle: Du châtiment divin au désastre naturel. Geneve: Droz, 2008. Münkler, Herfried. Imperien: Die Logik der Weltherrschaft – vom Alten Rom bis zu den Vereinigten Staaten. Berlin: Rowohlt, 2005. Ngai, Mae M. Impossible subjects: Illegal aliens and the making of modern America. Politics and society in twentieth-century America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2004. Niekerk, Johan P. van. The development of the principles of insurance law in the Netherlands from 1500-1800. Kenwyn: Juta, 1998. Nowotny, Helga. Eigenzeit: Entstehung und Strukturierung eines Zeitgefühls. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1989. Nulle, Stebelton H. “The new Medievalism.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 36 (1937): 254-272. Osterhammel, Jürgen. “Transnationale Gesellschaftsgeschichte: Erweiterung oder Alternative?” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 27 (2001): 464-479. Paris, Roland. “Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?” International Security 26 (2001): 87-102. Pearson, Robin. Insuring the Industrial Revolution: Fire insurance in Great Britain, 1700-1850. Modern economic and social history. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. Peretti-Watel, Patrick. Sociologie du risque. Paris: Armand Colin, 2000. Reinecke, Christiane. Grenzen der Freizügigkeit: Migrationskontrolle in Großbritannien und Deutschland, 1880-1930. München: Oldenbourg, 2010. Rosa, Hartmut. Beschleunigung: Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005. Rothschild, Emma. “What is Security?” Daedalus 124, no. 3 (1995): 53-98. 20 Sassen, Saskia. Losing control? Sovereignty in an age of globalization. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1996. Sauvageot, Eric-Pardo. “Piracy off Somalia and its challenges to maritime security: problems and solutions.” UNISCI Discussion Paper 19 (2009): 250-267. Schenk, Gerrit J. Historical Disaster Research. Concepts, Methods and Case Studies. Historical Social Research 32 (3) (2007): 9-31. Verlage, Christopher. Responsibility to protect: Ein neuer Ansatz im Völkerrecht zur Verhinderung von Völkermord, Kriegsverbrechen und Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009. Walker, Neil. Sovereignty in transition. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003. Weinhauer, Klaus. “Terrorismus in der Bundesrepublik der Siebzigerjahre. Aspekte einer Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte der Inneren Sicherheit.” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 44 (2004): 219-242. 21 National, Societal, and Human Security: On the Transformation of Political Language Christopher Daase Abstract: »Nationale, gesellschaftliche und menschliche Sicherheit: Zum Wandel politischer Sprache«. The article traces the extension of the concept of security over roughly the last fifty years. It differentiates between four dimensions of conceptual change: the referent object, the issue dimension, the spatial dimension and the dimension of perceived danger. The process of conceptual extension is explained not only as securitization, i.e. the result of voluntary speech acts, but as a macro-social process of the dissociation of state and society and the prevalence of liberal values. Keywords: Security, threat, vulnerability, risk, conceptual change. 1. Introduction Security is the core value of our modern – or rather post-modern – society. This has not always been the case. For centuries, not security but spiritual and secular peace dominated theological, philosophical and even political thinking. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, peace and security started to compete with each other for primacy in strategic debates and political programs. Today, global security is an undisputed value and peace has become a concept widely regarded as only suited for political sermons. While the conceptual history of the complex relationship between peace and security has still to be written, it might be useful to concentrate here just on security and the transformation of the security discourse over the last fifty years. It is rarely the case that political change can be captured by analyzing one single concept. But, as I will argue, the concept of security enables us not only to describe the change in a political discourse, but to explain the transformation of political practice of Western states and international society in general. This transformation goes beyond mere policy adaptation, and rather signals a fundamental change in the underlying security culture. Security culture can be defined as the sum of beliefs, values and practices of institutions and individuals that determine (1) what is considered to be a danger or insecurity in the widest sense and (2) how and by which means this danger should be handled.1 1 Address all communications to: Christopher Daase, Lehrstuhl Internationale Organisation, Exzellenzcluster “Normative Orders”, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Senckenberganlage 31, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Daase 2009. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 22-37 The concept of security is the most visible aspect of security culture, for depending on how insecurity and security are conceptualized, dangers are emphasized or de-emphasized and specific political and social issues come to the fore or are put in the rear.2 This is the reason why in order to analyze security culture it is necessary to concentrate on the conceptual change in security. According to historians of political thought such as Reinhard Koselleck or Quentin Skinner, the transformation of language signifies political transformation. However, it seems to be important to avoid the constructivist shortcut of believing that security has become today’s core value through willful speech acts of securitization, i.e. the deliberate denomination of problems as security issues in order to procure higher significance for them in the political process.3 While securitization might be part of the process, the change of security culture goes deeper and can be explained as the result of political and social de-nationalization and transnationalization, which in turn is the unintended effect of the emancipation of society from the state. The concept of security is thus cause and effect of political change. The crucial point of this change is that the liberal state – and along with it the international liberal society – are becoming the victims of their own success. For the social process of emancipation depends on a relatively peaceful and secure environment. Societal security demands are only articulated if the fundamental security needs of the state – i.e. peace in the traditional sense – are fulfilled. As soon as this is the case, however, further-reaching security demands are made which tend to overburden the state and international organizations. Wilhelm von Humboldt was among the first who saw the latent tension between state and societal security when he wrote in his 1792 treatise “Ideas about an Attempt to Determine the Limits of Effectiveness of the State” the following: “Those whose security has to be preserved are on the one hand all citizens in perfect equality and on the other the state itself”.4 My argument is that under the condition of globalization and de-nationalization this latent contradiction has become a manifest contradiction that is most visible, for example, in the fight against terrorism. In the following – after a short note on conceptual history as a method of political science – I will describe the conceptual change in security by analyzing the extension of its meaning over roughly the last fifty years. I do so by differentiating between four conceptual dimensions. The first dimension refers to the referent object, i.e. the question of whose security is to be guaranteed. In the last fifty years a dramatic shift of meaning has taken place insofar as the state was first superseded by society and than society by the individual as the main 2 3 4 Wolfers 1962; Daase 1993. See Weaver 1995; Buzan et al. 1998. Humboldt 1967, 118. 23 referent object of security. The second dimension is the issue area, i.e. the question: In which policy field are insecurities perceived? Again an extension has taken place by gradually adding to military dangers economic, environmental and humanitarian concerns. The third dimension refers to the spatial application of the term. Here a conceptual broadening can be seen in the gradual extension from national to regional, international and global security. The fourth dimension finally refers to the conceptualization of danger itself. Here I argue that an extension has taken place insofar as the purpose of security policy has shifted from the defense against threats via the reduction of vulnerabilities to the management of risks. Figure 1 tries to capture these dimensions graphically. Figure 1: Four Dimension of Extended Security Geographical Scope Operationalized Danger global risk international vulnerability regional threat national state military economic society individual ecological humanitarian Issue Area Referent Object 2. Conceptual History as a Method of Political Science Conceptual history is not a standard method of political science. Political scientists either concentrate on what they see as “brute facts” by defining, operationalizing and measuring political phenomena in order to explain their causal relationship or interpret the meaning of concepts and discourses in order to understand political articulation and communication. Rarely, however, is the difficult interplay between language and action analyzed. This is the reason why political scientists can learn a lot from the different approaches to conceptual history – most importantly from the German school of Begriffsgeschichte 24 (‘history of concepts’) and the so-called Cambridge School of conceptual history – which have developed in more or less (willful) ignorance of each other.5 Begriffsgeschichte “designates the study of concepts in the texts of individual thinkers and bodies of thought in the past”.6 The central idea is to cautiously connect conceptual to social and political history. Concepts are taken as contested intellectual constructions “which both register and shape what changes and what persists in the structures of society”.7 This approach sharply departs from the earlier German tradition of Geistes- or Ideengeschichte (‘intellectual history/history of ideas’) which Reinhard Koselleck criticized for “treating ideas as constants, which although articulated in different historical forms, do not themselves change”.8 The underlying hypothesis of Koselleck’s work and of much of the collaborative venture of the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe (‘historical basic concepts’) is that in a relatively short timespan between about 1750 and 1850, what Koselleck termed Sattelzeit (‘saddle period’), the political and social vocabulary in Germany changed fundamentally and specific modern political and social concepts were created or reformulated. Thus, Begriffsgeschichte assumes that concepts determine and affect the transformation of social, political and economic structures. Quentin Skinner, John Pocock and others developed a similar approach at Cambridge University. Pocock, for example, speaks of concepts as building conceptual worlds that affect social worlds. “These conceptual and social worlds act as contexts to each other”.9 Thus, in order to understand political change, it is important to understand conceptual change by reconstructing the vocabulary – or what Pocock now calls “discourses” – of the time in order to restore the true meaning of a text or the actual intention of a speaker. Arguing on a more systematical level, Quentin Skinner linked this basic idea to the philosophy of Wittgenstein, Austin and Searle and developed a theory of language games. Such language games, he argues, have to be reconstructed historically to find out what particular authors in particular situations had intended to say and to do.10 Thus, while Begriffsgeschichte emphasizes structural social and political changes and their relation to conceptual change, the Cambridge School links conceptual change with historical agency not only by stressing the importance of major political philosophers but by pointing to the performative function of language in general. Whatever the differences between the two approaches11, what political scientists can learn from both of them is that there is no true 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Palonen 2004. Richter 1990, 39. Richter 1990, 41. Koselleck 1985, 80. Richter 1990, 50. Skinner 1969, 37. Cf. Palonen 2004; Richter 1995. 25 original meaning of concepts that has to be defended as, for example, Carl Schmitt believed when he maintained: “The theorist cannot do more than preserve the concepts and call the things by their names”.12 Equally problematical might be a positivist approach to concept analysis that tries, in the words of Felix Oppenheim, “to reconstruct” conceptual meaning in order to gain clear and unambiguous technical terms for empirical research.13 Rather, historical concept analysis takes the contentedness of concepts as given and unavoidable.14 It therefore does not reconstruct concepts but rather conceptual change. Conceptual change, however, is not the result of individual action (as insinuated by securitization theory) but the cumulative effect of many linguistic actions.15 On the other hand, language change does not come out of the blue. Rather it is a reaction to new political and social circumstances that are linked to power, interests and values of human beings and social groups. Thus, the micro-perspective of the Cambridge School and the macro-perspective of Begriffsgeschichte have finally to be integrated if conceptual and political change are to be understood as co-constitutive. Far from having succeeded in doing so, I would like to present some preliminary ideas on the following pages as to how this could be done with regard to the concept of security. 3. The Conceptual Extension of Security Above, I mentioned four dimensions in which the meaning of security has expanded over the last fifty years: the reference dimension, the issue dimension, the spatial dimension and the dimension of operationalized danger. These dimensions, however, are interrelated. While in the 1950s and 60s a narrow concept of security referred mainly to military threats to national territory, today an extended concept of security also captures the individual risk of global human rights violations. However, at the same time the four dimensions can be freely combined so that, for example, regional vulnerability through environmental catastrophes (e.g. in the Gulf of Mexico) or the risk of global financial crises for the stability of states (e.g. Greece) can come into view. This suggests that the dimensions I am referring to are relatively independent from each other so that it is justifiable to treat them separately for analytical purposes. The analysis starts from a very narrow understanding of security as it had established itself after the Second World War in strategic debates and public discourse. However, the concept of security has a much longer history in European thought and can be related to the diverging spheres of internal public 12 13 14 15 Schmitt 1963, 96. Oppenheim 1981. Gallie 1956; Connolly 1981. Keller 2003. 26 safety and external state security in the process of European nation building.16 Nevertheless, the 1950s suggest themselves as a starting point since they represent a time in which the meaning of security narrowed to the greatest possible degree, focusing on the national survival of states and communities in the face of existential threats such as world wars and nuclear annihilation. No wonder, then, that external security became the key concept of international politics throughout the second half of the twentieth century and remained separated from social notions of security for quite some time.17 This separation has gradually disappeared and meanings of internal and external, national and human, military and economic, territorial and global security have merged into an extended concept of security over the last fifty years. Reference Dimension The first dimension in which conceptual extension can be seen is the reference dimension that determines whose security should be safeguarded. Historically, the concept of security is closely linked to the consolidation of the nation state as the only legitimate actor in international politics. In early modern times, the state established itself as a guarantor for the safety of its citizens, as Thomas Hobbes has famously described. The security of the state, however, remained precarious in an interstate system without a strong central power. Thus, security in international relations meant first and foremost state security, i.e. the safeguarding of the nation’s territory and the defense of national borders vis-àvis other states. This is the understanding of national security advocated by socalled political realists such as Hans Morgenthau, John Herz and others after WW II and throughout the Cold War.18 As long as no international monopoly of power exists, they claim, all states live in a self-help system and their first and foremost duty is to assure national survival. As Kenneth Waltz famously wrote: “In anarchy, security is the highest end”.19 This idea of national security as the absence of threats to the sovereignty of a state did not go unchallenged, however. Historically, liberal theorists such as John Locke and Immanuel Kant had stressed that the state is only an instrument to provide safety for the public. Liberal theorists in the 1970s took up this idea and challenged state-centric Realist thinking by arguing that the main reference of security policy and the focus of international politics in general should be society.20 Societal security was thus understood as a situation in which a collec- 16 17 18 19 20 Kaufmann 1973; Conze 1984. Cf. Frei 1977; Krell 1980; Haftendorn 1983; Conze 2009. Morgenthau 1954; Herz 1950. Waltz 1979, 126. Keohane and Nye 1977; Doyle 1983. 27 tive of citizens lives in safety and freedom so that it can develop its productivity and wealth.21 This line of argument was taken another step further when the concept of human security became prominent after the end of the Cold War. In this view, not the state and not even social collectives are the referent object of security policy, but the individual human being. The human security approach challenges not only the traditional state-centric view, but also the focus on social groups. Championed by the United Nations and a number of expert commissions (among them the Commission on Global Governance and the Commission on Human Security), the concept is closely linked to a cosmopolitan understanding of international politics, i.e. the conviction that human beings, not states, have an intrinsic value and should be protected.22 Wherever state rights and human rights come into conflict, human rights should be given priority. Thus human security does not only refer to the protection of individuals and communities from war and other forms of violence, but also to the protection of “the vital core of all human lives in ways that advance human freedoms and human fulfillment”.23 Clearly, the extension of the reference dimension of security signals a desire to politically live up to changing social values and the prevalence of liberal ideas about human rights and state obligations. It drastically broadens the range of addressees of security policy and establishes a general moral “duty of care” and “responsibility to protect” in international politics. This in turn enables the empowerment and self-empowerment of actors (e.g. states, groups of states or international organizations) to act – even militarily – on behalf of the international community and for the benefit of others, and thus to extend the limits of international politics hitherto in place. Humanitarian interventions have often been denounced as power politics in disguise. But they are much more, and precisely therefore even more troubling: They are a new practice of security policy that is based on an extended security concept and a new understanding of normative obligations in international politics. But critical questions remain: Who is entitled to claim to provide security for others? Who decides when military force is legitimate? Currently, the political promise of human security outstrips by far the willingness and ability of states and international organizations to actually deliver it.24 Political discourse has outgrown political practice, and many problems that the international community faces today, be it in Congo, Darfur, Iraq or Afghanistan, are at least to some extent the result of conceptual extension. 21 22 23 24 Weaver 1993. Beitz 1979; Pogge 2001. Thakur and Newman 2004, 37. Paris 2001. 28 Issue Dimension The conceptual extension in terms of the referent objects has implications for the issue areas that security comprises. Traditional security threats were mainly perceived in military terms. The reason is that by far the greatest security concerns for states are military attacks and the danger of being conquered. Thus, traditional national security interests are military in nature. Military security, in turn, was expected to be threatened for the most part by hostile states. Particularly the focus on nuclear weapons underlined the Realist perspective on stateto-state threats and deterrents throughout the Cold War.25 Non-state military threats only came into view when in the 1960s “national liberation movements” in the Third World were perceived as “communist” threats to US and Western interests and new strategies of “limited war” and “counter-insurgency” had to be developed.26 As the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have shown, even small groups have gained the capacity to inflict disproportional damage and challenge states’ security. That is the reason why the concept of security nowadays does not only refer to hostile states, but also non-state actors as source of military threats. However, the traditional focus on military threats changed in the early 1970s when economic security became an issue. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979 made people aware that their well-being was not just threatened by military threats, but also by economic vulnerabilities.27 The concept of security was therefore broadened to include the access to so-called “vital resources”. The objective of resource security was said to be to mitigate or dominate vulnerabilities to supply disruptions.28 States and societies are vulnerable in this sense by being embargoed (i.e. by intentional use of the resource weapon), or by being cut off unintentionally from resources by natural catastrophes, civil wars or pure shortage. Thus, the conclusion was drawn that in order so safeguard energy security, economic, political and military instruments had to be integrated into a single framework of comprehensive security.29 A further step towards extending the meaning of security was taken when the notion of environmental security was introduced. The Brundtland Report stated in 1987 that “environmental threats to security are now beginning to emerge on a global scale”.30 Since then environmental degradation and climate change have been discussed as national and international security issues.31 The key argument is that the increasing destruction of the natural habitat of human 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Kissinger 1957; Brodie 1959. Deitchman 1962; Blaufarb 1977. Wolf 1977. Maull 1989. Nye 1982. Brundlandt Report 1987. Renner 1989; Myers 1989. 29 beings can directly lead to conflict.32 However, the empirical link between environmental degradation and the risk of violent conflict has remained controversial.33 Nevertheless, advocates of environmental security defend the securitization of the environment by pointing to the magnitude of potential consequences and the urgent need to rally public support for more resolute environmental policies. Richard Ullman nicely redefined security in 1983 by specifying the newly perceived threats: A threat to national security is an action or sequence of events that (1) threatens drastically and over a relatively brief span of time to degrade the quality of life for the inhabitants of a state, or (2) threatens significantly to narrow the range of policy choices available to the government of a state or to private, nongovernmental entities (persons, groups, corporations) within the state.34 In his view, and in the view of many of his colleagues at the time, environmental degradation and climate change can have exactly these effects and are therefore legitimate security issues. A more recent development is the extension of security into the humanitarian field. With this move the last great issue area of international politics – namely human rights – comes under the influence of the security discourse. Humanitarian security refers not only to the human rights situation of groups and individuals (as the term human security does), but also to the security of development aid volunteers and disaster relief workers in crisis areas. However, the protection of so-called safe havens and humanitarian zones is also seen as the purpose of humanitarian security.35 The conceptual affinity of humanitarian security and humanitarian intervention shows how easy it is to imagine “military humanism”36 and even “humanitarian wars”37 by linking human rights and security. The consequence of the extension of the issue dimension of security is a dedifferentiation of tasks and institutions. The subsumption of previously separated issue areas under the concept of security leads to the gradual suspension of traditional distinctions between internal and external security and consequently between institutional spheres of police and the military. This in turn has consequences for the operative implementation of security policy and the constitutional structure of national systems and international organizations. In Germany, for example, the recurring debate over whether to deploy the Bundeswehr to deal with internal security issues is a case in point. While the help of the military in disaster relief might be unproblematic, its use for dealing 32 33 34 35 36 37 Tuchman Mathews 1989, 166. Homer-Dixon 1999; Deudney and Matthew 1999. Ullman 1983, 133. Simon 2003. Chomsky 1999. Woodward 2001. 30 with internal terrorism or checking mass rallies raises constitutional concerns. Internationally as well, the de-differentiation of security issues causes problems, for example in peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding operations when security sector reform is undermined by the broad mandate that security forces enjoy. Thus, the de-differentiation of security concerns caused by an extended notion of security undermines the traditional division of tasks and possibly institutional legitimacy. Spatial Dimension A third dimension of extended security is its geographical scope. The question is: How far do security concerns reach geographically? Traditional security policy only applied to the national level. Realists held that it would be foolish to design security policies beyond the nation state and that even if global security problems existed, the international system would only allow national solutions: “World-shaking problems cry for global solutions, but there is no global agency to provide them”.38 National security therefore strictly refers to the security of the territorial state and derives its ends and means from so-called national interests. This limitation becomes problematic as soon as states develop common strategies to defend their common interests regionally. When NATO was founded in 1949, a process set in that led gradually to the development of a “security community”.39 Security communities develop if states integrate politically by renouncing violence as a means of settling conflicts among each other and by developing common ideas of how to establish and maintain regional stability. In many regions of the world security communities have emerged, overcoming the narrow notion of national security.40 The term international security refers more broadly to inter-state cooperation in security issues. It departs from the Realist assumptions by arguing that cooperation among security-seeking states is possible even in the absence of an overarching framework that could coerce states to keep their promises.41 International security thus redirects the focus from purely national and even regional concerns towards the stability of the international system as a common good. The question then is no longer how to maximize national security but how to create international conditions so that all states enjoy a reasonable degree of security. Institutions – conventions, regimes and organizations – are seen as the principal tools for the multilateral preservation of international security.42 38 39 40 41 42 Waltz 1979, 109. Deutsch 1954. Adler and Barnett 1998. Axelrod and Keohane 1986. Martin 1992; Haftenforn et al. 1999. 31 Finally, the concept of global security goes beyond even international security. While international security still refers primarily to states, global security refers to human beings all over the world. The Palme Commission argued as early as 1982 for a notion of “common security” that would transform the existing inter-state society into a world society. The concept of global security gave rise to strategies for enhancing living conditions for the world society, i.e. for all human beings. Thus, global security often goes hand in hand with human security and integrates measures to protect the environment and the climate, to secure access to food and clean water, and to end civil strife and violent conflict. Again, the liberal intention to go beyond state-centric international politics and to empower international organizations to provide better life chances for human beings worldwide is evident. And yet, a consequence of this conceptual shift could be institutionalized irresponsibility. So far, security responsibility has grown hand in hand with institutional developments. National security was guaranteed by nation states. Regional security was dealt with by regional organizations (either sub-organizations of the UN such as the Organization of American States or the African Union, alliances of collective defense such as NATO, or regional dialogue fora such as ASEAN). International security was the task of international organizations and regimes (such as the UN and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime). Yet global security has no other institutional supporter than again the UN, which is more and more overstretched. The consequence is that although many international actors exist who claim responsibility in theory, often they shun the obligation in practice. The effect is what is sometimes called a “diffusion of responsibility”, a phenomenon that is explained by organization theory as the result of overlapping competencies and an incongruence between the role and task of organizations. Thus, the long inactivity of the international community during the Yugoslav crisis or in the case of the Rwanda genocide can be explained in terms of the so-called “bystander effect”, which was not only caused by inter-institutional competition but by the mismatch between institutional claims of competence and the acceptance of responsibility. If many actors are “in principle” competent for many security issues, the propensity is high that costly decisions will be passed over to others. As long as the relationship between national, regional, international and global security is not clarified, institutional irresponsibility is likely to remain a severe problem. Danger Dimension The fourth, and arguably the most important dimension of conceptual change concerns the operationalization of danger. Traditionally, political challenges to the state had been operationalized as threats, which could be measured on the basis of what was known about the enemy actor, his hostile intentions and his 32 military capabilities.43 This was the paradigmatic case during the Cold War when East and West stood heavily armed eyeball to eyeball. Defusing threats either by counter-threats and deterrence or by threat-reduction and détente became the crucial endeavor during the Cold War.44 This concept of insecurity as symmetrical threat became problematic, however, when more diffuse dangers to the well-being of societies were perceived. In times of great social and economic interdependence, dangers emanate not necessarily from hostile actors and through military capabilities, as the oil crises demonstrated. Thus, insecurity had to be measured in alternative ways, for example as the degree of vulnerability to externalities, whatever their sources might be.45 Thus the security debate was re-focused from the enemy strength to one’s own alleged weakness. The famous “window of vulnerability” was thus a byproduct of détente, since disarmament raised the fear that the good-will of cooperation could be exploited by the enemy. From the concept of vulnerability it is only a small step to the paradigmatic shift of security policy after the Cold War.46 Today, risks, not threats, dominate the discourse about international politics. The “clear and present danger” of the Cold War has been replaced by unclear and future “risks and challenges”. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, transnational terrorism, organized crime, environmental degradation and many other issues are discussed in terms of uncertainty and risk. What makes them similar is their relative indeterminableness. Why is this conceptual change so significant? Because with the concept of risk, new existential dangers come into view that do not yet exist, but that have the potential to develop in the future. The incorporation of uncertainties is the ultimate extension of the perception of insecurity and it changes the demands for security policy fundamentally.47 When the task of security policy is to deal with uncertainties and risk, it can no longer be reactive as during the Cold War, but must become proactive. A policy is proactive if it reduces possible dangers by anticipating future problems, developments and needs. In general, proactive security policy can be directed towards the causes or the effects of a risk, i.e. it can be preventive or precautionary. Political prevention aims at prohibiting a future loss from occurring, i.e. it affects the probability part of the risk equation. Political precaution aims at reducing the costs of a loss and at mitigating its consequences if prevention fails, i.e. it affects the loss part of the equation. Prevention and precaution in turn may be practiced either cooperatively or repressively, i.e. based on diplomatic means and political cooperation on the 43 44 45 46 47 Cohen 1979; Knorr 1976. Gaddis 1987. Keohane and Nye 1977. Daase 2002. Daase and Kessler 2007. 33 one hand or on military means and political coercion on the other. Given these options, the impression is that at least four proactive strategies exist to address international risks: cooperation, intervention, compensation, and preparation.48 What is crucial is that all proactive strategies to reduce international risks are much more active and offensive than traditional security policies aimed at averting threats or mitigating vulnerabilities. The reason is that the state has to prevent a danger before it emerges, and thus to intrude – internally – into the civil rights of citizens and – externally – into the sovereign rights of states. Thus, the operationalization of security as the absence of risks contributes to the emergence of what has been called the Prevention State.49 The so called “war on terror” is a paradigmatic case, since its purpose is to lower the risk of future attacks. Domestically it compromises civil liberties for the sake of internal security, internationally it undermines the sovereignty of states by lowering the threshold for intervention and preventive war. Thus, proactive policies tend to undermine traditional normative orders and could lead back to traditional state-centric power politics. Conclusion This is not the place to further expand on the benefits and costs of international risk policy. But it is important to stress that with the emergence of the concept of “international risk” the extension of the security concept has reached its peak – at least for the time being. With this concept the liberal definition of security has prevailed. For risks do not relate only to threats to territorial spaces or vulnerabilities of collective goods, but also to natural and social nexuses in which every individual is embedded. Thus, the secular dissociation of state and society culminates in a concept of security that is de-nationalized and at the same time globalized and individualized. To explain today’s security policy, the military entanglement in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the humanitarian activity in some and inactivity in other places of the world, the overstretch of international organizations and the attempts at institutional reforms, one has to understand the change in security culture, nationally and internationally, in the values, ideas and practices of how insecurity is perceived and security is produced. The conceptual history of security provides a unique key to that understanding. 48 49 Daase 2002, 18-21. 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Woodward, Susan L. “Humanitarian War: A New Consensus?” Disasters 25, no. 4 (2001): 331-344. 37 Special Issue The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte DOMESTIC SECURITY REGIMES No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 Security and “Gute Policey” in Early Modern Europe: Concepts, Laws, and Instruments Karl Härter Abstract: »Sicherheit und “Gute Policey” im frühneuzeitlichen Europa: Konzepte, Gesetze und Instrumente«. The article demonstrates that the development of “security” as a leading category and main field of state activity in the Early Modern Era was closely interconnected with the concept of “gute Policey” and the increasing body of police ordinances. Within Early Modern administrative law as well as in the theoretical discourses of the administrative sciences, “security” became a crucial objective of the well-ordered police state and thus succeeded “peace” and “unity” as a leading category. In this respect, the growing importance of security indicates the “secularization” of authoritarian regulatory policy. In parallel to this, administrative law was characterized by the differentiation between “internal” and “social” security. Whereas the former focused on exterior security threats, for example mobile marginal groups, the latter manifested itself in scopes such as “poor relief”, the “health sector” and measures dealing with risks and hazards including bad harvests, epidemic plagues, fire hazards and natural disasters. The resulting regulatory policy gave rise to the gradual establishment of administrative measures in the area of internal and social security, ranging from surveillance to insurances. However, the addressees of ordinances and the subjects also participated in the production of security via “guter Policey”, and in this respect security policy partially adopted popular demands for security and security discourses. Altogether, the Early Modern “gute Policey” could well be interpreted as a prototype of “human security”. But on the other hand, “gute Policey” also implied the juridification of security and the implementation of a state-based security policy, which ultimately led to the fundamental separation between internal security and police on the one hand and welfare policy/administration on the other hand, by the beginning of the 19th century. Keywords: public law, administrative law, police ordinances, public/internal security, social security, administration, social control, security policy. I. Introduction: Notion and Purposes of Policey and “Security” In the history of Early Modern Europe, the development of “security” as a leading category and main field of state activity is closely interconnected with Address all communications to: Karl Härter, Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Hausener Weg 120, 60489 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 41-65 the concept of “gute Policey”.1 Nowadays the term police (Polizei) indicates an institution primarily dealing with security and order; “human” or social security as well as welfare or the common weal are out of range of the police.2 However, the contemporary notion of police is the result of a lengthy process in which the concept and notion of “Policey” was narrowed to an executive agency primarily dealing with the maintenance of “internal security”. When the terms police and Policey first appeared in the 15th century in France and in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation respectively they referred to the general concept and the overall purpose of the “good order” of a community, society or state: the so-called well-ordered police state.3 The pivotal instrument of establishing and maintaining good order was the police ordinance – the so-called Policeyordnung: administrative laws, ordinances, regulations, edicts and so forth, primarily enacted by the Early Modern authorities (Obrigkeiten) and covering a variety of subject matters in the wide area of public order. From the 15th century onwards a growing number of police ordinances (Policeygesetze) in virtually all European states, territories and cities reacted to crises and topical problems within society and the economy and aimed at a long-term regulation of social behaviour. Police ordinances and regulations dealt with religious matters, blasphemy and swearing, deviant sexual behaviour and sexual offences, sumptuousness and luxury, clothing, feasts, drinking and gambling, violent offences and larceny as well as with marginal groups, beggars, poor relief, public health, agriculture and forests, market and price regulations, commerce, guilds and craftsmen, infrastructure, fire, natural disasters – to name but a few of the expanding scopes of the Early Modern police norms, of which many could be subsumed under the purposes of “welfare” and “security”. As “laws”, Policeygesetze were addressed to all social groups as the recipients and objects of gute Policey, because society as a whole was to be policed, regulated, disciplined and ordered. In this respect the police ordinances also helped to establish “welfare” and “security” as leading categories which crossed the social order and applied to society as a whole. Beyond legislation and norms, gute Policey as an overall concept was closely connected to government and administration (Regiment und Verwaltung) and with respect to the implementation and enforcement of police ordinances, it became a central field of concrete administrative action. Although the Early Modern state had to rely on intermediate powers, local social groups/communities and traditional institutions to enforce police ordinances, gute Policey allowed the authorities to expand executive administrative instru1 2 3 On the conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) of security, see: Conze 1984. On the history of social as well as human security, albeit without giving any attention to the concept of “gute Policey”, see: MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 23-60; Metz 2008. On the history of gute Policey as a whole and its notion in particular, see: Härter 2010; Iseli 2009; Nitschke 1992; Raeff 1983. 42 ments and institutions, especially with regard to the overall purposes of welfare and security. Within the concept of gute Policey from the 17th century onwards, “security” slowly but steadily gained a more and more prominent role as a crucial element of “good order”: as a general purpose of good government, as an important sector of police legislation (Policeygesetzgebung) and as a field of concrete administrative action. Hence, the police ordinances as well as the theoretical discourses of Policeywissenschaft (police and administrative sciences) allow us in the following to analyse the intentions and aims of “security” which were to be established and maintained by police ordinances, as well as the more specific security regulations and the concrete fields of administration in which security was considered to be the primary purpose. With regard to legislation in the field of public order, security was considered as the primary task of the emerging Early Modern state. In this respect, gute Policey is tightly knitted to authorities, state and concepts such as social control, norm enforcement or security policy. But the analysis of the police ordinances reaches beyond the level of the authorities and the state and also touches on general social motives, fears and demands for security interrelated with common risks, dangers, challenges and threats. Recent historical research on “gute Policey” no longer considers Policeygesetzgebung and the implementation and administration of gute Policey as top-tobottom law-making, but as an interactive process of communication, negotiation and bargaining between social/local communities, intermediary powers, local office-holders, administration and the authorities/rulers. In this respect the specific regulations and security matters of the Policeygesetzgebung enable further-reaching conclusions about the requirements, needs and demands for “security” within Early Modern society and therefore seem to correspond with the concept of human security in a historical perspective.4 II. Security and Policey Within the Theoretical Concepts of Policeywissenschaft Nearly all authors of the so-called Policeywissenschaft of the 18th century agreed that besides welfare, “security” constituted the leading purpose of gute Policey.5 In his Traité de la police, the French author Delamare named “la Secureté, & la Tranquillité publique” as a primary task of police.6 In the second half of the 18th century, Justi shaped the relationship between security and Policey, concentrating on internal security, prevention and the state: “Diese so 4 5 6 For recent perspectives on gute Policey as a key concept of Early Modern society see: Stolleis et al. 1996; Härter 2000a; Blickle and Schüpbach 2003. In general see: Maier 1966; Stolleis 1988; Simon 2004. Delamare 1707, 4. 43 nothwendige innerliche Sicherheit ist nicht allein ein Gegenstand der Policey; sie ist eben so sehr, und so gar in ihren wichtigsten Umständen ein Gegenstand der Staatskunst” (This so necessary internal security is not solely an object of the police; it is equally, and even in its most important aspects, an object of state government). Therefore he distinguishes between specific and general internal security, for the latter concerns “sowohl die Wohlfarth und Ruhe aller Bürger in ihrem Zusammenhange, als auch die oberste Gewalt in ihrem Verhältniß gegen die Staatsverfassung” (both the welfare and tranquillity of all citizens in its interrelationship, and the highest power in its relation to the states constitution). The more specific internal security, on the other hand, was solely the subject matter of Policey and concerned the individual burgher: Die besondere innerliche Sicherheit ist diejenige, welche die Bürger, einzeln betrachtet, genießen müssen, und welche denen Bürgern in Ansehung ihres Lebens, ihrer Güther, und ihrer Ehre, Schutz und Ruhe verschaffet, und alle Beeinträchtigungen und Gewaltthätigkeiten von ihnen abwendet; und dieses zu bewirken, ist die Sache der Policey. Dieses ist einer ihrer vornehmsten Endzwecke; und die besondere innerliche Sicherheit ist demnach einer von denen haupsachlichsten Gegenständen, worauf sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit zu richten hat. (Specifically internal security is that which individual citizens must enjoy, and which gives protection and tranquility to these citizens with regard to their life, their goods and their honour, and which averts all damages and violent acts from them; and effecting this is the task of the police. This is one of its most noble ultimate purposes; and specifically internal security is therefore one of the primary objects to which it should direct its attention).7 Other authors came up with very similar concepts of Policey and security. Sonnenfels classified internal security in general as a primary task of gute Policey, and therefore Policeywissenschaft had to comprehend the main principles of security. With regard to police ordinances and the administrative tasks, he distinguished two main fields: “Vorsorge für die innere öffentliche Sicherheit” (provision for internal public security) and “Vorsorge für die innere Privatsicherheit” (provision for internal private security). Whereas public security primarily concerns internal state security (“der Zustand, worinnen der Staat von seinen Bürgern nichts zu befürchten hat”: the condition in which the state has nothing to fear from its citizens), the latter – innere Privatsicherheit – concerns “Handlungen, Personen, Ehre und Güter der Bürger” (actions, persons, the citizens’ honour and property). Gute Policey should provide security in a preventative and protective way for every individual subject or burgher with regard to his actions (especially economic ones), his physical body (against violence, disease, starving etc.), his honour or social reputation (against defamation etc.) and his property (against fire hazards, larceny etc.).8 Finally, in 1799 Berg amalgamated public and private security in his encompassing 7 8 Justi 1761, vol. 2, 264, 266. Sonnenfels 1787, 25. 44 concept of Sicherheitspolicey, for the precondition of internal security in the broadest sense was “die Ruhe des Staates selbst […], wenn für die Ruhe und Sicherheit jedes Einzelnen mit Erfolg gesorgt werden soll” (the tranquillity of the state itself […], if one is successfully to ensure the tranquillity and security of every individual).9 Only a secure state could provide security and welfare for its subjects by establishing and maintaining gute Policey through a comprehensive legislation and an effective administration. At the turn of the century several authors of German public law narrowed the notion of Policey solely to security by excluding “welfare” and the “common weal” as the main purposes of gute Policey, such as Gönner (referring to Pütter’s definition): “Die Polizei hat es immer nur mit Sicherheit zu thun, Erhöhung des Wohlstands liegt ausser ihrem direkten Zweck” (the police is always concerned solely with security; the increase of prosperity lies outside its direct objective).10 Besides the restriction of Policey to security, the important advancement of Policeywissenschaft in the interconnected conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) of Policey and security in Early Modern Europe can be discerned in the differentiation of external and internal security – brought up initially by Thomas Hobbes in 1651 in his Leviathan11 – as well as between the public (internal) security of the state and the “social security” of the individual burgher. In this respect the Early Modern concept of gute Policey points to more or less modern concepts of state-based internal public security (innere Sicherheit), dealing for instance with terrorism and similar violent threats, on the one hand, and social or human security, which focuses on the security needs of the individual human or social groups on the other hand. It almost seems that gute Policey could be described as a precursor of the modern concept of “human security”. For one of its crucial assumptions is that the focus of research and concrete security policy should be on the people and not only on the state.12 However, Policeywissenschaft as well as the Early Modern authorities subordinated (or integrated) social security to the concept of gute Policey and Policeygesetzgebung in particular, for the primary instruments to establish and maintain internal, public as well as social security were the police ordinances and the strict observance of them. As Berg puts it: Gehorsam gegen die Gesetze und die Obrigkeit, und die freye, ungestörte Wirksamkeit der Regierung für den allgemeinen Zweck … darauf beruht die innere öffentliche Sicherheit, und diese ist natürlicher Weise der erste Gegenstand der Sicherheitspolicey. (Obedience to the ordinances and the authorities, and the free, undisturbed activity of the government for the common pur- 9 10 11 12 Berg 1802, vol. 1, 207. Gönner 1804, 424-425. Compare in general Matsumoto 1999. Schrimm-Heins 1990. Boer and Wilde 2008. 45 pose... this is the basis of internal public security, and this is naturally the first object of the security police).13 The “Stärke und Glückseeligkeit des Staats” (strength and happiness of the state), underlines Justi, is based on the condition that “die innerliche Sicherheit auf diese Art als eine Frucht der Gesetze entstehet” (internal security emerges in this way as the fruits of the ordinances).14 Inner (public as well as social) security should be produced primarily through laws/police ordinances which the state should enforce and which the subjects have to obey. In this respect many authors tried to systematize the vast bulk of police ordinances, indicating specific fields of regulation and related administrative measures (Sicherheitsanstalten) in which security matters were of prime importance, thus providing police knowledge and advice for governments on how to conceive the “best” police ordinances. In this regard the writing/discourses of Policeywissenschaft were part of law-making and reflect the development of security as an overall purpose and intention within the growing body of Early Modern police ordinances. III. Legislation (Policeygesetzgebung) and Security in the 16th and 17th Centuries Since the second half of the 15th century the imperial cities, the territorial rulers and the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire had enacted a growing body of police ordinances comprising many regulations which pointed at typical security issues: revolts and social upheaval, vagrants, robbers and bandits, marauding soldiers, poverty and poor relief, diseases and plagues, famine and food shortage, fire, natural hazards and many more. From the perspective of the authorities and the public, Early Modern society always seemed to be in a state of disorder – unstable, risky and threatened by permanent crises. However, neither the police ordinances of the 15th and 16th centuries nor the early treatises of Policeywissenschaft bore any substantial relation to the term security or even named it, although they were indicating the prevention of dangers and threats as well as evil (Übel), abuses, wrongs, deficiencies and shortages (Gebrechen und Mängel). But on the whole such threats as epidemics, war, revolts, religious crises, rising prices, bad harvest or natural catastrophes were regarded as the wrath of God who reacted with divine punishment to the sinful and deviant behaviour of human beings: God was “zu billichem zorn gegen den menschen bewegt worden/ und theüwrunge/ krieg/ pestilent/ und andere manigfaltige plagen/ auf erden kommen” because people had not obeyed “Gottes 13 14 Berg 1802, vol. 1, 207. Justi 1761, 263. 46 gebot” (God’s law) as well as the imperial police ordinances, argued the Reichspoliceyordnung of 1548.15 In this respect the police regulations indicated as their main intentions social as well as religious peace, tranquility, unity, stability and the common weal, which were to be established mainly through godly and disciplined behaviour according to religious norms and the Policeyordnungen, at least to appease the wrath of God and prevent divine punishment.16 The Statuten, Satzung, Reformation und Ordnung, Burgerlicher Pollicey (1541) of the imperial city of Heilbronn stated the “handthabung gemeynes nützs / Rechtlicher Ordnung / frydens vnd eynigkeyt” (maintaining the common weal, legal order, peace and unity) as well as “fryd / Recht vnnd eynigkeyt in vnser Stat” (peace, law and unity in our city) as its main intentions.17 Very similarly, the Archbishop of Cologne in 1537 and the Elector of the Palatinate in 1598 indicated the purposes of their comprehensive Policeyordnungen as “fridds und eynigkeit […] unsern landen unnd lüden zue wolfart/ nutz/ uffnemmen unnd gedeihen” (peace and unity ... so that the welfare and utility of our lands and people may thrive), and “stiller Ruhe/ Frieden und gutem Gemach” (tranquility, peace and comfort), respectively.18 Although many police regulations contained preventative and practical means as well as instructions for concrete administration which could certainly be regarded as security measures, the pivotal idea of gute Policey was to establish a good order – including security, without naming it – by prescribing a normative order based on religious and moral norms and covering all aspects of deviant behaviour, abuses and disorder in a comprehensive and exhausting Policeyordnung to which everyone (including the higher orders) was to behave accordingly: human security was to be achieved through social and religious discipline19 – or as the Hessian Reformationsordnung in Policey-Sachen (1526) stated: “abstellung erneuter sünde und mißbräuch, versönung gottes zorn, anrichtung und pflantzung eines ehrlichen zuchtigen lebens, Christlicher eynyckeit und ordentlicher sidten, und furderung gemeynes nutzes” (prevention of renewed sin and abuses, appeasement of God’s fury, the establishment and foundation of an honest and modest life, Christian unity and proper customs, and the promotion of public utility).20 In the course of the 17th century we can observe a growing importance of security within the framework of gute Policey. First of all the sheer number of police ordinances, enacted mainly by the territorial rulers, increased after the 15 16 17 18 19 20 Cited in Weber 2002, 168. Compare Härter 1993. See Simon 2004, 218-225. Statuten Haylpronn 1541. Policei 1537. Härter 1994; Härter 2000b. Kleinschmidt and Apell 1767, 50. 47 Thirty Years’ war, as Figure 1 shows.21 In the course of this development the form of the laws (Gesetzesform) changed as well. Single laws (Einzelgesetze) were more and more dominant, such as mandates, edicts, decrees, and prescriptions, which in contrast to the comprehensive Policeyordnung dealt only with particular matters and regulations of Policey (Policeymaterien) and facilitated a more flexible and prompt legal reaction to current threats, risks and dangers. In this respect the police ordinances aimed more at prevention and governance, indicating and defining areas of the “good order” as a subject of security, occasionally using the term and explicitly stating “security” as the purpose and justification of Policeygesetzgebung. Moreover, within the growing body of the ordinances, typical security issues gained more importance, especially concerning strolling soldiers, vagrants and bandits as well as duels or the carrying of weapons, all of them regarded as a matter of public security. Figure 1: Police Regulations 1500-1799 Policeygesetzgebung (regulations) 1500-1799, 7 imperial cities, 10 territories 7000 10 Territorien 7 Reichsstädte 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 1790 1780 1770 1760 1750 1740 1730 1720 1710 1700 1690 1680 1670 1660 1650 1640 1630 1620 1610 1600 1590 1580 1570 1560 1550 1540 1530 1520 1510 1500 0 An edict by the Archbishop of Cologne issued in 1696 claimed that plundering gangs had overturned public security in the archbishopric altogether (“die öffentliche Sicherheit im rheinischen Erzstifte gänzlich aufgehoben”).22 The Policeyordnung Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1672) dealt in several paragraphs with 21 22 Based on Härter and Stolleis 1996-2010; included are the data of: Nördlingen, compiled by Barbara Rajkay; Schweinfurt, compiled by Marian Opalka. They count not the number of ordinances but the different regulations according to the index of “police matters” (Policeymaterien). In the following, police ordinances covered by the repertory are merely referenced with the name of the territory/city, number of the repertory, form and date. Kurköln 182 [Reskript], 07.12.1696. 48 vagrants, gypsies and robber bands, stating that the primary aim of the regulations was daß die strasen und wege fuer raube und plackereyen sicher und rein gehalten, und dadurch handel und gewerbe im lande ohne gefahr getrieben werden, reisende personen ungehindert wandeln, und ein jeder in seinem hause und stande sich ruhesam naehren moege” (that the streets and paths may be kept secure and clear of robberies and feuds, so that trade and business can be carried out in the country without danger, travellers may make their journeys unhindered, and every man can peacefully support himself in his own house and station in life).23 Maintaining public peace and security with regard to trade and commerce endangered by ambulant masterless marginal groups was also the prime subject matter of a police ordinance issued by the Archbishop of Mainz in 1680.24 The growing number of police ordinances dealing with marginal, migrating groups defined and distributed the normative label of criminal, dangerous groups as an external – socially as well as spatially – threat to internal/public security.25 They depicted such groups in general as a menace to the common people: raiding, plundering and burning villages, killing and raping people, stealing or destructing their property. In addition, the regulations described certain spaces and places as insecure: the borders, country roads, woods, lonely spots, farmhouses, mills, or inns in the countryside, where such criminal vagrants and bandits could hide or were even welcomed. Admittedly, authorities tended to exaggerate the imminence of such dangerous groups in order to “stimulate” their reluctant subjects to perform security duties, pay more taxes for security measures, or to inform them about the habits of beggars, vagrants or the “criminal milieus”. However, such police ordinances cannot be reduced to a purely symbolic function and ineffective products of a failed security or social policy. For the concept of Sicherheitspolicey implied the labelling and criminalization of marginal groups (independently from the “real” crime rate) as well as the forming of the enduring stereotype of external dangerous groups which threatened internal security and endangered specific “insecure” locations. And beyond this, the Early Modern state did in fact establish and extend specific security measures and institutions (especially police forces) to enforce the ordinances, to control and prosecute dangerous groups and to maintain public security.26 In the second half of the 17th century we can also discern the growing importance of public security in the legislation of the Empire, the imperial circles 23 24 25 26 Policeyordnung Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1672), printed in: Wüst 2003, 574-668, cit. 631 Kurmainz 342, Verordnung, 30.04.1680. Härter 2003a; Härter 2003c; Fritz 2004; Härter 2005a, chapter 9. For a slightly different view see: Ammerer 2003. Compare for instance Nitschke 1990; Härter 1999a. This will be discussed subsequently more in detail. 49 and the permanent diet of Ratisbone (since 1663) respectively, which deliberated certain issues of gute Policey and securitas publica concerning the Empire as a whole.27 In 1668/1670 the diet and the Emperor issued a resolution (Reichsgutachten) “vom Policey-Wesen/ und sonderlich von Abstellung des höchst-schädlichen Duelliren/ Balgen und Kugel-Wechseln” (concerning the police and in particular the prevention of the highly dangerous duelling/fighting and exchanging of bullets). This was followed by a comprehensive law on the Puncti Securitatis publicae (later called Reichsexekutionsordnung: imperial execution order), which dealt with vagrants and gypsy gangs, strolling and marauding soldiers, robbery and banditry, breach of the peace (Landfriedensbruch), social upheaval and revolts as well as several security measures such as safe conduct (sicheres Geleit), prosecution (Nacheile), alarm (Alarmwesen), patrols and visitations, with regard to the rural areas and country roads in particular.28 The imperial diet enacted only a few laws concerning public security, but they were part of and stimulated the increasing Policeygesetzgebung of the imperial circles and the imperial estates as well as the burgeoning public discourses on “internal security”. At the start of the 18th century, “security” had achieved a stable and increasingly important role within the Policeygesetzgebung, which had established and was using the concept of allgemeine Landessicherheit (general security of the land) with regard to “dangerous groups” as well as to property (Eigentum), trade and commerce.29 However, the concept of Policey and security and the Policeygesetzgebung in particular still focused primarily on internal security, which was threatened by marginal, criminal and violent groups: the poor, vagrants, ethnical/religious minorities such as the gypsies and the Jews, gangs of thieves and robbers (Diebes- und Räuberbanden) as well as ex-soldiers, deserters, duellists or rioting subjects. In this respect the authorities and the Policeygesetzgebung conceived security as a reaction to criminal behaviour and deviant/dissident groups, endangering above all the life and property of subjects in rural areas, small towns and villages as well as the country roads, mail, coaches and transport of passengers and therefore trade and commerce. Thus society and economy on the whole as well as individual property were considered as a matter of public security within the scope of gute Policey, conceiving security as a crucial precondition of property and economic prosperity and progress. 27 28 29 Härter 2003b. “Reichs-Abschieds-Anfang“ 1740, part 1, 324-327, 437-445, 634-670. Compare as examples the “security ordinances” of the imperial circles: “Edikte des Fränkischen Kreises“ 1700; “Verordnungen des Oberrheinischen Kreises“ 1722; Neue und mehr geschärffte Poenal-Sanktion und Verordnung des löbl. Ober-Rheinischen Creyßes, 20.12.1726; Instruction, wornach die vom Löblichen Ober-Rheinischen Crayß bestellte Crayß-Land-Lieutenants mit der untergebenen Mannschafft/ in denen Ihnen aufgetragenen Verrichtungen sich zu achten haben, 19.12.1726. 50 The reasons for the growing importance of this particular concept of Sicherheitspolicey in the second half of the 17th and the first decades of the 18th century can be discerned in certain socioeconomic developments: first of all the growth of population and the increase of migrating, marginal groups after the Thirty Years’ War. These groups were not only suspected of committing violent crimes but also of spreading epidemic plagues, which menaced Europe and the Empire in several pandemic waves (1660-1670, 1709-1713, 1720-21). Furthermore, marginal groups and the growing strata of the “idle poor” were blamed for endangering the basic food resource or causing lack of food. In general, the Policeygesetzgebung merged different security threats and hazards: marginal and criminal groups, epidemic diseases and supply crises. In this regard the police ordinances not only reflected common fears and popular images of a gradually unfolding topical security discourse but were equally interrelated with cameralist theory, which influenced the current economic and population policy as well as the burgeoning Policeywissenschaft. The latter likewise postulated the growth of population, state-based mercantilist economic and welfare policies, as well as security, as the primary aims of gute Policey and Policeygesetzgebung – ultimately to strengthen the power of the state.30 IV. The Differentiation Between Public/Internal and Social/Human Security in the 18th Century Political theory and Policeywissenschaft had additionally further developed the concept of security and established the fundamental distinction between external and internal security as well as addressing public security – besides welfare – as a primary task of the state within the framework of gute Policey.31 Öffentliche and gemeine Sicherheit (public/general security) on the one and common weal/welfare on the other hand merged into the common formula of Sicherheit und Wohlfahrt, indicating the – modern – differentiation between internal and social security (innere und soziale Sicherheit). In contrast, the Policeygesetzgebung as well as the Policeywissenschaft rarely referred to the traditional concept of universal peace. In this respect the process of establishing public security as a crucial concept and purpose of gute Policey after the Thirty Years’ War could be interpreted as a “secularisation” of the traditional concept of peace as related to the internal order of society. Based on the development of gute Policey and the Policeygesetzgebung in particular, security had become a leading concept of the state in the 18th century, justifying and stimulating the expansion of government and administration as well as further legislation in the fields of order, welfare and security. 30 31 Compare Simon 2004, 381-562. Conze 1984, 846-847; Simon 2004, 522-524. 51 The following figure (Figure 2) shows the increase of the Policeygesetzgebung of ten selected imperial territories between 1640 und 1799 in five sectors of police matters (Policeymaterien) related closely to internal/public as well as social security.32 Figure 2: Regulations in 5 sectors Regulations in 5 sectors of 10 territories 1640-1799 1400 1300 5 Infrastructure 1200 3.3 Health Sector 1100 3.2 Social Relief 1.3 Marginal Groups 1000 2.2 Security, Crime, Military 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1640 1650 1660 1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 The main issues covered by these regulations can be systematized as follows: 1) “Internal/Public Security”: crimes/violence against people (body, property) or society/the state (= 2.2 Security, Crime, Military and 1.3 Marginal Groups): - marginal groups, criminal vagrants, gangs, thieves and robbers - military: ex-soldiers, deserters, military excesses - political crimes: revolts, propaganda, pamphlets, “secret” associations - and the corresponding security institutions/measures such as patrols, visitations, rural militia and paramilitary police forces (hussars), wanted lists, passport control etc. Within these sectors of police regulations, security was to be established mainly through repressive executive measures and institutions to protect subjects and their property as well as society and the state against criminal behaviour and dangerous groups. 2) “Social Security” with regard to everyday risks, accidents, natural hazards and disasters: 32 Data/territories such as those given in footnote 21. 52 poverty/the poor and poor relief everyday supply/starvation; bad harvest, high prices, plagues (grasshoppers, vermin), storms, floods - health sector: epidemic plagues, accidents, hygiene, first aid - infrastructure: natural disasters (floods, storms, fires) as well as buildings, roads, street lighting, traffic, transport, mail In these sectors of police regulations the focus was on the security of individual persons, social groups, communities or society endangered by topical risks, hazards and disasters which were not primarily caused by deviant/criminal humans but by natural or human accidents; thus the security measures concerned laid more emphasis on prevention, support, relief and insurances. Although security as a primary purpose shows up in the course of the 18th century in new, and more of the existing, sectors of the increasing Policeygesetzgebung, the different regulations and measures can be clearly differentiated according to the categories of “internal/public” and “social” security, with the latter gaining more importance in the second half of the 18th century in relevant sectors of the Policeygesetzgebung such as health, poor relief, infrastructure, building and traffic (as Figure 2 shows).33 Despite the fact that regulations dealing with the poor, fire hazards or epidemic plagues reached back to the late Middle Ages, health, poverty, food shortages and building (Bauwesen) were more and more considered as an issue of welfare and human security, which the state should provide through Policeygesetzgebung as well as administrative and preventative measures. Joseph von Sonnenfels, by way of example, expanded the concept of “personal” or “physical” security (persönliche/ körperliche Sicherheit), which was threatened not only by crime but also by diseases, poverty, bodily defects, inability to work or shortage of food, and similarly enhanced the “security of goods and property” by the inclusion of fire hazards, storms and lightning in addition to robbery, larceny and fraud.34 In this respect, internal/public and social security and the corresponding sectors of Policeygesetzgebung remained interrelated in many ways: policing marginal groups and poor relief constituted two sides of the same coin; vagrants and the poor were suspected of spreading epidemic diseases, of committing arson and endangering country roads, transport and mail. In this respect, many police regulations merged internal and social security and therefore also repressive policing of “dangerous groups” and technical preventative measures. However, since the end of the 17th century the expansion of the security concept to “personal security” and the human being as a primary object of security is clearly discernable in police ordinances dealing with health/diseases, - 33 See in general on these sectors of gute Policey: Landwehr 2000b; Holenstein 2003; Härter 2005b. 34 Sonnenfels 1787, 123-192, 200-219. 53 social relief, fire, building or traffic. The Medizinalordnung of Kurtrier (the electorate of Trier) stated for instance in 1683 for the first time that gute Policey should aim at “der Unterthanen Conservation, Wolfahrt wie auch derer Leibsgesuntheiterhaltung” (the conservation and welfare of the subjects as well as the preservation of their physical health).35 Although since the late Middle Ages many authorities had issued laws and ordinances dealing especially with medical affairs and epidemic diseases in particular, the health sector not only obtained a greater share within the Policeygesetzgebung in the second half of the 18th century but evolved into the Gesundheitspolicey/Medicinalpolicey: state-based health policy via medical laws aiming at the security of persons, bodies and minds and establishing more or less new provisions and institutions to provide more security.36 In his ground-breaking work System einer vollständigen medicinischen Polizey (A Complete System of Medical Policy) (1779-1819), Johann Peter Frank defined the health of society as a crucial constituent of internal security and gute Policey: Die innere Sicherheit des Staates ist der Gegenstand der allgemeinen Polizeywissenschaft; […] ein sehr ansehnlicher Theil davon ist die Wissenschaft, das Gesundheitswohl der in Gesellschaft lebenden Menschen […] nach gewissen Grundsätzen zu handhaben, folglich die Bevölkerung […] zu befördern. (The internal security of the state is the object of general police science; ... a very considerable part thereof is the science of handling the health of the people living in society ... according to certain principles, and consequently ... of promoting the population).37 Thus the regulations of the Gesundheitspolicey/Medicinalpolicey ranged from first aid in case of accidents and natural catastrophes, instruction sheets with remedies for epidemic diseases and cattle plagues, hygiene regulations concerning refuse, water or food, to the control of apothecaries and medicine and obligatory vaccination to health passports (Gesundheitspaß), the education, qualification, examination and accreditation of a “professional” medical staff (physicians, midwives, etc.) and the institution of state-based hospitals and birth houses; only the instrument of medical insurance was missing in the broad range of state-based health-care policy, but was established in the 19th century.38 We can observe a similar development in the sector of Baupolicey and Feuerpolicey: The new building regulations (Bauordnung) of 1690, issued after military devastation and fire disasters in some towns of Kurmainz (the electorate of Mainz), ordered the rebuilding in such a way “dass jeder genugsame Sicherheit darin habe” (that everyone should have sufficient security in 35 36 37 38 Kurtrier 285, Medizinalordnung, 1683. Dinges 2000; Wahrig and Sohn 2003; Möller 2005; Grumbach 2006. Frank 1779, vol. 1, 3-4. Frevert 1984. 54 them).39 In the 18th century the Policeygesetzgebung of many territories and cities comprised a growing quantity of building and construction regulations as well as technical provisions, regulating such matters as construction, architecture, plans, licences, supervision, inspection, material, fireplaces, and increasingly aiming at the security of buildings, streets, passengers and inhabitants.40 Although the primary purposes of such comprehensive Bauordnungen concerned the topographic order and planning of a city or town in general as well as the prevention of fire disasters, other issues interrelated with security such as hygiene, waste disposal, street cleaning, street lighting, and also traffic safety (Verkehrssicherheit) gained in importance.41 One of the first police ordinances dealing with traffic safety was the Prussian “Avertissement, wegen des sachte und vorsichtigen Fahrens in den Residentzien” (announcement concerning steady and careful driving in the residences), which obliged all carriage drivers and waggoners to drive slowly for the health and safety of pedestrians, children and elderly people.42 The imperial city of Frankfurt similarly issued in 1789 the “Verbot des schnellen Fahrens und Reutens in der Stadt” (ban on fast driving and riding in the city); and the city of Mainz threatened serious penalties to all drivers and equestrians harming pedestrians.43 However, the main topic of police ordinances dealing with security matters in the wide array of infrastructure remained fire hazards and Feuerpolicey. The elector of Cologne, who had already established fire ordinances in the Policeyordnung of 1695, issued in 1718 a decree in which prevention and the rescue of subjects from fire hazards (caused by smoke) was mentioned as a primary purpose for the first time, and the elector stated as his aim: “solchem Uebel dermahlen mit allem Ernst vorzubiegen, und ihre Unterthanen von sothaner Grund-verderblichen Brands-Gefahr zu erretten” (to make every effort to prevent such an evil, and save his subjects from this highly ruinous fire hazard). “Verhüt- und Abwendung sothaner Land und Leuten Grundverderblichen Brands-Gefahr” – the prevention of conflagration endangering land and people – emerged as a topical argument in many of the following ordinances dealing with fire hazards. This was completed by the launch of an obligatory fire insurance in 1773, indicating the final shift from reaction and punishment to preventative supporting measures and insurances respectively.44 Like the elector of 39 Kurmainz 377, Verordnung, 27.05.1690. See the Repertorium der Policeyordnungen, vol. 1-10, systematic index “5.4 Bauwesen”. Compare further as an example Süßmann 2007. 41 Compare for instance Württemberg 800, Bauordnung, 02.01.1655: Deß Hertzogthumbs Würtemberg revidierte Baw-Ordnung, comprising more than hundred pages. 42 Brandenburg-Preußen 2720, Avertissement, 05.05.1758. 43 Frankfurt 4358, Verordnung, 13.01.1789; Kurmainz 2561, Verordnung, 25.08.1792. 44 Kurköln 306, Verordnung, 26.08.1718, cited: Vollständige Sammlung deren die Verfassung des Hohen Erzstifts Cölln betreffender Stucken, [...] dan in Regal- und Cameral-Sachen, in Justitz-, Policey- und Militair-Weesen vor- und nach ergangener Verordnungen, und Edic40 55 Cologne, in the 18th century many other rulers issued police ordinances imposing statutory fire insurances as well as enhancing technical provisions and measures. One of the first authors in the Holy Roman Empire who supported such insurances as a means of security and gute Policey (“einer guthen Policey ganz gemäß”) was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who drafted five treatises on public insurances around 1678-1680,45 shortly after he had issued in 1670 his primary work on security: “Bedencken welchergestalt Securitas publica interna et externa und Status praesens im Reich ietzigen Umbständen nach auf Festen Fuß zu stellen” (Thoughts on how public internal and external security and the current state of affairs can be put on solid ground in the empire according to present conditions).46 From the start of the 18th century onwards, nearly all authorities and rulers in the Old Reich issued police ordinances prescribing fire insurances, offices and associations, as well as often regulating nearly all matters of “Feuerpolicey”, from fire services to building regulations.47 Insurances evolved into an important instrument of social security and gute Policey, which was expanded to include more hazards: the fire insurances were sometimes extended to damages by storms or floods. Beyond that, some rulers in the 18th century initiated social insurances for widows and orphans of office-holders, issuing ordinances and statutes regulating the Pfarr-Wittwen Cassa, Wittwen-Casse vor die weltliche Dienerschaft, Wittwen- und Waysen Kassen Institut (parsons’ widows’ fund, secular servants’ widow’s fund, institute of widows’ and orphans’ funds), etc.48 Whilst earlier charitable foundations supporting widows and orphans used as their argument the prevention of divine punishment, the new insurances and funds of the 18th century aimed explicitly at the protection (“Absicherung”) of specific groups exposed to poverty, such as for instance the ordinance establishing the “Wittwen-Fiskus” in Württemberg in 1700.49 Although earlier efforts at “private” insurances by guilds, trad- 45 46 47 48 49 ten [...], 2 vol. (Köln 1772/739), vol. 2, 148 (Nr. 346); Kurköln 588, Verordnung, 14.08.1750, cit. Vollständige Sammlung II, 148f. (Nr. 347); Kurköln 848, Brand-Societäts Ordnung, 20.06.1773. Printed in: Knobloch et al. 2000. Printed in: Guhrauer 1838, 151-255; compare Schrimm-Heins 1990, 240-241. The territories and cities covered in Härter and Stolleis 1996-2010, issued nearly 200 ordinances dealing with fire insurances. Pfalz-Zweibrücken 681, Verordnung, 13.02.1730; Pfalz-Zweibrücken 1218, Verordnung, 24.12.1749; Kurtrier 1552, Ordnung, 26.07.1779. Compare in general Härter 2009, passim, especially 63. Württemberg 1495, Verordnung, 09.03.1700; compare further the outline of the development of the orphans’ and widows’ charity in Württemberg from the 16th century onwards in Württemberg 2763, Witwenkassenordnung, 1739: Gründliche Nachrichten von dem Württembergischen Fisco Charitativo, wie solcher [...] Vor arme Pfarrers- und PräceptorsWittwen aufgerichtet [...], 1739. 56 ing companies etc. can easily be discerned,50 the insurances embedded in the concept of gute Policey implied a new dimension: they were often obligatory/statutory, state-based, regulated in police ordinances, and in principal aimed at future prevention and the whole of society (or the concerned target group of social security). As the Herzoglich-Würtembergische allgemeine Brand-Schadens-Versicherungs-Ordnung expressed it: because a voluntary association would fail to cover the possible extent of fire damages, it was necessary to establish the allgemeine Brand-Schadens-Versicherungs-Anstalt (general fire damage insurance institution) to which every house owner was obligated to contribute according to the taxation of his property; for this could be the only general remedy to ensure not only that aggrieved parties would be able to rebuild their ruined houses immediately, but that “Häuser und Gebäude […] in Zukunft ein sicheres Capital werden” (houses and buildings should become a safe capital in future).51 The increase of police ordinances dealing with matters of human security in the second half of the 18th century is clearly connected to the cameralist economic and social policies of the Early Modern state, which aimed at the increase of revenues and the amplification of power. In this regard social security and gute Policey interlocked closely with the reform politics of so-called enlightened absolutism. Furthermore, the amalgamation of Policeygesetzgebung as administrative law and the establishment of concrete state-based institutions constituted the inception of social law and a primarily state-based social policy (staatliche Sozialpolitik), which differed from traditional charity based on the Church, the guilds or traditional communities.52 V. Conclusion: The Production of Security through Administration and Communication The expansion of social/human as well as internal/public security within the framework of gute Policey indicates an intensification of administration, government and social control which could certainly be interpreted as statebuilding. Security and gute Policey at least provided an effective justification and legitimization for establishing and expanding more state-based, professional measures and institutions and for transferring security tasks from traditional services and institutions such as local communities, the Church, guilds, local courts, rural militia etc. Because of its institutional weakness, the Early Modern state depended on intermediate powers and traditional social commu50 51 52 See Schewe 2000; Zedtwitz 2000. Württemberg 3587, Feuerversicherungsordnung, 16.01.1773, cited in Reyscher, Sammlung, vol. 14, 871-905, 875. Stolleis 2001; Schmid 1981; Reidegeld 2006. 57 nities to perform security services and even fostered participation with regard to patrolling, guard duties, informing/denunciation and the enforcement of police ordinances in general. But this proved to be difficult with regard to the intensification of security policies in the 18th century and led to increasing problems und conflicts with reluctant or inapt subjects who could make productive use of security arguments and police ordinances by claiming that security services would interfere with their daily labour for mere subsistence (and would also decrease productiveness and taxes). With regard to threats to internal/public security – especially armed gangs, and robber bands – subjects as well as local officials were prone to exaggerate the potential number and dangerousness in order to argue that they could not cope and perform effectively in the face of such a menace. In a way, such arguments coincided with the perception of the authorities, who considered traditional services as ineffective in maintaining security and endeavoured to expand state-based security measures and institutions, albeit without having the necessary means and funds and therefore often merely experimenting with more modern and/or traditional institutions and measures (or a mixture of both) such as patrols, visitations, inspections, passport control, or tracing (using wanted lists) performed by peasants, rural militia, military forces, or new police forces (such as hussars, dragoons, Landjäger, “Hatschiere”, Landreiter, Landleutnants, Policeykommissare).53 Similar problems and developments can be observed in the sectors of human/social security in which Armenpolicey (poor relief), Gesundheitspolicey (health-care), Baupolicey (building regulations) or Feuerpolicey remained embedded within local communities, intermediary powers, the Church, the guilds, and families on the one hand, while on the other hand new state-based institutions and provisions were established in the course of the 18th century (as depicted above). In this respect gute Policey contributed to the establishment of modern security agencies and instruments as well as to the incorporation of traditional local institutions into the emerging modern security policy, which altogether could be interpreted as the expansion of formal social control and the nationalization (Verstaatlichung) of security. Apart from the recent controversial debate on the question of the success and effectiveness of Early Modern security policy and norm enforcement, which we cannot discuss here in detail,54 it seems indubitable that this peculiar amalgamation – and in a way, the deficiencies – also stimulated the differentiation of security instruments and the discourses on security. On the one hand the Early Modern state could demonstrate, with its administrative and policing activities in the realm of gute Policey, its ability to establish and maintain public security and to protect its subjects; but on the other hand the latter could use “security” (or insecurity) as an argument to 53 54 Nitschke 1990; Holenstein et al. 2002a. Härter 1999b; Stolleis 2000; Landwehr 2000a. 58 avoid traditional services or to claim governmental benefits and security provisions. In this respect the growing importance of security in the framework of gute Policey was by no means solely the result of intended state-building and modernization, but rather the product of the diverse problems with the administration of security and gute Policey as well as the corresponding communications and discourses. It may be true that the prevention and control of hazards, threats, dangers, risks, catastrophes, crime and their effects indicates the extent of security, but in the Early Modern period such a thing was nearly impossible to achieve. Moreover, the state of “security” is difficult to measure or to determine and besides such a relatively technical approach it could well be argued that security is rather a complex product of the relationship between power, mentalities, and communication.55 Based on such an approach, we may emphasize the impact of gute Policey on the increasing importance of security and the forming of a distinct security policy. Although police ordinances were enacted by the authorities, they can be considered as part of the communication process or legal/administrative discourse on order, welfare and security between different actors: the authorities, the legislators, the rulers, the jurists, the officials, the local administration, intermediary powers, local office-holders, social communities, and subjects; though by no means equal participants of mutual interaction, gute Policey nevertheless provided options to communicate about security. The media of this discourse/communication on gute Policey and security can be systematized as the Policeygesetze themselves; the corresponding official or semi-official publications (ranging from wanted lists to operating instructions); the reports, lists, charts and statistics of local officials and office-holders on the enforcement, implementation and administration of gute Policey; the supplications, dispensations and complaints of subjects; the writings and treatises of the Policeywissenschaft, and popular media such as illustrated broadsheets or pamphlets dealing with catastrophes, crimes, hazards etc. The array of communication ranged from the genesis of police norms and the law-making procedure via the process of implementation and enforcement of the ordinances to reactions and complaints.56 Already the promulgation of police ordinances generated a wider public sphere, for they had to be brought to the knowledge of the Gemeiner Mann (common man), who should be able to understand the regulations, obey them and help to enforce them. In addition, governments and administrations demanded responses and information on the implementation, transgressions and the effect of ordinances and measures as well as on potential threats, hazards 55 56 Compare in general on the “nature” of security: Foucault 2004; Sofsky 2005. Holenstein 2000; Schilling 2000; Holenstein 2005; Holenstein 2002; Härter 2002; Härter 2005a, 189-241; Härter et al. 2010. 59 and risks; the governments of Baden or Kurmainz ordered the local official to report periodically on all “Merck- und Nachrichts-würdigen Begebenheiten” (interesting and newsworthy events) as well as on a multitude of issues concerning security and gute Policey.57 And the addressees of ordinances reacted and communicated actively on matters of Policey and security via supplications, petitions or complaints, informing governments and administrations, sometimes articulating their concerns and interests in security and regulations as well as negotiating for dispensations, concerning for instance security services that they had to perform. Precisely because local communities and subjects were essentially integrated into security measures and services, they could make “productive use” of police ordinances and the security argument. Within this increasing communication process, security was shaped, negotiated, demanded, rejected, and conceived with regard to gute Policey as well as to common fears and popular images. This included exaggeration and even hysteria: the fear of the black death in the twenties and seventies of the 18th century, the food crises of 1770-1773 or the robber band of Schinderhannes (reportedly consisting of hundreds of robbers, militarily organized, and terrorizing entire towns) are only a few examples of overstated hazards which did, however, lead to a wave of ordinances as well as to concrete administrative activities. In this respect, gute Policey as a communicative process and administrative discourse not only produced security but also exaggerated and even devised images of threats and hazards, influenced the perception of them and therefore could also produce insecurity.58 On the other hand, we should not underestimate the crucial function of gute Policey in developing and producing security on a symbolic as well as a practical level. Policeygesetzgebung implied a normative legal order characterized ultimately by the stability, predictability and calculability of law, an essential precondition and instrument of modern security – internal/public as well as social/human. Police ordinances initially defined security threats and hazards as well as the institutions, instruments and provisions of the responding security policy in legal terms, reacting to socioeconomic developments and integrating public discourses, but also according to social and economic attributes. This included the labelling and criminalization of “dangerous groups” which threatened internal/public security, as well as the stipulation of inclusion-exclusion criteria concerning the beneficiaries of security: native or foreign, wealthy or poor, able or unable to work, genuinely indigent or cheating, accidents/diseases which merited support or not, etc. Within the framework of gute Policey only the propertied, industrious, productive, disciplined and “useful” subject should benefit from social/human security, whereas masterless vagrants and marginal 57 58 Kurmainz 1066, Verordnung, 13.02.1753; Holenstein 2003, 258-281. For a short summary of the debate on these issues, see the introduction to: Härter et al. 2010, 1-23. 60 groups were considered as external threat to internal security. In this regard gute Policey formed a state-based security policy and contributed to the juridification (Verrechtlichung) and nationalization (Verstaatlichung) of security, but also induced in the long run the fundamental separation of internal security (innere Sicherheit) on the one hand and welfare policy (Sozialpolitik) on the other hand. Whether the latter could or should be reintegrated as “Human Security” in an overall historical concept of security remains an open and controversial question. References Printed Sources Berg, Günther Heinrich von. Handbuch des Teutschen Policeyrechts, vol. 1, Hannover, 1802. Delamare, Nicolas. Traité de la police, vol. 1. Paris, 1707. “Edikt des Fränkischen Kreises, 25.4.1699.” Europäische Staats-Cantzley 4 (1700): 263-266. Frank, Johann Peter. System einer vollständigen medicinischen Policey, vol. 1-4. Mannheim, 1779-1788 Gönner, Nicolaus Thaddäus. Teutsches Staatsrecht. Landshut, 1804. Guhrauer, G.E. Leibniz’s Deutsche Schriften. vol. 1. 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Köln 1537. “Reichs-Abschieds-Anfang […] vom Policey-Wesen/ und sonderlich von Abstellung des höchst-schädlichen Duelliren/ Balgen und Kugel-Wechseln: sodann von Wiederherstellung und Aufhelffung der Commercien und Handelschafften […]; Kayserliches Commissions-Decret. Resolution auf das/ wegen Abstellung des höchst-schädlichen Duelliren/ Balgen und Kugel-Wechseln/ erstattete ReichsGutachten/ dessen gäntzlicher Inhalt allergnädigst ratificirt wird; ReichsGutachten/ Uber die, aus Veranlassung des Puncti Securitatis publicae, nach gegenwärtigem Reichs-Zustands verbessert- und eingerichtete Executions-Ordnung, welche, samt dem ebenfalls in allen dreyen Reichs-Collegiis verglichenen Articuls-Brief, Kayserlicher Majestät zu allergnädigster Approbation eingesendet wird” In: Johann Joseph Pachner von Eggenstorff, Vollständige Sammlung aller 61 von Anfang des noch fürwährenden Teutschen Reichs-Tags de Anno 1663 biß anhero abgefassten Reichs-Schlüsse [...], parts 1-4, Regensburg, 1740. 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The linkage between fire security, by fire engines, technical knowledge and communication about this knowledge will be pointed out. With the discourse of the improvement of fire engines in journals of the Enlightenment a trigger for the change in the communication about fire engines can be found. Further it is discussed how inventions for fire-safety can be evaluated in the transforming scientific society in the Early Modern period. Keywords: Security, Technical Communication, Expert, Fire Engine, Enlightenment, Technical Knowledge, Journals of the Enlightenment, Development of Technique, Scientific Revolution, Scientific Society, Public Experiments, Invention. 1. Introduction The following article deals with the main question of whether, and if so how, security could be produced by technical innovations and communication about these innovations in the Early Modern period. To clarify this idea, one might envisage a triangle comprising technique and technical knowledge, technical communication and security. To trace such an information flow for a technical security topic, I will use the public discussion about ‘fire engines’ to enhance the fire security in cities, mainly in journals of the Enlightenment. Between 1700 and 1800 a shift took place concerning the technical standard of fire extinguishing equipment, particularly of fire engines. This can predominantly be seen in the lists of fire equipment in cities’ fire regulations.1 To connect this shift with media of communication, a before/after distinction2 will be presented concerning information exchange and dissemination 1 2 Address all communications to: Rebecca Knapp, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Juniorprofessur Umweltgeschichte, 44801 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. While in the beginning these fire regulations listed leather buckets and ladders, they later listed more and more different fire engines stored in their arsenal. Koselleck 1987, 270. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 66-85 during the 18th century. But which factors were decisive for this development? Neither an exclusive ‘top-down’ model of expansion of knowledge and scientific research3 nor the approach of the diffusion of scientific knowledge are sufficient to describe the diverse processes of knowledge transfer in the 18th century.4 In the following, some of these processes will be analysed, considering the idea that communication, public discussions and demonstrations of inventions5 of fire engines served as a trigger or motor for the transfer and diffusion of this technical knowledge. Furthermore, I will consider the general effect of this shift in the 18th century and its consequences for technical communication and knowledge. In the sense of the triangle described above in the context of fire engines, the following questions arise: - Who were the ‘producers’ of technical knowledge about fire engines and which different ways existed to communicate or spread technical information? - How did they legitimate themselves as ‘experts’ or become legitimated and by whom? - How can the inventions or innovations be evaluated? - What is the interest in communication and public discussions and who are the addressees? - Finally, consideration should be given to the consequences of the change in communication described as ‘expert’. 2. ‘Experts’ and Knowledge The changes of knowledge and communication undergone mainly in the 17th and 18th century seem to be a process which is difficult to comprehend. Since the early 20th century the sociology of knowledge has dealt with questions about relations between knowledge and society.6 On the one hand the development of sciences by scholars, on the other hand the tacit knowledge of craftsmen which was made visible, and the institutionalization of knowledge, for example through the foundation of scientific societies, are all named as part of the so-called “scientific revolution”.7 3 4 5 6 7 Hochadel 2008, 336. Remenyi 2008, 349. Although the term ‘innovation’ in the sense of the conversion of an idea into products or methods might be more suitable for the described processes, it cannot be found in the sources. The use of the term ‘invention’ follows the analysed sources. As today, in the Early Modern period this term described genuinely new ideas, mostly in a technical context. But as may be seen in the following, the use of this term was overstrained. Burke 2000, 13. The discussion about this term is continuous in historical science. Inter alia it can be found in Shapin 1996, 1-8. 67 But more than this, the change might be found in the combination of these different circles of knowledge, the reciprocal effect between scholarly knowledge and practical knowledge, and in the pluralization of knowledge.8 Within the group of technical experts, one can distinguish between the traditional knowledge of craftsmen and scholarly theories, although this is very simplified. While in the Late Middle Ages a strict separation between the technical domain of craftsmen and scholarship existed, both spheres moved towards each other from the second half of the 17th century. The ‘new’ professional group of engineers, besides their practical knowledge, increasingly used mathematics as a theoretical tool. Science started to benefit from technology and in a limited way vice versa, but the consolidation of technology into a science of its own still had a long way to go. However, both ‘schools’ found their commonalities in their effort to find useful solutions for the further development of society and for the ‘Landeswohlfahrt’ (state welfare).9 The main ‘innovation’ of the Early Modern period was not the increase of genuinely new technical knowledge but the upgrading of useful and practical knowledge in the mid-18th century.10 Useless knowledge was increasingly criticized and ‘the new’ was no longer rejected but in a way became a recommendation for ‘experts’.11 Under these circumstances it is not surprising that craftsmen in cities, which were a hub for technical communication and knowledge, or other practitioners took this chance to participate in the ‘scientific society’, a rising group which was no longer strictly accessible to the privileged classes only.12 The authorities, as well as the public, were now interested in the specialist and useful knowledge of ‘experts’ who did not need to be legitimated solely by universities, or to be scholars. Every ‘expert’ was asked to communicate his knowledge. In the case of fire engines, producers of technical knowledge were bell founders or coppersmiths as well as mathematicians. Some ideas about the way of communicating and its change will be shown in the following chapters. 3. ‘Classical’ Media for Communication Before High Volume Printing In the times before the spread of knowledge through periodicals such as the journals of the Enlightenment, a traditional medium of communication about 8 9 10 11 12 Cf. Burke 2000, 22-27. Troitzsch 2004, 458. Burke 2000, 132; Feldner 2003, 9. Burke 2000, 136. But different actors of the ‘science society’ still tried to differentiate themselves from each other through the attempt at hierarchization of knowledge. This fact shows the heterogeneity of this emerging group. Cf. Hochadel 2003, 249-308. 68 inventions was correspondence.13 An interesting example of correspondence about fire engines can be found in Dresden from the year 1686. It seems that after or because of the blaze in ‘Altdresden’ in 168514, the urban authority was still endeavouring to produce security by means of functional and useful fire engines. A letter written by Johann Wilde, “Bestalter der Artillerie und Schlangen- und Sprützenmeister” (“commander of the artillery and hose and fire engine master”) in Hamburg, of March 27th 1686 to Christian Zencker in ‘Altdresden’ tells that the residence in Dresden had previously contacted Mr. Wilde and asked for a retrofitting of their fire engines with hoses and other technical innovations. He answered that he had received the drawings of the engines, on the basis of which he was to inspect them, and he evaluated the fire engines as defective. Furthermore, he described his own ‘invention’ of fire engines which were more useful than the predecessors.15 Additionally he suggested for the Dresden fire engines that the copper and brass of the old engines could be reused to manufacture new ones for a price of 1000 to 1200 Mark. The letter also reported a recent fire and stated that only the new ‘Schlangen Sprützen’ (fire engines with hoses) had prevented the city from a major hazard.16 To give a clearer idea of his new fire engines, the ‘Spritzenmeister’ from Hamburg sent five sketches of them to give the city council in Dresden a basis for their decision about the procurement.17 This correspondence shows how the formation of ‘experts’ for the construction of fire engines functioned over hundreds of years and that they enjoyed a good reputation across territorial borders. Such requests as the one described above could be used by these ‘experts’ to promote their own ‘inventions’. The requesting authority had the possibility of being directly informed about the 13 14 15 16 17 Cf. Döring 2008; Gierl 2004. Cf. Blaschke 1999, 157-172. “… Ich befinde, daß es grosse und schwäre Wercke, nicht allein zu bearbeiten, sondern auch fort zu bringen, und daneben invendig auch sehr mangelhafft seien. Dann die jezigen von mir inventierten wercke, so wol in als außwendig sind andere gestalt, auch nicht so schwär fort zu bringen und zu bearbeiten, wie Messieurs selben gesehen. … Messieurs hat selber gesehen, dass mir die Sprützen hiesiger Ohrter die so groß und schwär von holz gewesen alle verworffen, und neue darvon mit Schlangen und Röhren gemachet; und weil die nun von Küeffer und Eysen, so gar kein Holz als nur die Räder, sein sie nicht allein leicht fort zu bringen, sondern auch leicht zu bearbeiten …”, Stadtarchiv Dresden, RA/2.1/F.XIV.13, 17r-19v. “… hetten wir keine Schlange Sprützen gehabt, wehre leider wieder eine grosse Einäscherung vieler Häuser zu besorgen gewest …”, Stadtarchiv Dresden, RA/2.1/F.XIV.13, 17r19v. “Hochgeehrter herr, Hierbey sende demselben fünff Abriesse, welche er E. E. Rathe zeigen kann, damit sie die Neuen Inventiones sehen können, so ich alhier gemacht, da sich als dan der Unterschied zeigen und finden wird, und mir solche nach belieben wieder zusenden …”. One of these sketches is still conserved, and its simplicity clearly shows that the innovations were merely to be made visible, whereas the secret of this new invention was to be protected. Stadtarchiv Dresden, RA/2.1/F.XIV.13, 18r. 69 current state of fire engine technology by a capable craftsman and of improving their existing material or purchasing new inventions. Since the 16th century, the common way of procurement of craftsmen had been to decide on the basis of tendered sketches18, and this practice can still be found at the end of the 17th century. The increment of craftsmen’s drawings in the Early Modern period simultaneously shows the increasing differentiation of experts’ technical knowledge.19 Furthermore, the correspondence shows the knowledge transfer ‘from the bottom up’. Due to its bipolar character, the communication about and the spread of technical knowledge via letters was heavily personalized. It was almost left to chance through which inofficial ways the contact with such an ‘expert’ craftsman was first generated. An active intention to establish such an information flow had to be present, but we cannot speak of a medium to form public technical communication, knowledge or understanding. Besides all the information about Dresden fire engines, the above-mentioned correspondence is significant because of the additional information given in it. Mr Wilde wrote that he had manufactured two fire engines for Amsterdam and that he intended to go there for a few weeks.20 This little comment allows the construction of a communication network of fire engine experts. In Amsterdam, Jan van der Heyden (an artist, but also inventor and administrative practitioner) and his brother Nicolas (a hydraulic engineer) had been very committed to fire security needs since 1672. Inter alia they invented and sold “fire engines with water hoses”. It is evident that the Hamburger ‘Spritzenmeister’ Wilde gained some of his knowledge about how to manufacture fire engines with hoses from his visits to Amsterdam and maybe from personal contact with the van der Heyden brothers.21 He transferred it to his own work and used it for improving fire security in Hamburg. In addition, he offered his knowledge inter alia to Dresden. For Dresden, again, a direct con18 19 20 21 Popplow 2006, 109f. Popplow, 2006, 111. “… und weil ich vor die Stadt Amsterdam auch zwei Spritzen gemacht, dass ich nach Amsterdam wollte …”, Stadtarchiv Dresden, RA/2.1/F.XIV.13, 17r-19v. One very important work about fire engines and the method of fire fighting, which is more than merely a machine book, should be kept in mind here: the “Description of the recently invented and patented Fire Engines with Water Hoses and the Method of Fighting Fires now used in Amsterdam” by the inventor Jan van der Heyden and Jan van der Heyden Junior, printed in 1690: Beschryving der nieuwlyks uitgevonden en geotrojeerde slang-brandspuiten en haare wyze van brandblussen, teegenwording binnen Amsterdamin gebruik sinde. About Jan van der Heyden and his son: Both were very engaged in civic duties as FireChief Generals of Amsterdam and certainly played a great role in the production and communication of specialist knowledge of fire engines. With their ‘Brandspuitenfabrik’, they successfully sold their fire engines all over Europe. Of course, the book and separated leaflets were written mainly for promotional reasons, and addressed to authorities who were willing and had the financial possibilities and consultants to understand and use this new fire engine technology in order to generate security. Heyden 1996, xxi. 70 tact to Amsterdam by means of the import of a “Holländische Feuer Sprütze” in the year 1685 can be proven.22 This, in short, gives an idea of how communication and knowledge transfer based on personal contact and correspondence functioned to advance fire security with useful fire engine inventions. These ways of communication before the spread of knowledge by journals represent the high level of technical knowledge about fire engines existing in different circles and the generation of networks. But the level of this communication should be understood to have a single, pragmatic function. With the journals of the Enlightenment, we can ascertain a transformation of this communication to a higher level of display which was to some extent professionalized. A link between both levels can be found in the ‘machine books’ of the late 16th and 17th century. They were a ‘new’ medium in the Early Modern period for the general popularization and pluralization of knowledge. A generalizing discourse about technical equipment began with the praise of new, useful and innovative machines in the printed theatra machinari23 of the late 16th century. With the help of these books, contemporary engineers tried to increase their social status, especially by proving the intellectual fundament of their own profession.24 However, the authors of the machine books focused on informing the reader about the results of their own efforts and had less interest in discussing technical skills. The models of the machines in the machine books served as an idealization of techniques through which their creators tried to distinguish themselves from the group of craftsmen.25 Thorsten Meyer states that the machine books were one of the most important media of spreading technical knowledge.26 From the 16th century, the printed book served as a new structure to spread knowledge between experts and laymen who were able to read; this led to the popularization of technical know-how. This might also be described as a dialectic between specialized science and unspecialized public.27 The machine books were first addressed to the nobility and the literate bourgeois.28 Unfortunately, they showed little interest in fire extinguishing equipment and because of this, they contain only a little information about fire engines.29 In the 18th century the machine books disappear as media of technical communication.30 The machine books can be 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 “… die … aus Hollandt … anhero gebrachte große Schlangen Brand Sprüze …”, Stadtarchiv Dresden, RA/2.1/F.XIV.13, 2r-5v. Literature on machine books inter alia: Popplow 1998; Popplow 2006; Meyer 2004. Popplow 1998, 8. Troitzsch 2004, 451. Meyer 2004, 147. Daum 1995, 27. Meyer 2004. The theatrum machinarum of Heinrich Zeising, printed in 1610, introduced three fire engines with figures and explanations: Zeising 1610. Meyer 2004, 157. 71 seen as an interlude between correspondence and periodicals. They were an instance or element used to translate technical knowledge onto a higher level, but their authors had completely different fundamental ideas from the actors in journals of the Enlightenment. The medium ‘(machine) book’ was very inflexible compared to a fast-moving and customizable periodical. 4. The Discourse about the Improvement of Fire Engines in Journals of the Enlightenment Besides books, one other medium increasingly replaced correspondence as a messenger: periodicals.31 In particular, the 18th century was shaped by the Enlightenment and closely linked with this was the effort to popularize knowledge. The formation of the ‘modern’ sciences from the early 17th century led to the foundation of scientific Academies, followed by the publication of scientific periodicals and journals. These technical periodicals were predominantly the most effective medium of spreading knowledge32 and caused a major change to communication in the mid-18th century. By degrees, social communication processes were generated which brought about and intended the access to technical knowledge of different interested social groups.33 Popular journalism served not only as information, enlightenment and amusement but was also used for social control over the interpretive power of knowledge. Within popular scientific rhetoric, natural science and new disciplines but also the delimitation between ‘experts’ and ‘laymen’ could be legitimated, which was appreciated by the scientists.34 While the social situation limits information to family or insider knowledge, as is usual in the technical crafts, the journal transforms knowledge into science.35 Following this statement, it becomes evident that technical know-how spread through publication in journals brought about the depersonalization of knowledge and its sustainable use. The border between crafts and sciences was softened. Through journals which were printed periodically in large volumes, specialist knowledge was accumulated, formalized and made publicly available, in complete accordance with the sense of Enlightenment.36 Some examples of the depersonalization of technical knowledge in the case of fire engines and its spread through scientific journals will be presented in the following. The examples will be evaluated with the focus on actors, legitima- 31 32 33 34 35 36 Döring 2008, 101. Burke 200, 132; Feldner 2003, 209. Tschopp 2004, 471. Remenyi 2008, 348. Gierl 2004, 430. Troitzsch 1966, 105. 72 tion, specialist rhetoric of inventiveness37 and the demand for invention and inventive content. The basic idea behind the discussion about the improvement of extinguishing equipment, especially fire engines, is based on the hazard of a blaze in cities. Everyone who tried to find ways to diminish or prevent such a hazard for the good of society was authorized to consider the question of fire-fighting.38 Thus there was a demand for everyone for useful tools to increase fire security and diminish or prevent disasters. This wide demand for specialist knowledge complied with the idea of the scientific academies of a linkage between “theoria cum praxi”;39 this is what is meant by a linkage or conflation of scientific knowledge, technical-empirical know-how and economic knowledge. 4.1 Transformation of Lost Tacit Knowledge Through Theoretical Reconstruction In 1759 in an issue of the journal “Hannoverische Beyträge zum Nutzen und Vergnügen” (“Hanoverian articles for utility and enjoyment”), an article entitled “a proposal for fire fighting” can be found.40 The author states that twenty years ago, a leaflet reached his hands in which an unknown person announced that he had invented a kind of water catapult that would be more sustainable to extinguish an ember than a fire engine. The author of this leaflet was deceased and his sketches of the invention could not be found.41 In addition, the author of the article tried to reconstruct theoretically the specialist knowledge which was lost due to the death of the craftsman. His solutions were wooden vats, filled with water and thrown into the fire by “Feuerwerker” (fire workers).42 However, in the same breath he stated that until now his theoretical thoughts had not been practically proven. With regard to such a practical use, the author stated that this proof should be made by somebody else.43 He was satisfied and saw his work as done because of his proposal of such an invention, which he 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 The terms ‘scientific rhetoric’ or ‘rhetoric of inventiveness’ are used in the sense of the formation of specialist elements and a way of describing ‘inventions’ which was establishing itself, including the translation of practical elements in journals. Claproth 1762, 1106. Troitzsch 1999, 275. S., A. C. 1759. “… Vor etwa 20 Jahren [machte] … ein Unbekannter … mit vieler Gründlichkeit, obgleich schlechter Schreibart bekannt: es seyn die bisherigen Löschmaschinen dem großen Feuer nicht proportional … Seine Erfindung … ein Wurfwerk … sey mit seinem Geräthschaften nicht so kostbar, als eine Feuersprytze … und sey ganz zuverlässig … Der Mann war bald nachher … verstorben [und] mir entgiengen alle Mittel aus dieser Erfindung eine Entdeckung zu machen …” S., A.C. 1759. “… so haben wir, was der gute Erfinder mit sich ins Grab genommen.” S., A.C. 1759. “… Nun versuche, ändere, verbessere und führe aus, wer will. Den übrigen wird ein Spott, verachten und auslachen auch gerne vergönnet. Mich genüget, zu einer Erfindung Vorschläge gethan zu haben …”. S., A.C. 1759. 73 declares to be “A thousand million times better ... than what Schwarz, Coehorn, Gernhard von Gahlen and other butcher-birds have hatched, to the misfortune of the world”.44 Because of the way that the writer describes the deceased inventor, the above-mentioned separation between theory and practice and his alienation from empirical experiments, it can be assumed that he considered himself to be part of the group of scholars within the group of ‘technical intelligence’. The justification of the usefulness and importance of his reconstructed invention is twofold. On the one hand he states that these vats could be more suitable than fire engines in some cases. On the other hand he alludes to the securitizing factor of his invention in contrast to, for example, Coehorn’s weapon of war. The ‘invention’ that vats filled with water could extinguish a fire seems to be in itself neither new nor even inventive. But the way in which the author of this article sets this alleged lost knowledge in context with the case of the ineffectiveness of fire engines and ‘negative inventions’ such as weapons of war can be seen as a developing ‘rhetoric of inventiveness’. It seems that it was mainly not genuinely new inventions that were communicated and recognised by these journal articles, but that the way they were described and set in context was becoming increasingly important. In the developing knowledge society and with public communication through journals, authors knew how they could represent themselves as ‘inventors’ and ‘experts’ in this way. 4.2 Prize Questions for the Collection of Knowledge In 1771, the Danish Society of Sciences in Copenhagen posed a prize question concerning the most advantageous configuration of fire engines.45 Johann Gustaf Karsten Wenceslaus, mathematics professor, received the prize for his “Treatise on the most advantageous arrangement of fire engines”.46 In the preface of his book, he relates that since 1770 he had had orders from the ducal government of Mecklenburg to coordinate the procurement of useful fireextinguishing machines for small rural towns and to control their capability and price-quality ratio. These experiences were the basis for his treatise.47 However, these competitions were not genuinely addressed to scholars and their theories. In 1772 the “Royal Prussian general chief finance, war and domains directorate” tendered a prize concerning the best manufacture of a fire engine for the use of the flat country. This prize was halved and awarded to two people. The first was the professor of mathematics and teacher Georg Simon 44 45 46 47 “… Millionen tausendmal besser … als was Schwarz, Coehorn, Gernhard von Gahlen und andere Neuntödter der Welt zum Unglücke ausgebrütet haben.” S., A.C. 1759. Meister “Review” 1775a. Wenceslaus 1773. Wenceslaus 1773, 3. 74 Kügel, who had authored the treatise,48 and the second the “hand fire engine maker” Insel from Berlin who had proven himself as the most legitimate to manufacture a fire engine following the theoretical guidelines made by Kügel. This fire engine was compared to other useful fire engines and performed excellently.49 Regarding the awarding of prizes, scholars as well as craftsmen participated in competitions and were thus recognised in the literate discourse about fire engines. However, in cases of prize questions one can see that the main intent was not the generation of new knowledge or new inventions. The first aim was rather to collect and combine different tacit knowledge. The legitimation for participants in these prize questions was given by the tendering institutions themselves and some participants could show their suitability by official posts or particular skills concerning their daily business. It could be stated that competitions aimed firstly at the inventory of different technical knowledge in different circles; they were intended to support useful knowledge and bring different circles of knowledge together. The prize questions by academies and authorial institutions were a practice to generate stocks of knowledge.50 Of course, the institutions also intended to find special knowledge for their own efforts and by awarding prizes to technical specialists, these persons became ‘experts’. 4.3 Economic Competition in the Manufacture of Fire Engines A teaser by J. C. Riepenhausen was published in the ‘Hannoverisches Magazin’ in 1772 with the title “Invention of a new kind of fire engines or so-called water mills”.51 At first he remarked that fire engines available on the market cost between 500 and 700 Reichstaler and procurement was too expensive.52 As he emphasized, he offered an equivalent alternative for about 100 Reichstaler. As a reason for this cheap manufacture, he stated that his design got along without a bellows and screws, but nevertheless ensured a continuous water jet from the pipe. Furthermore, he claimed that this sort of engine would have more advantages concerning its handling, compared to the familiar fire engines. At the end of his article, he even advertised other, optical, mathematical and physical instruments that he had produced. The author of this article was a ‘Practicus’, which is not surprising, since only by manufacturing fire engines would it be possible to see which components can be omitted while still retaining the function of the machine. It is not possible to verify whether this so-called “new invention” really functioned as 48 49 50 51 52 Kügel 1774. Meister, “Review” 1775b. Keller 2008, 37. Riepenhausen, “Erfindung” 1772. “… trotz aller Nützlichkeit [wird] oft vom Kauf abgesehen …, da man ein solches Kapital nicht investieren möchte …”, in: Riepenhausen, “Erfindung” 1772. 75 well as described. The article gives no information about any test or any other kind of legitimation of the ‘inventor’s’ ability. The only legitimation one could imagine is the cheap price, but it is not possible to determine whether this was assessed in general. Taking as a starting point Riepenhausen’s assumption that his fire engine worked, the importance of the economic aspect concerning a cheaper production seems to have increased and been further promoted through more active competition, which developed owing to public discussions. Its positive effect was that functional fire engines and thereby better fire security became generally affordable. This development was based on the step-by-step efforts to equip rural and small towns with fire engines too. The addressees of those teasers were no longer only ‘major cities’ which had the financial power to procure the highly developed and very expensive fire engines. With the small cities, a new market focused on the economic aspect was opened up. To fill this market niche, enter the market and successfully place the offered products, a fire engine manufacturer had to spread information about the (mainly economic) advantages of his ‘inventions’ through a ‘mass medium’ such as a journal. This example shows that the spread of information about fire engines not only supported the idea of development of techniques but also of economic aspects. Fire security was not only triggered by the spread of genuinely new and better fire engines but also by the promotion and rising availability of existing technical standards and a change of the audience from a few cities to the multitude of smaller towns. 4.4 Public Experiments and their Description in Journals as Legitimation In 1770 the “Berlinische Sammlungen”53 reported about a bell founder’s assistant from Saxony, who had created a fire engine which evoked great admiration during a public test. The water was lifted through the pipe for 193 “Salzburg shoes” or 102 “Leipzig cubits”.54 With the fire engines created and built by him, Mr. Thilläyn (“fire engine maker with royal privileges at Rouen”) made an attempt in which he lifted the water without the help of leather hoses and in a constant beam up to 100 “foot”.55 Expectedly, he promised to create such fire engines for everyone at a low price but could not publish the secret of his in53 54 55 Anonymous, “Neue Wassersprützen” 1770. “[Diese Feuerspritze hat] bei der öffentlichen Probe eine allgemeine Bewunderung erreget. … das Wasser ist vermittelst derselben [Röhre], noch 70 Schuhe höher, als das Dach der Salzburgischen Domkirche und also 193 Salzburger Schuhe oder 102 Leipziger Ellen hoch getrieben worden.” Anonymous, “Neue Wassersprützen” 1770. “Herr Thilläyn … hat mit einigen neuen Brandsprützen, von seiner eigenen Erfindung, einen Versuch gemacht, unter welchen sich eine befindet, die … [das Wasser] ohne Hülfe von lederner Schlangen, mit einem beständigen Strahl 100 Fuß hoch treibet.” Anonymous, “Neue Wassersprützen” 1770. 76 vention for any price.56 This article was written anonymously, so the author’s motivation is not known, but it might be suspected that the author was an eyewitness of the public test, because of the nearly emotional way he describes what happened. It might be suspected that he was not very well educated in technical knowledge, because he does not give any information about the technical details of the fire engines tested. For him the yardstick for the functionality and usefulness of the fire engines was how high they could bring the water and if the beam was constant. Certainly these two factors were inter alia important to evaluate the suitability of fire engines, but not solely. In this case, much more important is what he tells the reader about the manufacturers of the engines. They are both craftsmen, but in different social positions. The journeyman is from Saxony, while Mr. Thilläyn comes all the way from Rouen. In his study of electricity in the German Enlightenment, Oliver Hochadel analyses the role of electricity showmen with the example of the ‘electrifier’ Martin Berschitz and explains the kind of space such showmen took up in the culture of science of the Enlightenment, how far they produced knowledge, what this knowledge was about and how it was transferred.57 A comparable practice seems to be evident for fire engine manufacture. The above-mentioned manufacturers of fire engines travelled to cities to promote their engines. In this way they informed about fire engines by demonstrating their useful function, of course without revealing their technical ‘inventions’. But in contrast to the ‘electrifiers’ and their demonstrations, the manufacturers of fire engines had to prove the applicability of their inventions for fire-fighting. Hence a reciprocal result of these demonstrations was that a successful public test was equivalent to a proof of usefulness. In this way different kinds of fire engines gained public acceptance and recognition in the micro-historical city circle of knowledge. Through public opinion, they were perceived as an ‘invention’ or technical progress for fire security nearly without reflection on whether in a wider context of knowledge this could really be considered ‘new’ or not. In the “Journal von und für Deutschland”, the ‘fountain master’ Karl Kirn from Trier published a description of a new fire engine in 1785. Inter alia he advertised his machine, which could be offered at a reasonable price in the sense of an economic improvement. He emphasised the convincing functionality of this fire engine in its public demonstration at the cathedral’s square. Therefore the spectators and laymen were considered as witnesses.58 This article shows two things: On the one hand the above-mentioned economic aspect; on the other hand the fact that the public proof for fire engines 56 57 58 “Er wird für jeden, der es verlangt, dergleichen Sprützen um einen billigen Preis verfertigen, kann aber vor der Hand, sein Geheimnis, dessen Erfindung ihm viel Zeit und Mühe gekostet, noch nicht entdecken.” Anonymous, “Neue Wassersprützen”1770. Hochadel 2008, 331. Kirn 1784, 92. 77 was not only used as a legitimation medium by travelling showmen but also by craftsmen in situ to present their skills in manufacturing useful fire engines to the public. In the category “Dresden curiosities”, the “Magazin der sächsischen Geschichte” (magazine of Saxon history)59 reported a general fire engine test (‘Hauptspritzenprobe’) at the old market square on October 6th 1787, which was attended by the chancellor and the governing mayor among other spectators. The “ingenious Inspector Köhler” was sent to Weimar by the elector to get a personal impression of the excellent fire engine facility there. According to his plans, he supervised the construction of an engine which could also be used as a water-feeder. The ‘copper-molder’ La Mare had also manufactured a new big fire engine and a water-feeder. Both machines were tested with different hoses and different distances of the feeder. As a result it was stated that it would be “desirable for the encouragement of diligence as well as for the good of the city that the public should acquire this engine as their property.”60 Again, the author is anonymous. His descriptions prove the continuous efforts of the authorities to collect and exchange knowledge through the inducement and financing of these journeys. Although personal contact is still essential, a change of tactic can be recognised. To create public acceptance it was no longer correspondence, which had been the most important way for many years, but public proof that was used as a medium. The official Dresden general fire engine tests demonstrated the special interest of authorities in the assessment and advancement of new technologies. The public discussion, although not always about genuinely new ‘inventions’ and improvements, led to a rising perception and acceptance of technological progress for the welfare of the whole society. Many descriptions of such tests of fire engines can be found in journals of the Enlightenment over the years. As indicated, they can be interpreted on two levels. Firstly, the public experiment itself: The idea of an empirical, rational and experimental renewal of sciences began with Francis Bacon in the 16th/17th century.61 With public tests this experimental science seems to have been transferred to the daily business of fire engine manufacturers. In accordance with this, the tacit knowledge of craftsmen rose as a public legitimation for fire engine ‘experts’ at the end of the 18th century. Clearly committed demonstrations with nearly identical machines were put on repeatedly, although in the meantime everybody knew about the function of fire engines. These repetitions made the public test of fire engines become more and more of a ritual. 59 60 61 Anonymous, “Dresdner Merkwürdigkeiten” 1787. “Es wäre sowohl zu Aufmunterung des Fleisses als zum Besten der Stadt zu wünschen, dass das Publicum diese Spritze zu seinem Eigenthum erhielte.”, in Anonymous, “Dresdner Merkwürdigkeiten” 1787. Krohn 1990, 211. 78 Secondly, their description in journals of the Enlightenment: For the most part these descriptions were not written by the manufacturers themselves. But because of their publication in journals, they were recognised in scholarly circles and adopted. The practice of experimental legitimation was spread through ‘technical intelligence’, which led to a decline of philosophical constructs and the integration of tangible elements into theorems.62 This shift towards experience and experiment in journals of the Enlightenment made the public test into an inventiveness-rhetoric element. From being an auxiliary method of legitimation, the experiment was transferred from practice into theoretical thinking. 4.5 Utopian Theorems or ‘Inventions’? The journals of the Enlightenment did not only report about obviously successful ‘inventions’ of fire engine technique. The case of the ‘invention’ by the mining master (‘Bergmeister’) Löscher can prove that not everything named ‘invention’ was accepted. First, a review written by Löscher about his own publication “invention of a fire engine without pipework, pistons and valves”63 can be found.64 Most likely because of this review, a second article on Löscher’s invention by an anonymous author followed. Assessing the ‘invention’ in the context of fire engine standards at the end of the 18th century, it seems probable that the ‘funnel fire engine’(‘Löschers Trichterspritze’) would not have found any consideration in the Gelehrtenrepublik (scholars’ republic). It does not provide any technical refinements and is based on merely the simplest physical laws of pressure. Accordingly, the “Neue Allgemeine Bibliothek” stated that this funnel fire engine was cost-effective and could be a useful machine for the peasantry, at least.65 But all in all this funnel fire engine had no genuinely new usefulness owing to the lack of hose connections and air vessel. Therefore it was not even able to produce a constant water jet. Perhaps this fact is the reason why Löscher did not try to keep the secret of his ‘invention’. On the contrary: Löscher described the engine and its functionality so precisely that “every artist could manufacture this machine”.66 Another example that seems to belong to the less successful improvement concepts is the ‘invention’ by Mr. Fürst, described in the “Monatsschrift für Mecklenburg”. The results of the tests using the equipment (probably a hose attached to a frame to produce higher water lifting) were damaging for the 62 63 64 65 66 Fischer 2004, 158. Löscher 1792. Löscher 1793. “… wenigstens für das Landvolk eine nützliche Maschine.” Anonymous, “Review” 1793. Anonymous, “Review” 1793. 79 competence of its inventor:67 The hose broke and for fire fighting it was not useful in any way.68 It is inconceivable that, following such a public report about the unsuitability of a certain invention, any actor of security production would consider a purchase. Thus the publication and public declaration of unusable inventions contributed to the production of fire security in cities by preventing the production of insecurity. One example of a nearly utopian theoretical idea, which was insufficiently tested under laboratory conditions and could not be practically realized, is the description of an allegedly fireproofed suit. This suit, made of raw material and soaked with ash water, was intended to enable a human to stand in the fire. This might have been retrospectively perceived as a quack theory, since in order to do this it would constantly have to be poured with ash or salt water by bystanders, and the person would also have to be guided because his eyes would have to be protected by the suit. The ‘theoreticus’ Justus Calproth himself barely thought about the practical possibilities of realizing this idea. He wanted to leave this to others. But in order to avoid the rejection of his theory by the population, he indicated that this work, which only seemed to be dangerous, must be made savoury and plausible to the common man by public tests.69 Claproth was a lawyer and taught in Göttingen. Maybe he and his thoughts were ahead of his time, as today we have refractory suits, and his invention for recycling paper also required centuries to assert itself.70 Nevertheless this invention can be seen as an insecurity and danger-producing theoretical consideration for fire-fighting. Probably the practical impossibility appeared here as a healthy regulation to the formation of theories. However, in this example the tactic of inventive rhetoric can be seen too. For the scholars, the laboratory tests were not enough to strengthen the persuasiveness of the invention, so the genuine legitimation tool of the practitioner, the public test, was used. The practice of using practical legitimation rituals to break down a scholarly theory becomes evident. 5. Conclusion These examples are proof of a shift in the self-imaging of the technical intelligence and in its public image, and a change in communication and information about technical topics. To summarize: 67 68 69 70 “… was bei dem Versuche geleistet worden, wird jedermann von dem Werthe dieser Erfindung Licht geben …” Anonymous, “Beschreibung des Versuchs” 1790. “… von einer Maschine, die mit langen Stängen gerichtet werden muß, nicht wohl Gebrauch zu machen”, Ibid. “bloß dem Anschein nach gefährliche Arbeit dem gemeinen Mann durch Versuche schmackhaft und plausibel gemacht werden [soll]”, Claproth 1762. Claproth 1774. 80 New institutions and their efforts at the collection of useful knowledge led to new media for technical communication. - These institutions and their media served as a legitimation for ‘experts’. - These ‘experts’ were no longer only scholars since, according to the idea of usefulness, the demand for tacit knowledge and craftsmen’s skills arose. - Due to the concentration and conflation of these different processes of information and communication in the journals of the Enlightenment, the former hierarchy of knowledge had softened. Thereby the reciprocal character should be pointed out. - Because the practice of craftsmen was now becoming visible, the method of empirical experiment was distributed and accepted as producing knowledge.71 - Hence it was not the actors of the production of technical knowledge for fire engines that were changing but the attention to and the emphasis on them. Access to wider and new markets was opened. The radius for the diffusion of knowledge increased. Regarding the inventiveness of the fire engineers described in the presented articles, it must be granted that the communication of genuinely new inventions was less significant compared to the tacit knowledge of them becoming public. Owing to the legitimation and general validity that they achieved in different ways, they received public acceptance, and these ‘inventions’ were transferred from ‘specialized or even secret knowledge’ to ‘general knowledge’. This transfer of special knowledge and, as a consequence thereof, legitimation as an ‘expert’ also comprised a lucrative incentive to participate, not only in the fire engine discussion. Hence it is not surprising that scholars as well as practitioners promoted their ‘inventions’ in journals. Based on this, communication in the 18th century seems to have taken place on a secondary level of the ‘knowledge revolution’: The rhetoric of inventiveness had become daily business and a process of self-fashioning inventors was set in motion. The participants knew which instruments and arguments they could use for stylization and legitimation of themselves as an ‘inventor’ or ‘expert’. There was a recognised need to describe or demonstrate the function of inventions. For this reason the difference between the demand for invention and the innovative contents can be ascertained. To conclude, a few considerations should be mentioned concerning shifting communication, invention, fire security and security in general. The general Enlightenment idea of the usefulness of technical knowledge, of pluralizing knowledge and of general education seemed to cause more security. There was a general fear of the population and a need for security which could - 71 Shapin 1996, 96-100. 81 only be produced if there was a common perception and reception and a general understanding of the operating mode. Although a quantitative analysis is still lacking, the qualitative analysis allows us to state that the articles concerning fire engines in the journals of Enlightenment support the effect of security, because topics concerning fire security were mentioned more often than, for example, they were in machine books. The examples presented show how fire hazards in a technical sense were prevented and handled. They demonstrate processes to enhance security in case of the disasters pointed out. After the mid-18th century, a general change in technical communication and in the diffusion of different knowledge systems can be seen. The ideal type of a scholarly inventor who created new inventions for security did not function without practical elements. Theorems led to the borders of the thinkable and to utopian ideas. The transference of practical and tacit knowledge to a theoretical level by the inclusion of it in the scriptualization process and the increasing rhetoric of inventiveness can be found. And vice versa, theorems were broken down to practical usefulness. The combination of emerging sciences and the diffusion of empirical knowledge produced security in general. In Early Modern cities the main actor of security production were the authorities, and the market of security products was mainly focused on them. The predominant aim was the ‘promotion of the state’s welfare’ (‘Beförderung des Landeswohls’). One of the major influential factors might not be seen in genuinely ‘new inventions’ but in the developing communication and the involvement of the public, resulting in depersonalization and the formation of a pool of knowledge which was used to develop this ‘Landeswohlfahrt’. Not only a few outstanding inventors but the collectivity of them affected the flow of information and the knowledge about fire engines. But although the popular Enlightenment and within it the technical Enlightenment is tangible in the second half of the 18th century, distinguishing this time from ‘before’, there was no discernable overall progress of inventive knowledge but rather a progress of the spread of inventive communication. Nevertheless, the discourse about fire engines and other fire-securing methods led to so-called shifting baselines and changed the fundamental sense of security of following generations. References Printed Sources Anonymous. “Beschreibung des Versuchs mit einer von dem Herrn Fürst erfundenen Feuerlöschungs-Maschine.” In Monatsschrift für Mecklenburg, 1790: 129132. 82 Anonymous. Review of “Erfindung einer Feuerspritze, welche ganz ohne Röhrwerk, ohne Kolben und Ventile, durch die Kraft zweyer Menschen eine überaus große Menge Wasser zu einer beträchtlichen Höhe in die Luft treibt.” Löscher, Carl Immanuel. In Neue allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, Vol. 3, no. 2 (1793): 396-399. Anonymous. “Dresdner Merkwürdigkeiten.” In Magazin der sächsischen Geschichte 4 (1787): 629-630. Anonymous, “Neue Wassersprützen.” In Berlinische Sammlungen 2 (1770): 399400. Claproth, Justus. Erfindung aus gedrucktem Papier wiederum neues Papier zu machen, Göttingen 1774. Claproth, Justus. “Gedanken über die Feueranstalten.” In Hannoverische Beyträge zum Nutzen und Vergnügen 1762, Part 4: 1105-1116. Kirn, K. “Oeffentliche Anzeige neuer Feuerspritzen zu Trier.” In Journal von und für Deutschland, 1784-92, Year 2, no. 7: 80-81. Löscher, Karl Immanuel. Erfindung einer Feuerspritze ohne Röhrenwerk, Kolben und Ventile. Leipzig, 1792. Löscher, Karl Immanuel, Nachricht von einer Feuerspritze, ohne Röhrenwerk, Kolben und Ventile. In Magazin für das Neueste aus der Physik und Naturgeschichte, Vol. 8, no. 3 (1793): 67-82. Kügel, Georg Simon. Abhandlung von der besten Einrichtung der Feuerspritzen zum Gebrauch des platten Landes (Berlin 1774). Meister, A.L.F. Review of “Abhandlung über die vorteilhafteste Anordnung der Feuersprützen“ by Johann Gustaf Karsten Wenceslaus. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek 23, no. 2 (1775a): 534-540. Meister, A.L.F. Review of “Abhandlung von der besten Einrichtung der Feuerspritzen zum Gebrauch des platten Landes” by G.S. Kügel. Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek 26, no. 1 (1775b): 217-219. Riepenhausen, J.C. “Erfindung neuer Arten Feuerspritzen sogenannten Wassermühlen.” Hannoverisches Magazin (1772): 697-700. S., A. C. Ein Vorschlag zum Feuerlöschen. In Hannoverische Beyträge zum Nutzen und Vergnügen 1 (1759): 375-380. 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Wissensorganisation und die Entwicklung der gelehrten Medienrepublik zwischen 1670 und 1730.” In Macht des Wissens, die Entstehung der Modernen Wissensgesellschaft, edited by Richard van Dülmen and Sina Rauschenbach, 417-438. Köln: Böhlau, 2004. Hochadel, Oliver. “Die Fußtruppen der Aufklärung. Umherziehende Elektrisierer im 18. Jahrhundert.” In Kulturen des Wissens im 18. Jahrhundert, edited by Ulrich Johannes Schneider, 329-337. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. Hochadel, Oliver. Öffentliche Wissenschaft, Elektrizität in der deutschen Aufklärung. Göttingen: Wallstein 2003. Keller, Katrin. “Die Preisfragen der Oekonomischen Gesellschaft Bern.” In Berns goldene Zeit, Das 18. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt, edited by André Holenstein et al.. 37-40. Bern: Stämpfli Verlag AG 2008. Krohn, Wolfgang. ed.. Bacon, Francis, Neues Organon. Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1990. 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Popplow, Marcus. “Unsichere Karrieren: Ingenieure im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit 500-1750.” In Geschichte des Ingenieurs, Ein Beruf in sechs Jahrtausenden, edited by. Walter Kaiser, Wolfgang König, 71-126. Munich, Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006. Remenyi, Maria. “‘Popularisierung’ und ‘Wissenschaft’ – ein Gegensatz? Die mathematischen Wissenschaften und ihre Vermittlung im 18. Jahrhundert.” In Kulturen des Wissens im 18. Jahrhundert, edited by Ulrich Johannes Schneider, 347-354. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. 84 Steven Shapin. The Scientific Revolution. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. Troitzsch, Ulrich. Ansätze technologischen Denkens bei den Kameralisten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Duncker & Humboldt, 1966. Troitzsch, Ulrich. “Erfinder, Forscher und Projektmacher, der Aufstieg der praktischen Wissenschaften.” In Macht des Wissens, die Entstehung der Modernen Wissensgesellschaft, edited by Richard van Dülmen and Sina, 439-464. Rauschenbach. Köln: Böhlau, 2004. Troitzsch, Ulrich. “Veröffentlichungen zur Technikgeschichte Deutschlands im 18. Jahrhundert – Ein Literaturbericht (1981-1995).” In Nützliche Künste, Kulturund Sozialgeschichte der Technik im 18. Jahrhundert, edited by Ulrich Troitsch, 257-279. Münster, New York, Munich: Waxmann 1999. Tschopp, Silvia Serena. “Popularisierung gelehrten Wissens im 18. Jahrhunderts.” In Macht des Wissens, die Entstehung der Modernen Wissensgesellschaft, edited by Richard van Dülmen and Sina Rauschenbach. Köln: Böhlau, 2004. 85 Youth Crime, Urban Spaces, and Security in Germany since the 19th Century Klaus Weinhauer Abstract: »Jugendkriminalität, städtische Räume und Sicherheit in Deutschland seit dem 19. Jahrhundert«. This article focuses on juvenile delinquency and on its perceptions in the last thirds of the 19th and of the 20th centuries. Three questions are discussed: Were there any debates on (human) security in both time phases and if yes, which problems were discussed; which larger social developments were mirrored in these debates; what were the implications of potential threats posed by juvenile delinquency for life in urban settings? In the last third of the nineteenth century the perception of and fears about youth crime focused on easily discernable proletarian male youth (groups and individuals) who mainly lived in densely populated urban neighborhoods. As (youth) crime was mainly interpreted as a threat towards the state and authorities were convinced that the police could successfully handle all challenges in this field, there were no debates about security at that time. In West Germany during the 1960s and the 1970s, two important changes in juvenile delinquency, in its perception and fears could be discerned. First, a twofold – spatial and social – dissolution of boundaries (Entgrenzung) of youth crime developed. The establishment of the transnational networks of the youth cultural underground, in which drug consumption played an important role, was instrumental in these developments. Second, in the early 1970s, as the case of the Rockers shows, youth crime had become a potentially omnipresent phenomenon of everyday urban life evoking diffuse spatial fears. Every seemingly friendly boy from the neighborhood could all of sudden turn into a “juvenile violent offender”. Thus, crime could potentially lurk everywhere, in every niche of (urban) society. It was against this background that the age of security dawned as it promised a safe haven against all future urban threats. Keywords: youth crime, juvenile delinquency, security, urban space, crime statistics, urban violence, “Underground”, “Rockers”, drug consumption, working-class youth. 1. Introduction With its Trust Fund of Human Security, established in 1999, the United Nations attempts to promote human security. Its main aims are the protection and Address all communications to: Klaus Weinhauer, Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Philosophie und Theologie, Abt. Geschichtswissenschaft, Universitätsstrasse 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany; e-mail: klaus.weinhauer@uni-bielefeld. http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/kweinhau/. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 86-101 empowerment of people and communities whose survival, livelihood or dignity are threatened. Recently it was pointed out that human security is a concept “so vague that it verges on meaninglessness and consequently offers little practical guidance to academics who might be interested in applying the concept”.1 From a social and cultural historical perspective, however, security is a promising but still neglected field of research. This is especially true when it comes to an analysis of security in urban spaces. In a contribution which tries to overcome the pitfalls of the concept of security, two problems should be tackled: It should be clarified what is meant by security and the analysis should be focused on clear-cut time phases and also on relevant social fields. While a history of security written from the perspective of the state has a long and well-established tradition dating way back into the eighteenth century,2 much less historical scholarship exists that is focused on social aspects of security. In Germany the sociologist Franz-Xaver Kaufmann was among the first to include such a perspective in his studies.3 He emphasized that in order to care for or about the future, the present must be safe.4 As social science research suggests, security is about providing against indefinable future threats. Seen from this angle, security is a social value which tries to work against the contingency of time and against the uncertainty of the future and aims at a controllable complexity (beherrschbare Komplexität).5 This leads to a double paradox: the safer the living conditions appear to be, the more people strive for security. Every new step towards a secure society, however, produces new potential risks. The crimes committed by juveniles figure prominently when it comes to describing the state of security in contemporary urban spaces.6 This relationship between youth and (imagined) crimes has a long history which dates back to the nineteenth century. Thus, in focusing on youth crime7, urban space and security I would like to present a comparison of two time phases: the last third of the nineteenth and the last third of the twentieth century. The main focus of the whole contribution, however, will be on the 1960/70s. Both periods were phases of multiple social transitions.8 These changes were brought about by three interrelated processes: industrialization, urbanization, and migration/social mobility. In Germany and elsewhere during the last third of the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Paris 2001, 102. Lüdtke and Wildt 2008; Zedner 2009; Loader and Walker 2007. See Kaufmann 1970. Kaufmann 2003, 73-104, 93; See recently Münkler 2010, 11-34. Kaufmann 2003, 9. Space is understood not as a pre-existing container but as a socially constructed entity. With this I follow Lefèbvre 1991. The terms crime and delinquency are defined by Brusten 1999, 507-555. In this paper the terms youth crime and juvenile delinquency will be used synonymously. Overviews are given in Osterhammel 2009; Mazower 2000; Hobsbawm 1998. 87 nineteenth century, industrialization and urbanization closely interacted and changed the economic structure but also led to rapidly growing cities. Moreover, there were big transnational migration movements and a highly mobile working-class population. The very high mobility of large sections of the working class led to a huge body of casual laborers which in many European countries aroused social fears.9 Moreover, in this phase of intense social changes the state’s monopoly of physical violence was firmly established in a process where police forces began to emancipate themselves from their roots in the military. In the last third of the twentieth century these processes came to an end or took different directions. Many former industrial towns became deindustrialized while cities were strongly affected by the redevelopment of city centers and by the building of high-rises at the periphery. Waves of migration and international agreements brought refugees and laborers (“guest workers”) to Germany. Looking at the state’s monopoly of physical violence, its erosion began in the 1970s when private security institutions were allowed to handle services which in former times had been provided by the police. In my analysis of juvenile delinquency and of its related perceptions in the last third of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries three questions are at the center: Was youth crime in both time phases discussed against the background of security, and if yes, which problems were put to the forefront; which larger social developments were mirrored in these debates; what were the implications of potential threats posed by juvenile delinquency for life in urban settings? While such an approach can benefit from the analysis of crime statistics, it must be taken into consideration that such statistics are questionable: Crime statistics tell more about social norms and values than about ‘real’ crime figures.10 Moreover, it seems promising not only to analyze the social historical aspects but also to scrutinize the social perception of youth crime among politicians and police personnel as well as in the media. Simultaneously, it should also be checked which offences stood at the center of public interest.11 It also needs to be inquired whether there were certain urban spaces where juvenile delinquency could develop or where it was imagined that such crimes could take place. 2. Youth Crime in the Last Third of the 19th Century The 1880s were a phase in which the dangerousness of youth, mainly the male proletarian youth, was discovered.12 In the public debates these imagined 9 10 11 12 See Jones 1984. See Reinke 1992, 199-214; Dinges and Sack 2000, 42-43. See the pioneering studies Cohen 1973; Hall 1978. Von Trotha 1982; Roth 1983. See as a general overview Benninghaus 1999; Speitkamp 1998. 88 threats were combined with the dangers of life in big cities.13 On the one hand, the population of the Kaiserreich in the late nineteenth century had a fairly high percentage of young people.14 This was especially true for big industrial cities where, for example, in 1905 in Barmen or Essen 63 resp. 67 percent of the inhabitants were younger than 30.15 On the other hand there is the Reichskriminalstatistik (imperial crime statistics), established in 1882. These court statistics were used to point at the rising figures of convicted juveniles aged between 18 and 22. While criminality of all types was predominantly the preserve of young men between the age of eighteen and thirty, the “most crime prone group was men between the ages twenty-one and twenty-five”16. Two additional aspects, however, must be taken into consideration: First, in the last third of the nineteenth century, it was mostly the working-class youth which stood at the center of the heated public discussions about rising youth crime. Second, although at least in the first years of its statistical measurement there were high numbers of convicted juveniles in rural areas, from the turn of the century, the city became the major site of crime and crime fears.17 Thus, many contemporary studies focused on young proletarian males as the central figures of urban crime which was thought to be mainly situated in proletarian neighborhoods.18 Clemens Schultz, a Hamburg pastor, published a classical account which was later often quoted. In 1912 he wrote: The urban Halbstarke was the ‘degenerate’ young person (...) his preferred activity is to stand around idly in the marketplace and ... he is the sworn enemy of order, he has a passionate distaste for order; he therefore hates regularity, and equally hates all that is beautiful and, in particular, work, especially the regular, ordered fulfilment of duty. (...) When social life is convulsed, for example by a revolution, or perhaps just by a general strike or by great political commotions, this scum comes to the surface and has a dreadful effect. This mob is much worse than individual, so-called hardened criminals. It is possible to protect oneself against those, but these powers of darkness have a poisoning, polluting effect, much worse than any contagious epidemic. It is ... the State’s duty to take action against these dreadful elements.19 Contemporary counter-measures against youth crime mainly concentrated on the time phase between the end of school attendance and the beginning of military service. State and church officials and medics relied in their countermeasures mainly on social pedagogical education, on work and work-related 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Roth 1997; Malmede 2002; Oberwittler 2000; see also the pioneering study written by Peukert 1986. Tenfelde 1982. “Young” includes people between 0 and 30 years of age. Tenfelde 1982, 203. Johnson 1995, 198. Malmede, 104. See for rural areas Gestrich 1986. See as a classical account Schultz 1912; also Mischler 1889, 197-198; Appelius 1892. Schultz 1912, 8 and 33-34. 89 discipline and on military discipline but also on actions that could be taken by the police and on the effects of incarceration.20 Until 1914 fear of crime was about two things: It was a fear about the total downfall of the bourgeois order and it was a fear of political upheaval. These fears were focused mainly on highly mobile young male workers. Crime and social democratic orientation were believed to go hand in hand.21 Moreover, these debates often concerned the racial purity and strength of the German nation.22 As current research has elaborated, the main settings which contributed to the rising numbers of violent youth crime were:23 migration, job mobility, and also a growing state interest in punishing the rough young proletarian males. The importance of the latter becomes obvious when we take a closer look at the imperial crime statistics, where three offences figured prominently: firstly property offences (mainly theft) and acts of bodily harm (Körperverletzung). These crimes were often committed by groups of young male working-class lads.24 Both offences were often expressions of a proletarian way of life of “playful adventure”25 and they were committed by proletarian youth against proletarian youth. Third on the list were offences against state and public order such as damage to property, breach of the domestic peace, and resistance against officers (Sachbeschädigung, Hausfriedensbruch, Widersetzlichkeit gegen Beamte). All in all, these were offences against the growing number of order norms issued by the bourgeois state.26 This becomes evident when we look at the offence of “gefährliche Körperverletzung” which was created in February 1876. With this addition to the Reichstrafgesetzbuch justice and police were intensifying their crusade against physical violence.27 This indicates, as Ralph Jessen has convincingly underlined, not only that there were rising numbers of violent offences but also that a much stricter law enforcement and a lessening tolerance towards violence became prominent. Sometimes these violent acts were even interpreted as political terrorism, as the confusing and somewhat strange term “Buben der Propaganda der That” 28 (boys of the propaganda of the deed) underlines. These young lads were mainly described as the lumpen proletarians: the avant-garde of social democracy.29 In the crime 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 See Saul 1971. Oberwittler 2000, 32. See Dix 1902, 3. Malmede 2002, 62. Malmede 2002, 47. Malmede 2002, 49. Malmede 2002, 111. Jessen 1992, 248. See also Jessen 1991. Appelius 1892, 85. Malmede 2002, 67. 90 statistics, however, such political offences were of minor importance, which contrasted greatly with public perception.30 Although juvenile delinquency was intensely debated until World War I, the current state of research shows that the topic of security was completely absent from these discussions. There was no public debate about security against (youth) violence. It was mainly about saving the state order or about protecting everyday order (Ordnung). Crime was conceived less as a threat to individuals or to social groups. All in all, before World War I authorities were sure that when it came to discussing and punishing youth crime they were confronted by clearly discernable individuals who failed. In these views two facts were inevitable: First, it was clear that these individuals were overwhelmingly of proletarian origin and mostly lived in the densely populated urban neighborhoods. Second, if any severe troubles might occur in this social field, state authorities were convinced that the police (sometimes assisted by military troops) would meet these challenges successfully. 3. Youth Crime in the 1960/70s From a social and cultural historical perspective the 1960/70s saw some farreaching social changes. In general, for West German society the 1960s were a decade of new departures, which already started at the beginning of this decade and not, as it is often thought, only as late as ‘1968’.31 In particular, changes in the norm and value systems – be they already visible or still underway – must be taken into consideration when youth crime and its social construction are studied. There was also a breakthrough of mass consumer society with its inherent challenges of making choices in many situations. Social science research was discovering youth culture(s)32 and a path was taken to virtually equate youthfulness with social change. Thus, the changing patterns of consumption among youth gained public attention. Beginning in the last third of the 1950s in West Germany, sceptic concerns were articulated about the ever faster changing society. These anxieties culminated in the case of the Halbstarke, whose protests were dramatized by media, politicians and social institutions which were all alarmed by these young people.33 The latest studies, however, underline that these actions should be interpreted as an expression of a minority promoting a hedonistic lifestyle. Their actions pointed at tensions between, on the one hand, social change in a consumer society and conservative moral norms and values on the other hand.34 30 31 32 33 34 Malmede 2002, 83; see for a later time period Wagner and Weinhauer 2000. See for the state of historical research: Frei 2008; Klimke and Scharloth 2008. Compare Siegfried 2000, 588; for an overview compare Sander and Vollbrecht 2000. See as the latest study Kurme 2006; Poiger 2000. See Heintz and König 1957; Kaiser 1959. 91 In the second half of the 1960s (around 1967), however, crime became a main issue in the field of domestic concerns. The caesura in the numbers of crimes registered by the police as well as in the perception of crime and its inherent dangers is underlined by three developments.35 First, roughly by the middle of the 1960s, the figures of the crime statistics (including juvenile delinquency) collected by the police showed a marked increase in the number of offences. Second, public concern about crime grew stronger. This trend is supported by the fact that new television programs were established (for instance in March of 1964 and in October of 1967) which dealt with criminal cases.36 At the same time, opinion polls were taken that demonstrated that from the mid-1960s onwards, there was a heightened need for security among West Germans.37 To this day it is not clear whether these TV programs and opinion polls were expressions of fears about crime or whether they contributed to the increase of such fears.38 Third, among policemen and politicians the term “Innere Sicherheit” began to gain importance at the end of the 1960s. Under this vague umbrella term the police set out to define the fight against crime as a tool to deliver security. In January 1973, the news magazine Der Spiegel quoted the North RhineWestphalian minister of the interior Willi Weyer, who had said that juvenile delinquency has “‘risen in an alarming way.’” Moreover, in the same article the magazine reported an “over-proportional rise in violent crime” committed by young people.39 In the 1960s, however, it was not mainly working-class youth on which public concern was focused, but youth in general. Besides violent offences, police personnel, politicians, and journalists of the late 1960s put one set of offences at the center of their concern about youth crime: drug consumption.40 Starting during the mid-1960s, drug consumption took the shape that is has today: It became an international youth problem – which, at least in the case of Germany, is still not well-studied.41 On the one hand, within the youth culture, drugs were an expression of a revolt in lifestyle,42 which can be characterized by self-realization, hedonism, and by the “attainment of new worlds of 35 See for further details Weinhauer 2005; Weinhauer 2003. Zimmermann 1969, 11 and 45. 37 See Reuband 1995; Weinhauer 2003, 249-250. Compare as an opinion poll Allensbacher Berichte, no. 19, August 1971. 38 Compare Weinhauer 2003, 251-262. 39 Der Spiegel 26, 1 January 1973, 64. More detailed information on the following is given in Weinhauer 2006, 376-397. 40 In this essay, the term drugs includes cannabis products (hashish and marijuana), opiates (morphine and heroin), cocaine, LSD, mescaline, amphetamines, and barbiturates. Alcohol is not included. For details see Weinhauer 2006, 187-224. Problems of definition are discussed in Renggli and Tanner 1994, 10-15. 41 See as a local study Stephens 2007; also Marwick 1998, 78, 480-496; Tanner 1998. 42 Compare Klessmann 1991. 36 92 experience”.43 On the other hand, debates about drugs figured prominently in a process of “normative self-assurance” made to combat the erosion of social norms and values.44 3.1 Threats of the Underground Leaving aside the rising numbers of criminal offences, as registered by the police, and the growing importance of crime for domestic concerns, during the mid-1960s youth crime transformed in two important ways: Juvenile delinquency lost its traditional spaces and offences were no longer exclusively committed by juveniles coming from the lower social stratums but also from those belonging to higher social classes. With regard to (juvenile) delinquency, for a long time, the police were mostly concerned with the red light and entertainment districts as well as the port areas of big cities. It was there that runaway youths found hiding-places when they had left their parental homes or reformatories. Moreover, large parts of the criminal underworld could be found in these precincts.45 Starting in the mid-1960s, however, police, social workers, and politicians had to face juveniles who were part of a complex – more or less counter-cultural – underground.46 Political actions such as demonstrations, happenings, sit-ins etc. were only one part of these international networks, which were also structured by inner-city meeting points in the streets and in other public places. This vaguely defined underground was not exclusively concentrated in the traditional red light or port districts but also in the city centers, in wealthy quarters as well as in the suburbs.47 Moreover, it was not the underclass youth which constituted the core groups of the underground. Instead, members of the middle and higher stratums of society dominated this new underground. Thus, the emergence of the underground meant a spatial as well as social expansion of delinquent milieus. During the mid-1960s, in West Germany the dropouts (Gammler) could be seen as the harbingers of the underground that developed in big cities like Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, or Hamburg.48 The dropouts, whose disposition (Habitus) and political directions differed from town to town, were predominantly 17 to 25-year-old males of middle-class background.49 The long 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Tanner 2001, quote on 245. Tanner 1990, 399. Compare the descriptions of Werner 1969, 41-45; Pietsch 1965, 126; compare also Falck 1965, 161-173; see as a broader interpretation Reinke 2010, 539-553. For the term underground, compare Hollstein 1969, 24-27, 106-142; Der Spiegel 21, June 9, 1969, 142-155; for an international overview compare Marwick 1998, in particular 489492. A summary is given by Kreuzer 1975, 137-149. Compare Claessens and Ahna 1982, 103-106; a good contemporary impression is provided by Kosel 1967. Compare Jaedicke 1968, 87. 93 hair of the dropouts especially “attacked the image of the masculine man; their untidiness challenged bourgeois feelings of cleanliness; having no job and possessions they questioned the capitalist achievement-orientated society.”50 The underground networks – just as the later student protests – were instrumental in changing the police’s analysis of threats. From this time, there were so many patterns of social behavior that juveniles could exhibit that the spectrum of normality (and of delinquency) could not be very easily defined. The international youth/cultural underground had too many ways of delinquent behavior ready to explain crime/delinquency with the help of individual abnormal behavior. Moreover, it was not only the underground youth which used the supplies of new consumer goods (clothes, beat, rock, and pop music, drugs, motorbikes, etc.) to create their personal lifestyles. This also became increasingly true for ‘normal’ young men and women.51 Moreover, during the mid1960s, the term society (Gesellschaft)52 gained the upper hand vis-à-vis community (Gemeinschaft) when it came to describing and analyzing the social order in West Germany. Because of this and owing to the discovery and the development of the underground, criminologists and police personnel were able to understand delinquency and criminality as a social problem. 3.2 Working-Class Youth Crime: The Rockers Working-class-based youth crime and the corresponding fears did not disappear in the 1960s. It was in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, or Essen in 1968/69 where the press, in particular the Bild-Zeitung, turned the Rockers into a public threat – into real folk devils. The interest that the Rockers garnered from the police and from the press lasted until the early 1970s.53 Rockers were seen as the tip of an iceberg of ever-increasing juvenile delinquency and violence.54 Press reports gave the impression that anybody could become the victim of the violent acts of the Rockers – anywhere, anytime.55 Thus, the Rockers’ case was an example of the breakthrough of the term violence when it came to describing and analyzing security and social order in these years.56 When the Hamburg police force checked their card files, it became evident that nearly two thirds of the Rockers were unskilled, many of them pursuing 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Hollstein 1981, 12. For the term “bricolage”, compare Hebdige 1979. Nolte 2000. The state of research on the Rockers is reviewed in Cremer 1992; for an analysis of the press in Essen, compare Adam 1972, 57-69; for a paradigmatic opinion poll, compare Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Behoerde fuer Inneres [Federal archive of the city of Hamburg, Office for domestic affairs], Infas Hamburg Report. Bad Godesberg, 1974, 824. See as an statistical overview Thome and Birkel 2007; for local details see Adam 1972, 6263. Der Spiegel 26, January 1, 1973, 8, 15 and 22; Konkret (1972) 13. See Cremer-Schaefer and Steinert 1998, 99-100, 117-122. 94 only odd jobs.57 Similar to the members of the underground, the Rockers did not meet in the traditional delinquent areas of the red light districts or in the city districts close to the ports. Instead their pubs were spread all over the city.58 Some Rockers lived in high-rise concrete-laden residential districts such as the Maerkisches Viertel in West Berlin.59 The Rockers imported the long hair of the contemporary dropouts into their rough working-class outfit, wore black leather jeans and jackets, heavy boots and later also rode motorbikes. They gave their groups names like “Bloody Devils”, “Hell’s Dogs”, “Black Souls” or “Hell’s Angels”.60 The Rockers showed off an aggressive pattern of masculinity with which they distinguished themselves from all current social tendencies, which they considered would lead towards softness and femininity. Therefore, Rockers often attacked homosexuals and disliked ‘soft’ hashish smokers.61 The Rockers of the late 1960s, who resembled the Halbstarke of the late 1950s only in a limited sense, were a working-class component of contemporary youth delinquency in Western Germany.62 Their provocative appearance owing to their rough and aggressive masculinity was reinforced by their usage of Nazi symbols. In the early 1970s, the big gangs of the Rockers dissolved and only small groups were left. Simultaneously the outfit of the Rockers began to change towards a more civilian disposition (Habitus). They wore leather vests, jackets with leather fringes, and jeans jackets with inscriptions. The Hamburg police approached this end of old certainties by ‘inventing’ a new group of juvenile delinquents. They were “outwardly totally inconspicuous in their group behavior and performance”; however, they were “threatening in a similar way” to the Rockers. Beginning in early 1972, this “Taetertyp nach ‘Rockerart’” (a quasiRockeresque perpetrator-type) was also labeled as “young violent offender” (Junge Gewalttaeter).63 This definition made it easy for the police to include all young delinquent boys and girls who wore ordinary clothes. As a consequence, the numbers of “young violent offenders” in Hamburg skyrocketed from 563 in 1971 up to 1,909 in 1972.64 This example underscores the close relationship between youth (culture) and youth delinquency,65 since the changes in the way of clothing led to this redefinition of youth crime. On the one hand, the ‘normal’ youth copied the leather clothing style of the Rockers. The clothing industry had made this 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Kreuzer 1970, 348. Simon 1997, 270. Homann 1969, 12-15. See Wolter 1973, 293. Compare Kreuzer 1970, 339, 352. For literature on Halbstarke see footnotes 19, 33 and 34. Wolter 1973, 294. Piesch 1975, 12. This is underlined by Trotha 1982. 95 style palatable to non-Rockers. On the other hand, Rockers apparently integrated new styles into their outfits. Even without Rockers, the threat of juvenile delinquency could be maintained by this widening of definition. Since the police decentralized the perspective on delinquency, its threat seemed to be omnipresent with deep roots in society. Even a friendly, normally-dressed boy next door could turn into a “young violent offender.” 4. Conclusion In the last third of the nineteenth century the perception of and fears about youth crime and youth violence were focused on easily discernable proletarian male youth (groups and individuals) who mostly lived in densely populated urban neighborhoods. If any severe troubles should occur in this social field, state authorities were convinced that the police (sometimes assisted by military troops) would meet these challenges successfully. In the last third of the twentieth century juvenile delinquency and youth violence became much more diffuse and was not so easy to locate in urban spaces. In West Germany during the 1960s and the 1970s there were two important changes in juvenile delinquency, in its perception, and in the related fears which influenced the search for security in a society which was felt to be changing ever faster. First, there was a double dissolution of boundaries (Entgrenzung) of youth crime. From the mid-1960s delinquent behavior was no longer concentrated in its traditional centers such as red light or port districts of the cities. At the same time, delinquency reached broader strata of society. The establishment of the international underground networks, in which drug users played an important role, was instrumental for this development. The early 1970s brought a second impulse for this end of certainties about the social and spatial aspects of youth crime. As the case of the Rockers has shown, from now on it was impossible to ascribe delinquency predominantly to abnormal individuals. Youth crime had become a potentially omnipresent phenomenon of everyday urban life. Thus the fight for security as a social value which tries to work against the contingency of time and against the uncertainty of the future gained unprecedented importance. Both time phases under consideration here mirrored changes in the urban setting of delinquency. In the last third of the nineteenth century the debates focused on the interaction of industrialization, urban growth and social life in overcrowded working class neighborhoods. The fears about crime of the 1960/1970s occurred against the background of radical changes in the built-up urban environment caused particularly by urban renewal with its focus on concrete high-rises and the redevelopment of city centers. 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Wolter, Hans Juergen. “Phaenomene und Behandlung des Rockertums.” Kriminalistik 27 (1973): 289-295. Zedner, Lucia. Security. London/New York: Routledge, 2009. Zimmermann, Eduard. Das unsichtbare Netz. Rapport fuer Freunde und Feinde. Munich: Südwest Verlag, 1969. 101 Human Security and the Challenge of Automobile and Road Traffic Safety: A Cultural Historical Perspective Achim Saupe Abstract: »Die UN-Agenda zur menschlichen Sicherheit und die Herausforderungen der Verkehrssicherheit aus kulturhistorischer Perspektive«. The worldwide enhancement of road traffic safety is one aspect of the UN agenda on “human security”. The article examines the history of road traffic safety and the development of automobile safety technologies since the mid twentieth century with a strong focus on West Germany. From a historical perspective there are two reasons why the UN agenda includes the enhancement of road traffic safety. Firstly the development of road traffic safety is a “success story” in industrialized countries even though there are still high death rates globally. Secondly, the enhancement of road safety is linked to advanced civil societies with all their stakeholders, and strengthening civil society is a key concern of the UN worldwide. Beyond that, automobility is a symbol of modernity. Discourses about automobile safety inform us about the conceptions and regulation of individual freedom and security in different societies. Moreover, new safety technologies such as the safety belt modify the interactions between human beings and machines and thus the idea of freedom, autonomy and responsibility. Keywords: automobility, road traffic safety; automobile safety; safety belt; individualization, autonomy; freedom. With the rise of the concept of human security, terms such as national security, internal and domestic security, social and economic security were fundamentally expanded. This expansion of security as an important political term and concept integrates new societal values into the political discourse about security.1 The human security agenda focuses on the global as well as the regional and integrates the protection of individuals, groups, and people. The UN program strengthens individual rights, while the rights of groups, ethnicities or nations and in this respect the sovereignty of states have ostensibly taken a back seat. The report “Our Global Neighborhood” of the Commission on Global Governance claims the protection of individuals as its main concern, and therefore new threats such as crimes, social distress, diseases, poverty, 1 Address all communications to: Achim Saupe, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF), Am Neuen Markt 1, 14467 Potsdam, Germany; e-mail: [email protected], <http://www.zzf-pdm.de>. Daase 2009, 150. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 102-121 unemployment, migration, drug traffic, and arms trade have entered the political agenda under one comprehensive heading.2 The “Commission on Human Security” concluded in its final report that “human security means protecting vital freedoms” and offers two strategies: “protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations”, and “empowering” people’s “strengths and aspirations”.3 Critics have argued that this new conceptualization of security […] is so vague that it verges on meaninglessness – and consequently offers little practical guidance to academics who might be interested in applying the concept, or to policymakers who must prioritize among competing policy goals.4 The rise of the concept of human security is often interpreted in the context of the rise of the discourse about individual human rights, which refers to an individualization, privatization and juridification of social relations in the second half of the twentieth century. The collective and individual rights to security were mentioned by the Charta of the United Nations of 1948 and became vital in the OSCE process. In the 1980s they were discussed in Germany by various political theorists such as Gerhard Robbers und Josef Isensee who demanded a fundamental “right to security”, which was in a way related to the American concept of “freedom from fear”, first mentioned in Theodor Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech in 1941.5 German critics swiftly responded, raising fears that such a fundamental right to security could include a considerable loss of freedom and constitutionality.6 As Zygmunt Bauman has remarked, the German terms Sicherheit and its antonym Unsicherheit in German are much more inclusive than “security” in English. Sicherheit manages to squeeze into a single term complex phenomena for which English has at least three terms: security, safety and certainty. Hence, the linguistic difference between safety from accidental events and security as a protection against intentional damages does not exist in the German language. Of course, in German there is “Sicherheit”, “Gewissheit” (certainty) and “Schutz” (protection), but the term “Sicherheit” integrates all of them. For Bauman, all these ingredients of “Sicherheit” are prerequisites of selfconfidence and self-reliance on which “the ability to think and act rationally depends”.7 With the overall inclusive concept of “human security”, the differences between “security” and “safety” seem to dissolve in the English-speaking world, too. 2 3 4 5 6 7 Commission 1995, 145. Commission on Human Security 2003, 1. Paris 2001, 102. Isensee 1983; Robbers 1987. Denninger 1990. The relation between the “human security” concept and “human rights” is critically discussed by, among others, Oberleitner 2002. Bauman 1999, 17. 103 Empowering people to live a secure life implies, at first glance, the idea of strengthening individual and collective responsibilities while simultaneously restricting the sovereignty of the national states. The worldwide enhancement of road traffic safety is one component of the UN agenda on “human security”. In the following article, I will reflect on the concept of “human security” by using the example of the development of automobile and road traffic safety since the mid-twentieth century with a strong focus on Germany. The discourse about automobile and road traffic safety is also linked to the interaction of stakeholders in advanced civil societies and developing countries (and the development of a “world society”) and the interactions of human beings and safety technologies. Therefore, finally, I will discuss the conception of the individual contained in contemporary discourses about automobility and the enhancement of road traffic safety. Road Traffic Security as World Politics As mentioned above, the human security paradigm includes a lot of aspects of security and safety right up to engineering standards and road traffic safety.8 The 1994 UN Human Development Report on “New Dimensions of Human Security” listed injuries from road accidents under the rubric “human distress in industrial countries”, and even mentioned road traffic noise as an indicator for (in)security: In industrial countries, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 15-30 – with some of the highest injury rates in Austria, Belgium, Canada and the United States. And in developing countries, traffic accidents account for at least 50% of total accidental deaths. The highway death toll in South Africa in 1993 was 10,000, three times the number of death from political violence.9 In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) focused on the theme of road safety in cooperation with the World Bank. In the same year the World Bank supported the Global Road Safety Forum (GRSF) in alliance with the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) – an important stakeholder of the automobile industry. In its 2004 report, WHO drew attention to the fact that road traffic collisions kill more than 1.2 million people a year around the world. As main traffic risks WHO mentioned speeding, alcohol, non-use of helmets, seat belts and other restraints, poor road design, poor enforcement of road safety regulations, unsafe vehicle design, and poor emergency health services. Therefore, World Health Day 2004 tried to advocate a “systems approach” to road safety, which took into consideration the key as8 9 Unesco 2008, 41. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 31-32. 104 pects of the system: the road user, the vehicle, and the infrastructure.10 This relates to a classical concept developed in the 1950s and 1960s, that road traffic accidents could be minimized by enforcement, education, and engineering. In general, since the 1960s and 1970s there has been a decrease in the numbers and rates of fatalities in “high-income” countries – a term defined by the World Bank.11 At the same time, there has been a pronounced rise in numbers and rates in many so-called “low-income” and “middle-income” countries.12 The case of reunification in Germany provides a good illustration of how economic factors can influence car crashes.13 After the reunification many people suddenly experienced a surge in affluence and access to previously unavailable cars and in the two following years, the number of cars that were bought and the total distance travelled by cars increased by over 40 percent. At the same time, there was a four-fold increase in death rates for car occupants, with an eleven-fold increase for those aged 18-20. The overall death rate in road crashes in this period nearly doubled, from 4 per 100,000 in 1989 to 8 per 100,000 in 1999. On the basis of this experience, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (“German Society for Technical Cooperation”, GTZ) supported international cooperation among various stakeholders in road safety projects and initiatives and helped to shape national strategy development processes from 2004.14 The Myth of the Car and the German Discourse about Automobile Safety Cars are more than a means of transportation. In 1956, David Riesman and Eric Larrabee argued that the symbolic meanings of automobiles overwhelmed instrumental meanings.15 Roland Barthes compared the representative car with a Gothic Cathedral, and Henri Lefebvre saw the car as a “magical” object, “a denizen of the land of make-believe”.16 A few years later in 1974, while the design of cars had become less representative and more functional, Ron Horvarth claimed that “the automobile may prove to be the single most significant innovation in American culture during the twentieth century”. For Horvath, the automobile was “so shrouded in myth and has so much symbolic meaning that we could call it our ‘sacred cow’”.17 Automobiles and automobility are still a 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WHO 2004. Cf. World Bank 2010. Yitambe et al. 2009. GTZ 2006. GTZ 2004. Riesman and Larrabee 1993. Barthes 1972, 88. Lefebvre 1971, 102. Horvath 1974, 168. 105 symbol of mobility, prosperity, freedom, and stand for the possibilities of modernity and development. Besides the enormous death rates from car accidents, this is possibly an important factor in understanding why UN and WHO agendas focus their particular interest on road traffic and car accidents: They represent in a way the obvious risks of modernization.18 In 2009, the German historian Eckart Conze characterized the history of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 2009 as a constant “search for security”.19 It has been argued that the 1950s and early 1960s were dominated by a discourse about national and social security, while the 1970s have been seen as the “decade of internal security” because of the political response to the terrorism of the Red Army Faction (RAF).20 In 1969 the German sociologist Franz Xaver Kaufmann described the rise of the semantics of security to a “normative concept”. Besides traditional fields of security policies – such as public security, national security, and social security (the latter was his main focus) – he emphasized the importance of technical safety. He differentiated between the safety of systems, operational reliability, and road traffic safety and built up many categories such as “instrumental safety”, “self-reflective safety”, and “autotelic safety”. For Kaufmann, technological safety and, in particular, road traffic safety and automobile safety was one of the most important factors which strengthened the normativity of the security paradigm in everyday life.21 Before the political concept of “internal security” was established in the domestic policies of the Federal Government in West Germany, the same term was used by car manufacturers and popularized by print media which commented on new developments in the automobile industry. The development of “internal safety” features in the car industry was part of a “safety race” in the last few decades, in which regulatory administrations, car and insurance companies, and road users were all involved.22 18 19 20 21 22 At the same time, the number of deaths in car accidents was always an argument used to put other societal risks into perspective: Thus the historian Keith R. Jackson observed that since 1976, “more Americans have died on the road than in all the wars of the history of the United States combined” and calculated that the “500,000 young men on the desert sand, about 100 of whom died in pushing the Iraqi Army back to its own boundaries, were actually safer than if they had been at home, where a statistically larger number of them would have died accidental deaths, mostly in automobile crashes.”, in: Jackson 2006. And the expert for internet security Bruce Schneier, who was called a “security guru” by the press, relativized the risk of becoming a victim of a terrorist attack with the same argument. Schneier 2003, 28-30. Conze 2009. Braun 1978. Funk and Werkentin 1977. Kaufmann 1973, 49-90. MacGregor 2009. Several studies draw attention on the history of automobile safety technologies. Cf. Niemann 1999; Weishaupt 1999. From a more cultural-historical point of view, Norbert Stieniczka showed that after the Second World War the German discourse on automobile safety was structured by the dispositive of the “disciplined road user”. Later in 106 Since the 1950s, the number of car accidents increased in West Germany as in other industrialized countries, and safety experts had to develop new safety technologies and new societal strategies to prevent road traffic risks. This led to new definitions of automobile technical safety in the mid-1960s. Safety experts now focused not only on the causes of car accidents, but also on the consequences of car accidents in order to reduce the effects of a crash. Therefore, German car manufacturers differentiated between “external security” and “internal security”. With the rise of the term “internal security” as a political key concept in the fight against crime and terrorism in the 1970s, car manufacturers ceased to use this concept. Automobile safety experts in Germany began to use the terms “primary” and “secondary”, and in particular “active” and “passive” safety as was customary in the English-speaking world.23 In the course of mass motorization after World War II the death rates on West German streets increased nearly as much as the number of new registered vehicles. In 1951, when the Federal Motor Transport Authority was founded to manage the Central Vehicle Register, the Central Register of Traffic Offenders, and the Central Register of Driving Licences, Federal Minister for Transportation Hans-Christoph Seebohm (DP/CDU) remarked in a speech about the fight against road traffic offenders: “We have to be in a position to eliminate from our roads those vermin which hamper the flow of traffic and continually threaten to involve respectable drivers in accidents.” 24 This rhetoric to protect a Volksgemeinschaft (“people’s community”) of drivers went hand in hand with a strengthening of “individual responsibility and self-discipline”.25 This stood in contrast to the liberal automobile and road traffic policy. In 1952, all existing speed limits were abolished, even, and against all reason, in the inner cities. During the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”) the automobile was not only a symbol of new prosperity, but also of freedom which was understood in an anti-totalitarian way. On the one hand, these policies intended to emancipate the citizens from the paternalism of the traditional German authoritarian state, on the other hand there were new instruments for the control of road traffic such as the Traffic Registers. The abolition of all speed limits led to a rapid increase in the number of accidental deaths, and in 1958 inner-city tempo limits were reintroduced. 23 24 25 the 1970s, the idea of the “representative sports car” was broadened and the automobile industry developed the “foolproof automobile”. This “foolproof automobile” reduced driving risks through the implementation of new safety technologies. See Stieniczka 2006, 23. It is not very surprising that in the United States, car manufacturers did not use the term “internal security”, because it could have been connoted with the “Internal Security Act” of 1950 and the persecution of Communists in American society. “Bundesverkehrwacht, ADAC und Sicherheit der Straße” 1951, 7. Klenke 1994, 158. 107 In the debates about the control of road traffic and the improvement of road traffic safety, the experience of National Socialism was an ambivalent discursive point of reference. On the one hand, German highways were propagandized by the Nazis as National Socialist modernization.26 On the other hand, National Socialist road traffic policies began in 1934 with the general abolition of speed limits, but they were reintroduced on the eve of World War II: in May 1939 for motor trucks and then in October for all automobiles. In order to save resources needed for the war, high speed on German roads was now judged to be “unnationalsozialistisch”. From the 1950s onwards as a part of an “ideology of free automobility”, the tightening of road traffic regulations and the fight against road traffic offenders, road traffic controls and fixed speed limits were discredited with reference to “Gestapo methods”, “blind obedience” or “the steerable masses”.27 In 1960 this led the German sociologist Rudolf Gunzert to remark, during a hot debate about speed limits at Whitsun, that the West German citizens would “give up fundamental democratic rights without too much objection”, while a speed limit “would cause them to practically mount the barricades”.28 Nevertheless, the concept of the “disciplined road traffic user” and the antitotalitarian ideology of the “freedom to drive” went hand in hand. Up to the 1960s, many participants of the debate were convinced that automobile accidents were caused by black sheep and were not a consequence of increasing automobility. The campaign “Free speed for free citizens” (Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger) was promoted by Germany’s largest automobile club (ADAC) in 1974 in the aftermath of the oil crisis as a provocative answer to the speed limits on federal highways and traffic-free Sundays. This once more made visible that automobilism was linked with a liberal concept of freedom. In the end, the campaign of the German automobile club was successful and mandatory limits were lifted and replaced with an advisory limit of 130 kilometers per hour. While the discussion about a mandatory speed limit returned from time to time in the following years, even at the end of the 1970s the arguments against speed limits still drew on Nazism. As the news magazine Der Spiegel wrote, “with the end of the Nazi regime came the end of the period of speed limits on German highways”.29 The Enhancement of “Passive Safety” In the meantime, the car industry enhanced the “internal” and, in particular, the “passive” safety of cars in response to growing public interest. The “passive 26 27 28 29 Schütz and Gruber 1996. Klenke 1994, 158-159. Gunzert 1960, 326. “Neue Glaubenskrise ums Tempo-Limit,” Der Spiegel 26/1979, 20. 108 safety” included a safety cage with two crumple zones, at the front and back, patented by Daimler-Benz engineer Béla Barény in 1951, a padded dashboard, shock absorbing bumpers, burst-proof door locks, safety glass windscreens, snap-off mirrors, flush-mounted switches and mirrors, head restraints to prevent whiplash, a collapsible steering column, side impact bars, and (in the early 1980s) airbags. One of the most important new passive safety technologies was the invention of the safety belt. After 1955, Ford and Chrysler offered seat belts as optional extras, and from 1957 onwards, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz equipped some of their production series with lap belts. In the same year, Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt, and from 1959 in cars the three-point safety belt became standard equipment in Volvos. In 1961, 70 percent of newly registered cars in Sweden were fitted with front seat belts. In the United States, the insurance company Liberty Mutual Insurance financed the construction of the “Liberty Safety Car” by the Aeronautical Laboratory of Cornell University in 1955. One year later, Ford tried to sell its “Fairlane Sedan” on the basis of its new safety features and launched the first safetyled automobile advertising campaign with the slogan: “You’ll be safer in a ’56 Ford!” In Ford showrooms, photographs were presented that claimed to show that passengers in a new Ford were more likely to survive an accident than those who travelled in a Chevrolet.30 The campaign, which presented photographs of car accidents to potential car buyers, failed. Between 1961 and 1966 the number of annual traffic deaths jumped from 38,000 to 53,000 in the United States, a 38 percent increase. In 1965, Ralph Nader’s book “Unsafe at any speed”31 and the consumer movement surrounding it – such as the “Center for Auto Safety” (1970) and “Public Citizen” (1971) – brought public criticism to bear on General Motors and other manufacturers, forcing them to pay more attention to traffic safety. Discussing safety was a long-held taboo in car industry, and Stan Luger has argued that this remained so until the 1990s.32 Lee Iacocca, a top manager of Ford in the 1960s, was cited in the publication “Safety Last: An Indictment of the Auto Industry”: “Styling cars sells cars but safety does not.”33 In the same year that Ralph Nader’s publication appeared, the General Service Administration (GSA) established safety standards for governmentpurchased cars following a five-year-long debate about this topic and after some federal states had launched initiatives to enhance automobile safety.34 The National Highway Safety Act and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle 30 31 32 33 34 Stevenson 2008, 193-196. Nader 1965. Luger 2000. O’Connell and Myers 1966. At the beginning of the 1970s this was still an argument of German car manufacturers; see for this the interview with VW manager K. Lotz: “Sicherheit verkauft sich schlecht,” Der Spiegel 43/1970, 252. Luger 2000, 66-68. 109 Safety Act established the role of federal government in auto safety and “brought to an end the auto industry’s long-held political hegemony” in the United States.35 New regulations were controlled by the Department of Transportation, which was set up in 1966 to ensure “a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future”.36 The American automobile industry was well prepared for these government measures, which can hardly be described as far-reaching. Seat belts were standard equipment in all Buicks from 1964, and an advertisement in 1966 told consumers: “Use them.” Other advertisements followed this new strategy of mentioning new passive security items which were built into the cars of the 1960s. Ford offered in its 1966 Thunderbird an “overhead safety convenience panel” of control switches and warning lights, into which a seat belt warning light was built. This had aeronautical connotations and anticipated a technological development in which cars would “communicate” with the driver to uphold safety. From the 1960s onwards, debates about automobile safety in the United States have been conducted along an ideological divide. One side has argued that individual drivers must take precautions to ensure their own safety. This was the widespread opinion of the powerful economic lobby of the automobile industry which insisted that automobile safety could not significantly rise unless motorists actively cooperated. Those on the other side of the argument – safety activists, insurance companies and government officials – maintained that the public would never behave properly and that therefore “technical fixes must be developed and mandated to decrease the risk of driving” while auto makers should accept their responsibilities.37 Throughout the 1970s seat belt use in the US remained between 3 percent and 10 percent and increased when, beginning with New York in 1984, federal states adopted mandatory seat belt laws. By 1994, seat belt usage had increased to 73 percent, but even in 2008 seat belt usage in the United States had still not topped 75 percent.38 These new American safety standards had an impact upon export nations such as the Federal Republic of Germany and its car industry, bringing with them an “Americanization” of German business policies.39 As in the United States, West Germany’s critical press argued that the automobile industry was avoiding the installation of relatively expensive new safety technologies. In 35 36 37 38 39 Luger 2000, 74. Taken from the Department of Transportation “Mission & History”: <http://www.dot.gov/ mission.htm> (accessed June 19, 2010). Wetmore 2009, 111. Also: Irwin 1985, 227. Wetmore, “Implementing Restraint”, 117. Cf. Hilger 2004. 110 1970, there was a turning point in West Germany. Official statistics counted 1.4 million traffic accidents and 500,000 injuries, while 21,332 persons died in road traffic accidents.40 Since then, the absolute numbers of traffic accidents dropped owing to the introduction of speed limits on ordinary highways in 1972 and a year later on federal highways in response to the oil crisis, the establishment of alcohol limits in July 1973, and the compulsory wearing of helmets for motorcyclists in 1980. This was coupled with a lower rate of newly registered cars, the extension of highways, and last but not least new safety standards.41 In 1971, the news magazine Der Spiegel demanded “days without dead people”, the introduction of a “safe vehicle” in which individuals could “survive the crash”.42 Three years later Der Spiegel wrote about the “motorized world war on the streets” and demanded the installation of airbags in cars, which the car industry appeared to be resisting.43 At the beginning of 1976 the West German government implemented a law for mandatory seat belt use, although those breaking this law were not subject to prosecution at first. The mandatory seat belt use led to a heated debate among safety engineers, health and legal professionals, politicians, journalists, and drivers who were both for and against the seat belt and disagreed whether the seat belt was a “life-saver” or a “shackle”.44 The legal obligation to wear a seat belt was commented by Der Spiegel in 1976 with a front page headline “Bound to the car”. This was a reaction to widespread fears about not being able to free oneself in the case of an accident. A year earlier, the same news magazine posed the question whether “the liberal state should be allowed to coerce the car-citizen into surviving”45 – which might have awakened associations with the contemporaneous debate about the forced feeding of RAF terrorists on hunger strike. In the course of the debate critics denounced the mandatory seat belt use as “state-decreed suicide”.46 The Federal Government reacted to these reservations against seat belt use with a nationwide campaign “click: first belt up, then drive”, which promoted seat belt use with numerous ads in magazines and posters on German high40 41 42 43 44 45 46 The relative numbers in relation to newly registered cars and individual distance had dropped since the invention of the automobile. König 2010, 218. In the years after 1970 the number of traffic deaths dropped more or less continuously (as mentioned with the exception of the years after reunification), and by 2008 4,467 traffic deaths were counted in 2.2 million road traffic accidents, the lowest rate since 1950. “Sicherheitsautos: Für Tage ohne Tote,” Der Spiegel 34/1971, 86-104. See also the publication of the German theologian Klaus-Peter Jörns from 1992: “Krieg auf unseren Straßen. Die Menschenopfer der automobilen Gesellschaft” (“War on Our Streets. Human Sacrifices of the automobile society”). Beckmann 2004. “Sicherheitsgurte. Furcht vor der Fessel,” Der Spiegel 50/1975, 40-52, 40. “Das ist eine Art Todesurteil. Spiegel-Interview mit dem Stuttgarter Verkehrsrichter Hans Kindermann über die Anschnallpflicht,” Der Spiegel 35/1982, 100-101. 111 ways. But it took until 1984, when fining for non-seat belt users was adopted, for seat belt use to increase from 60 to 90 percent. Nevertheless, the introduction of fines did not stop an obstinate judge from acquitting a “belt grouch” (“Gurtmuffel”) with the comment that the freedom not to use the seat belt distinguished a citizen from a subject.47 Road Traffic Safety as Mass Education and the Changes to Car Safety in Commercials Since the early years of automobility, measures to improve road traffic safety went hand in hand with road traffic education. Since the 1960s, television programs about road traffic safety became commonplace. In Germany, between 1966 and 2005 public television aired the weekly program Der siebte Sinn (“The Seventh Sense”) which confronted the viewing public with road traffic dangers and gave advice about how to reduce the risks of automobility. British television broadcast public information films from 1971 onwards that promoted the use of seat belts with the catchphrase “Clunk, click, every trip!” presented by the media personality Jimmy Savile. In the United States organizations such as “Traffic Safety Now”, an organization of some thirty safety organizations, lobbied state governments from the 1980s for mandatory seat belt use laws and promoted seat belt use in brochures, in elementary schools, in educational programs with police officers, and public service announcements. In 1985, the US Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council created a television commercial with Vince and Larry, known as “The Crash Test Dummies”, who demonstrated what could happen when a person did not wear a seat belt. Unlike humans who die or become crippled in real crashes, Vince and Larry dusted themselves off after each crash and lived to joke another day. In 1999, Vince and Larry were retired along with their campaign slogan “you could learn a lot from a dummy” when the Department of Transportation revised the campaign and a new slogan simply advised “Buckle Up. Always.” Technically, the improvement of automobile safety was also a result of the scientific simulation of accidents. In the 1960s the automobile industry began to use crash tests to do research on the consequences of automobile accidents for vehicle occupants using crash test dummies developed in the military aircraft industry. With the technical perfection of crash test dummies in the 1980s, safety engineers abandoned the use of dead bodies to develop new automobile safety measures. Crash tests and their illustrations in magazine articles and TV reports mass-produced accidents, making them appear less like chance events.48 47 48 Sternsdorff 1985. Cf. Virilio 2009, 7-8. 112 The accident was no longer something improbable since the accident had become a statistical and recursive quantity.49 From the 1970s, the crash test results as well as their illustrations belonged to the common evaluation criteria of public car magazines like Auto, Motor und Sport and ADAC Motorwelt which were more and more concerned with the problem of automobile safety. Meanwhile, West German political parties promised comprehensive national and social security in their electoral campaigns in the 1950s. After the 1957 elections, in which the Social Democratic Party used the slogan “security for all”, Mercedes-Benz promoted its cars with the slogan “safety accompanies you”. The ad showed a Mercedes star, which led the way over a dark and wet gleaming cobbled street. The iconography of the advertisement created a film noir atmosphere as well as connoting the compass rose motif in the NATO flag.50 While the brand symbolized total safety and security in this advertisement in 1965, at the time Ralph Nader formulated his vigorous critique of safety standards in the automobile industry, Mercedes-Benz’s commercial experts were forced to take a more differentiated approach: Often it is said: Don’t talk about security, it is a dangerous topic. Why? Because there is no such thing as absolute safety? Because even the safest car is driven by humans who have different temperaments and react differently? No, this is not a reason for us to avoid the topic. On the contrary, you have the right to know how safe an automobile can be and what the manufacturers of motor vehicles can contribute.51 Twenty years later, such caution about the question of automobile safety no longer existed. By 1984 Volvo Germany was promoting its vehicles with the slogan “safety at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour” and linked speed with safety. In a way, this was a prelude to Ulrich Beck’s study on the “risk society” and his theory of self-generated risks at the heart of a self-reflexive “second modernity”.52 This development towards a risk society allowed advertising campaigns to use pictures of simulated and controlled car crashes. In 1994 there was a campaign featuring a crashed Mercedes-Benz S-Class, renowned for its length. The ad asserted that the vehicle would also convince in the crashed “short version”. Advertising with crash test pictures was formerly unthinkable, but in the 1990s it reached the marketing strategists. In another more recent advertisement, car manufacturer Peugeot used the slogan “more fun with safety” just as Opel did for its “Astra”. In 2009 Fiat presented a crash test picture of a damaged Fiat 500 with a panda at the wheel, using the catchphrase: “engineered for a lower impact on the environment”. Here, safety and 49 50 51 52 Bickenbach 2009. NATO was founded two years before in 1955. “Mercedes Benz nimmt Stellung zu einer aktuellen Fragen der Autofahrer von heute”, 1965, cited in Sproß 1999, 95. Beck 1992. 113 environmental aspects were combined. And in 2008, an advertising agency headlined a co-campaign for Mercedes-Benz and the Dutch Cancer Society, which decided to no longer advise women to perform monthly breast selfexaminations with the words: “some tests you’re better off not doing yourself”.53 In recent decades, crash test pictures have formed our view of damages caused by road traffic accidents in a stereotypical manner, playing down the still existing risks of driving, reducing the image of a fatal accident to a harmless fender bender. Therefore, the risks of road traffic and automobility are nowadays not only a matter for state legislators, insurance companies and safety engineers; we are visually insured against accidents in the images that surround us. Morality in the Age of Safety Technologies The French philosopher of technology Bruno Latour has argued that artifacts – and in particular the safety belt – are bearers of morality as they constantly help people to make all kinds of moral decisions. In this understanding, safety techniques are “techniques of morality”.54 In 1977, the Carter administration mandated that by 1983 every new car should have either airbags or automatic seat belts that closed over vehicle occupants when they closed the car door, despite strong lobbying from the auto industry. When driver-side airbags became mandatory in all passenger vehicles in 1994, the automatic seat belt was abolished. Nowadays, many cars produce an irritating sound to remind the driver to use the safety belt. For Latour, such technical equipment embodies morality because the decision to wear a safety belt is not made exclusively by the driver, but also by the car. With the technology of the seat belt, the saying “never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly” no longer applies. As Latour puts it: The driver may become more careless, the car more intelligent. What one loses, the other gains. Each learns to live with the other: the belt needs a human being to put it in place and to take it off, the human being learns to live ‘on probation’ without making abrupt movements. Drivers no longer have to try to restrain themselves in case of sudden braking, the seat belt does it for them, but they retain the supreme freedom: to engage or disengage the guardian angel.”55 53 54 55 Available online under <http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/pink-ribbon-some -tests-youre-better-off-not-doing-yourself-204950/> (accessed 19.6.2010). Latour 1996. Cited from the unpublished translation by Lydia Evans, “The moral dilemmas of the Safety-belt”, http://www.bruno-latour.fr/poparticles/poparticle/P-31-MORAL-SEAT -BELT-GB.pdf (accessed 19.6.2010). Ibid., 4. 114 In 1973 the novelist James Graham Ballard wrote his famous novel Crash, which was made into a movie directed by David Cronenberg. For Ballard the car driver lives within a “huge metallized dream” that includes “speed, drama and aggression, the worlds of advertising and consumer goods, engineering and mass manufacture, and the shared experience of moving together through an elaborately signaled landscape”.56 For Ballard, the century of the automobile created a culture of death, and the only way out for Ballard “would be to dehumanize driving with electronically controlled cars and traffic flow”.57 This vision would be the end of traditional “autonomy” in automobility, and in a way it has become true. In 1978, advanced braking system (ABS) was pioneered and the electronic stability control (ECS) was developed in the 1990s to “assist” the driver to keep the vehicle under control in critical maneuvering situations. With these new developments the driver’s domination over technology was not called into question, with car sellers emphasizing not without reason that these technologies “assist” the driver rather than “governing” the driver. Intelligent navigation-based speed control amplified the tendency to delegate the control of the car to the technology and developments such as advance collision warning, automatic braking and lane departure warning systems that assist drivers to avoid accidents and are said to reduce injuries have actually come into use.58 A further technological innovation was the development of driverless cars by the research project “Eureka-Prometheus” (Programme for a European Traffic of Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety), financed by the European Community in the years from 1987 to 1995. The pivotal idea of the research project was to reduce the human factor, such as “a limited field of vision, lack of experience, uncertainty, deficiencies, limited faculty in information processing and in the manner of reaction”.59 The electronically controlled vehicle “VaMP” achieved a distance of 158 kilometers without human intervention (on average, however, human intervention was required once every nine kilometers). In 2001, the German Federal Ministry of Transport proclaimed that “the final decision and responsibility in the system human-machine-environment has to rest in the hands of the road traffic user” and that “external control which could not be influenced by the driver” were not desirable.60 A similar argument was formulated by a management board member for research and technology at Daimler-Benz, who remarked in 2002 that “cars nowadays integrate much computing power, whereas the pleasure of driving still remains – because that’s what customers want.” Additionally, he noted that nobody knows today 56 57 58 59 60 Cited by Wollen 2002, 16. Featherstone 2004, 16. See Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2008. Cited in Stieniczka 2006, 337. Bundesministerium für Verkehr 2001, 21. 115 whether motorists in 50 years’ time will want to be driven by remote control – something that very few desire today.61 However, new technological safety solutions delegate control tasks from the human being to the technology and, therefore, some critical commentators have argued that we have to conceptualize the driver as a “cyborg” or a “car-driverhybrid”: The interplay between car and actor is no longer “merely in the hands of the driver”, and new smart cars “eliminate any sort of independence that was assigned to earlier stages of automobility”.62 Conclusion Up to the beginning of the 1970s the car industry and its managers often argued that “safety doesn’t sell”, not least because they wanted to avoid having to equip cars with relatively expensive new safety technologies. Increasingly, car safety was constructed as a positive quality in a similar way to motor performance and nowadays efficiency. New safety features were optional extras and regarded as attributes of social distinction – until they became, in part, standard equipment. In recent years, car safety has become a key concern of the car industry, and now “safety has to be there because cars don’t sell on price alone”, as the American economic journalist Joseph R. Perone wrote.63 Today, security and safety are not only guaranteed by states and governments. While governments formerly legitimized themselves on the basis that they were there to establish “public tranquility, security and order” and subsequently national and social security, between the 1970s and the 1990s security and safety were discovered as commodities by the private sector. This “marketorientated privatization of security”64 has led to a private service sector for security, in which the car industry is only one obvious example. In West Germany the international trade fair “Safety 1974” for security technologies took place for the first time in 1974 and expanded in the following years. Contemporary history of automobility and road traffic safety reveals that there has been a change from a discourse about road traffic safety conducted in terms of security, freedom, mobility and autonomy (often understood as the naïve pleasure of driving and individual mobility) to a pragmatic discourse about the dynamic relations between safety and risks that are socially and technologically controlled. The implementation of new safety standards is additionally part of a strong narrative about the rise of (global) civil society and the negotiation processes between its various stakeholders: consumer pressure 61 62 63 64 Abele 2002. Beckmann 2004, 87-89. Schmucki 1999. Cited in MacGregor 2009, 103. Weinhauer 2007, 218. 116 groups, the media, insurance companies, government officials, and lobbyists from the automobile industry. The implementation of the seat belt and the improvement of seat belt use illustrate different attitudes to civil liberties, different concepts of social engineering and different roads to a modern civil society. In the United States, national authorities passed controversial bills to strengthen the responsibility of the car industry and to enhance the implementation of technical safety while preventing laws for mandatory seat belt use for a long time. In West Germany, in the course of an “Americanization” of German business policies the compulsory installation of seat belts was out of question; authorities passed controversial bills to force individuals to fasten their seat belts while preserving at the same time the “freedom of speed”. The development of passive safety technologies indicates that there has been a change in the conception of the relation between human beings and the technology. The development of the human-machine-system has shown that the control of technology by the individual has been replaced by the “assistance” of the individual driver by technology. Of course, the popular visions of a future in which humans are entirely governed and controlled by technology have not yet become true, but autonomy in the age of automobility has changed. The discourse about the “disciplined road traffic user” and the “responsible road traffic user” has come to an end. In addition to governmental sanctions such as driving bans and other punishments against road traffic offenders there are new technological possibilities controlling the drivers’ behavior nowadays, such as the development of smart cars or radar controls on public streets, which are indicated in advance. The UN program of “human security” is an expression of a shift in the semantics and the political dimensions of security and safety and has itself changed because it strengthens at first glance the role of individuals, their rights and their responsibility in comparison to national governments and their mandate to protect social groups and the individual. Of course, the rather vague concept of “human security” includes the development of road traffic safety. Firstly, the death toll is still a problem in high-income countries and indeed a serious problem in developing countries and societies. Secondly, the experience in high-income countries with road traffic safety exemplifies the fact that risks of modernization can be reduced. Thirdly, the enhancement of road traffic safety is linked to the strengthening of civil society with all their stakeholders. Fourthly, and of interest for further study, the idea of the individual and therefore the idea of autonomy in the age of automobility and new passive safety technologies have changed considerably. Individuals are no longer in full control of themselves and therefore no longer subjects of discipline, and they are no longer understood as dominating over nature and technology. Individuals are instead an integral part of a complex social and technological “insurance culture” in which they are encouraged to take part. 117 References Printed Sources Rüdiger Abele, “Der Computer kennt keine Schrecksekunde”, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 2, 2002. Bundesministerium für Verkehr-, Bau- und Wohnungswesen. Programm für mehr Sicherheit im Straßenverkehr, Berlin, 2001. “Bundesverkehrwacht, ADAC und Sicherheit der Straße”, in ADAC-Motorwelt 7, 1951. 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London: Reaction Books, 2002. Yitambe, Andre et al. “Road Traffic Accidents as an everyday hazard.” In Disaster risk reduction: Cases from urban Africa, edited by Mark Pelling and Benjamin Wisner, 87-104. London: Earthscan, 2009. 121 Special Issue The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte PIRATES AND SECURITY OF THE SEAS No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 The North European Way of Ransoming: Explorations into an Unknown Dimension of the Early Modern Welfare State Magnus Ressel Abstract: »Die nordeuropäische Art des Gefangenenfreikaufs: Eine unbekannte Dimension des frühmodernen Wohlfahrtsstaates«. This article is concerned with distinctly “confessional” characteristics in the organization of buying back captured sailors out of Northern Africa. The history and ways of slave redemption of Hamburg, Lubeck, the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway and the Netherlands are presented, analyzed and compared. As a result it is possible to distinguish the comparatively prominent role that centralized, bureaucratized and governmentally administered institutions played in the ransoming business of the Lutheran world. Keywords: white slavery, captivity, Barbary corsairs, welfare state, confessional mentality, imagined empathy. Introduction When in 1994, with the United Nations Development Report, the concept of “human security” was introduced into political discourse, the concept was exemplified in somewhat solemn words: In the final analysis, human security is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced. Human security is not a concern with weapons – it is a concern with human life and dignity.1 The most important change that the concept of “human security” is expected to bring is the departure from a narrow perspective of security. It is meant as a global and people-centered security concept that is expressly set in contrast to the traditional focus on state security.2 Even though the concept is clearly meant to be used for problems of our time, the universal aim of prevention of human suffering as the ultimate goal is certainly not a novelty in itself. This is 1 2 Address all communications to: Magnus Ressel, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Juniorprofessur Umweltgeschichte, 44801 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Human Development Report 1994, 22. Human Development Report 1994, 23. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 125-147 acknowledged by important authors on “human security”, who see this concept as being rooted in history with its origins going back to Greek antiquity.3 For a historian it is tempting to elaborate on this point and to look more deeply at the historical dimension of “human security”, i.e. the origins and the development of the emphasis on the individual’s rights. One contribution was made in 2007, when the historian Lynn Hunt argued that the reason why human rights gained such importance in the 18th century was a growing “imagined empathy” of large parts of the society for suffering individuals, a development that she sees at this time as peculiar to the Western world.4 The equality of human beings was stressed more and more and as a consequence, the state and other institutions were increasingly regarded as providers and protectors of these rights. The idea of “imagined empathy” has not yet gained widespread currency and its connection with an increasing insistence on basic human rights is rarely found in the existing literature. At this point, the concept of “imagined empathy” therefore remains vague and unspecific. It is here that this article aims to contribute. I will try to exemplify the phenomenon of “imagined empathy” with a certain subject within to a certain subject in history and try to connect it to a directly related “production of human security”. In order to do so, a definition is needed beforehand: Wherever we see in history a phenomenon where suffering of individuals leads towards recognizable actions of large group-systems with the goal of reducing or removing the origins of this suffering, we may speak of a form of “production of human security” avant la lettre. With this definition at hand, “imagined empathy” becomes specifiable in the concrete modes of security production for individuals organized by larger groups. In the following article I will try to give an example of this by examining a very specific form of “production of human security” and connecting it with the mentality of distinguishable groupsystems. I. The Problems of the Barbary Corsairs for Northern Europe For over 300 years (roughly ~1520-1830), the so-called “Barbary pirates”, Muslim corsairs operating from the present-day Maghreb states, cruised in the waters of Southern Europe and posed a serious danger towards Christian Europe. The ships of all European nations came under threat as soon as they operated in a zone comprising the entire Mediterranean and the Atlantic, within a sector that reached from Cape Finisterre in the north to the Canary Islands in the south-west. Because the southbound ships of Northern Europe were usually 3 4 MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 19-60. Hunt 2007, 32-69. 126 the largest of their time, carrying a cargo of great value and making exchanges between two distinct geographical zones, the profitability of this branch of shipping was exceptionally high. Therefore, many merchants of all nations were attracted and consequently had to deal with the problem of the Muslim corsairs. One of the most pressing aspects of this conflict for contemporaries was the high number of Europeans who found themselves imprisoned in Northern Africa. A flood of letters pleading for rescue emanated from Northern African cities and found its way to concerned relatives in all parts of Europe. These letters and actively petitioning relatives were a heavy burden on the conscience of the merchants and the governmental authorities, both of whom benefited most from the trade with Southern Europe. During the Early Modern epoch, all important continental Northern nations were at some time heavily involved in long-distance trade with Southern Europe. The two most prominent Early Modern German harbor cities, Hamburg and Lubeck, began to conduct this trade in large quantities in the last third of the 16th century. The northern Netherlands were able to inherit the rich trade connections of Flanders and Brabant after the beginning of the Dutch revolt and after 1590 began to appear in great numbers in the Mediterranean. Denmark, in contrast, did not organize a trade beyond Cape Finisterre on a considerable scale before the beginning of the 18th century, but was then quickly able to catch up with its competitors.5 The two Hanseatic cities, the Netherlands and Denmark consequently all had to deal with the problem of incarceration of their sailors in Northern Africa. In the following, I will elaborate on the reactions this problem triggered in Northern Europe and try to connect the findings with confessional characteristics. Put more abstractly: The relation between a confessional mentality and its embedding in institutions charged with a specific production of human security are the main subject of this article. I will argue that the answer to the question “Why did states dominated by the Lutheran or Calvinist creed react towards this problem in the specific way they did?” can give us profound insights into the “imagined empathy” of the respective confessions. In order to make this claim, I will follow a step-by-step approach. First, I will briefly present an overview of the history of Catholic ransoming. Then, I will describe the discourse and practice of ransoming in the Hanseatic cities, Denmark and the Netherlands but with the important reservation that I will only look at the most important level of this business, the governmental layer.6 Finally, I will inter- 5 6 For an overview of the southern trade of the Hanseatic cities see: Beutin 1933, 1-58. For Denmark see: Degn and Gøbel 1997, 130-141. For the Netherlands see: Bruijn 1977. Below the governmental level we find all over Europe a wide array of brotherhoods or local institutions pledged to this business, which shall not be regarded here. 127 pret the findings with the help of current research in the sociology of welfare states and try to put the entire business of ransom into a broader perspective. II. The Origins and Practice of Ransoming in the Mediterranean With the intensification of the “petite guerre”7 between Muslims and Christians during the 16th century, the numbers of captives in Northern Africa swelled to disproportionate sizes.8 Even if the number of 1.25 million Christian slaves in the Barbary states which a historian has put forward9 may be “fantasmatique”10, the great dimensions of this problem for the Mediterranean world cannot be doubted. With the foundation of the “Santa Casa della Redenzione dei Cattivi” in Naples in 1548, the state stepped in for the first time on the Italian peninsula to organize the ransoming independently from the religious orders. Soon, the other important Italian territorial states followed suit and founded governmentally controlled bodies to organize the ransoming of their own nationals. Venice gave its “Provveditori sopra Ospedali e Luoghi Pii” the control of ransoming in 158611 and Genoa opened its “Magistrato per il riscatto degli Schiavi” in 159712; other Italian states did the same in the second half of the 16th century.13 In Spain, in contrast, the Trinitarians were able to dominate the ransoming throughout the Early Modern Era.14 One of the most eminent historians on the Barbary corsairs, Salvatore Bono, thus distinguishes between two Catholic ways of ransoming: The monastic orders operated in the larger Catholic monarchies and the Case di redenzione worked “quasi esclusivamente” in Italy.15 What were the main features of these two models? In both cases, the incomes derived not from obligatory duties, but from donations or bequests collected by clerics of the Catholic Church. Operating on a grand scale with close proximity to the field of action, these institutions seem to have been rather professional at conducting their business. Yet, whereas a Casa di redenzione operated directly on behalf of the home state, the orders retained more independence in their ransoming activities. At the moment, it seems that the orders were the more effective ransomers within the Mediterranean. Even if the number of over 100,000 redeemed captives, which a historian has put forward for 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Panzac 2009, 55. Heers 2001, 246. Davis 2001. Panzac 2009, 129-140. He arrives at the number of 180,000 white slaves in the period from 1574-1644. Davis 2002, 456. Lucchini 1990. Davis 2003, 150. Friedman 1983. Bono 1993, 204. 128 the Trinitarians,16 might be exaggerated, their efficacy of ransoming cannot be doubted. However, this large number cannot conceal the great problems that the Catholic world had in ransoming their brethren. From a detailed study of four ransoming missions from 1660-1666, we learn that the average duration of captivity of a Catholic in Northern Africa was, due to lack of funds, four to five years.17 III. The Governmental Institutions of Ransom in the Cities of Hamburg and Lubeck The weakness or often total absence of orders in the Protestant world after the Reformation forestalled the activity of redemptionist orders in Northern Europe. Alms-collecting by relatives of the captives to finance the ransom was the obvious recourse of which we have the first notice in the year 1547 in the city of Danzig.18 For the following 70 years, this was the usual recourse in the entire northern German world. It sufficed as long as the numbers of captives remained small. After the beginning of the Dutch uprising against their Spanish overlords in 1568, however, the southbound trade of Lubeck and Hamburg soared. Thus, in the last third of the 16th century, for the first time large numbers of Germans found themselves caught in Northern Africa. The problem got out of hand in the last decade of the 16th century when alms-collecting no longer proved adequate to buy the large numbers of captives back. The average duration of captivity grew longer, the number of letters begging for rescue increased. In the first decade of the 17th century, we see brotherhoods of sailors intervening in the Hanseatic cities and paying for ransom, because the alms collections no longer sufficed. With the renewal of fighting between the Dutch and the Spanish after 1621, the Hanseatic trade to Iberia and the Mediterranean experienced another great rise, which coincided with the greatest Muslim corsair activity ever seen.19 The ensuing clash led to the largest number of Germans ever caught by Muslim corsairs. Only one year after the fighting had recommenced, the captains and officers of the Hamburg ships founded the “Stück-von-Achten-Kasse”, a fraternity pledged to the redemption of its members. Membership was on a voluntary basis but was restricted to captains and ship officers.20 Thus, the lower deck found itself abandoned and left to the risk of having to remain in Muslim bondage without the least bit of hope of being rescued. Since the ordinary 16 17 18 19 20 Dams 1985, 148. Larquie 1991, 82. Rühle 1925, 111-112. Panzac 2009, 133-135. Kresse 1981, 38-39. 129 sailors mostly came from the poorer parts of society, the necessary ransom sums were in all likelihood never payable by their relatives. At this point the state stepped in and took on responsibility for its subjects. An institution was founded, which can be called, with some justification, the first obligatory social insurance in the world. In May 1624, after some months of debate within the governing apparatus and with the society of the shipmen, the Hamburger Sklavenkasse was created.21 It was an office administered by the Hamburg Admiralty, which had the duty to collect from every sailor and respective shipowner a fixed amount of money if the ship had a destination west of the Netherlands. This money was to be used to buy back captives from Northern Africa. The basic principle of the Sklavenkasse was to eliminate the risk of captivity by transforming it to a fiscal fee shared by all risk-bearers. The message of the government to its sailors was clear: you will be safe in southern waters, you are protected by your state regardless of the perils which wait for you there, even if the worst happens and you get caught by the Muslim enemy. Soon after the foundation of the Hamburg Sklavenkasse, Lubeck followed with its own Sklavenkasse in 1627.22 Immediately after their foundation both institutions came under heavy financial pressure from the exacting demands of the situation in the southern waters. This often led to a lack of funds and resulted several times during their first years in the inability to pay for the redemption.23 Nevertheless, the Sklavenkassen continued their business even when an ever-increasing number of captives had to be ransomed. Because the profits in this trade at this specific time of war were very large, a merchant class prone to engage in profitable risks would not let itself be stopped even by intense corsair activity, and continued to send large numbers of ships southwest. The port cities of Hamburg and Lubeck were two of very few places in Europe which could maintain their neutrality throughout the entire Thirty Years’ War. Their shipping was thus able to penetrate deep down southward during this conflict and provide the cities with large revenues. One can regard it as a sign of steadfast Hanseatic loyalty that the two founding cities of the old league allowed their twin institutions to share the burden of ransoming by giving money to the respective Sklavenkasse in case of need. Yet, even this sharing of burdens did not suffice to finance the tolls which the intense war with the corsairs put on the Sklavenkassen. Their income basis needed to be enlarged quite early after their foundation. The Lubeck Sklavenkasse had to be 21 22 23 Baasch 1897, 202-212. Wehrmann 1884, 161-162. Beutin 1933, 40-41. 130 reformed only two years after its start, in 1629.24 Hamburg followed suit in 1641.25 Before these reforms, apart from the money which the Sklavenkassen obtained from collections in the churches, the individual crew members had to pay the lion’s share for these institutions. After 1629 in Lubeck and 1641 in Hamburg, the shipowners were obliged to contribute substantial sums according to the load a ship carried and its destination. The closer the destination was to the Barbary corsairs, the higher the rate that was to be paid. Thus, we have three different sources of income for the German Sklavenkassen. The first one was provided by the crew members: they had to pay a high percentage of their income if the ship’s destination lay west or south-west of Brest and only half of this rate for the “safer” destinations east of Brest.26 The next source came from the shipowners according to shipload and a division of the map into risk zones; and a third one were the always ongoing alms collections. Until 1750 both institutions remained under great strain to pursue the ransoming. In the 14 “hot” years from 1615-1629, the smaller of the two cities, Lubeck, lost at least 22 large ships to the corsairs.27 In the relatively “calm” 28 years between 1719 and 1747 we know of 50 Hamburgian ships which got caught by the corsairs; this meant captivity in Northern Africa for 633 sailors.28 It should be noted that this number of captives is more than thrice that of Denmark during the same time, which gives a good hint at the respective size of Hamburg’s and Denmark’s southbound trade in these years. Apart from the 1,809,200 Mark Lübisch, which Hamburg had to pay for ransom, the loss of the precious ships was disastrous for a single city, even of the size of Hamburg. After 1750, it rarely happened to a German ship to get caught by the corsairs since German shipping to Southern Europe had been much reduced owing to heavy competition of states which had peace treaties with the regencies29 and because the corsair activity had decreased sharply. The Hamburg Sklavenkasse ceased to exist in 1810; Lubeck’s Sklavenkasse was closed in 1861.30 Both offices underwent some fundamental reforms in the 18th century which greatly changed their modes of operation. Regardless of these reforms, the fundamental structure always remained the same, i.e. the production of human security, assured by obligatory payments coming from crew members and shipowners. For nearly 200 years, these institutions ensured that almost no sailor who served on Hamburg or Lubeck ships and got caught 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Wehrmann 1884, 162-166. Baasch 1897, 212-215. In contrast to Lubeck, sailors from Hamburg did not have to pay for destinations east of the Scheldt, see: Baasch 1897, 213. Wehrmann 1884, 167. Baasch 1897, 237. Beutin 1933, 58-59. Wehrmann 1884, 193. 131 by the corsairs had to remain in North African captivity. Their success in this endeavor was so remarkable that in 1754 the Hamburg senate could publicly and triumphantly put into print that due to the work of the Sklavenkasse all slaves caught from our ships who had been captives in Algiers had been completely ransomed and were given back their freedom.31 This is in essence what the German Sklavenkassen had always tried to be: the providers of nothing less than absolute human security for all of Hamburg’s and Lubeck’s sailors. This had been their foremost goal and it had been, at tremendous cost, nearly always attained. IV. The Governmental Institutions of Ransom in Denmark Denmark intermittently sent out some ships to southern waters during the 17th century. In general, it seems that Denmark could not effectively compete with Dutch, English or German shipping. This was in all likelihood not due to the several wars in which Denmark was involved, but rather to the underdeveloped state of its shipping industry and, probably, a lack of mercantile thinking at the governmental level in the first half of the 17th century.32 A noticeable increase can be remarked during the last decade of the 17th century, when the rest of Europe was at war and the two Nordic states maintained their neutrality.33 Even though its shipping remained limited during the 17th century, Denmark was sometimes faced with the problem of Danish sailors in captivity in Northern Africa. The obvious recourse was, like in the rest of Europe, to alms collections.34 This sufficed as long as the shipping to Southern Europe remained comparatively small. After the failure to redeem hundreds of Icelanders35 it seems that better measures were demanded. In 1634 therefore, when Copenhagen’s Skipperlav36 was inaugurated, we find in its articles the obligation to collect money from all sailors to buy back sailors from Northern Africa. This Skipperlav resembled in some regards the German Sklavenkassen. There was the element of obligatory membership, but only for the ships’ officers: 31 32 33 34 35 36 Hamburger Staatsarchiv, 111-1 Senat Cl. VII Lit. Ca. No. 2 Vol. 3 Fasc. 7, No. 11. Nielsen 1933, 272-284. Ekegård 1924, 67-78; Degn and Gøbel 1997, 131. Fossen 1979, 235-239. After the raid on Iceland in 1627 with a capture of roughly 400 inhabitants, collections were the recourse of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway to buy back the captives. See: Helgason 1997, 275-276; Andersen 2000, 41-42. However, these measures failed to a large extent: Fossen 1979, 240-241. The Skipperlav was a semi-public organization of the sailors of the capital, which fulfilled many governmental tasks and had considerable executive power. 132 Article 4: All Merchant-skippers and steersmen, which are based or live here in the city, shall be or are obliged to betake themselves into this Guild.37 Even though the money for the Skipperlav came only from its members, i.e. the higher decks, its duties included the ransom of all sailors of a ship taken: Article 10: All money, which incurs into this Skippers-Guild, shall be used for these members, which either by Turks or religious enemies have been captured and ransomed. Crews of poor ships-brothers from this guild, as well as sick or injured shall also be helped.38 We are presented with the curious situation of an organization where the income base was smaller than that of the Sklavenkassen in the Hanse cities, even though its duties were the same and even far greater (they included many tasks in and around the harbor of Copenhagen). This can be explained by the rarity of Copenhagen ships taken by Barbary corsairs. Thus, the organization was theoretically equivalent to the German Sklavenkassen, but not in substance. Whereas the Sklavenkassen were under tremendous strain to ransom their sailors from the first day after their foundation, the Skipperlav was not seriously tested for the greater part of the 17th century. It seems that most Danish ships that were caught in the 17th century came from Bergen, where a special fee existed since 1653 for the freeing of slaves from Africa.39 In the years from 1670-1680, important changes took place in the patterns of shipping throughout Europe. French corsairs effectively reduced German and Dutch shipping to southern waters, much more than the Barbary corsairs had ever been able to. Danish shipping could not be hit hard, not having had great relevance south-west of Great Britain until then. Thus, the competitors were weakened just at the time when Danish shipping became the object of more and more support from the governmental side. The creation of the Kommercekolleg in 1668/71 in Copenhagen signaled the rapid advent of mercantilist thinking in Denmark, which translated into an ever-increasing commerce fleet.40 Consequently, in these years we find more mentions of captured vessels from the Kingdom. In 1675, the Skipperlavs’ income base was broadened. Now, the ordinary sailors, though not allowed membership, also had to pay into its coffers exactly half the rate of the ship’s officers.41 And in 1685, this was again extended: After this year Danish sailors not living in Copenhagen also had to pay if their ship sailed from the city.42 After these changes the institution resembled the first German Sklavenkassen before the reforms of 1629 and 1641. One obliga37 38 39 40 41 42 Hassø 1934, 13. Hassø 1934, 15. Fossen 1979. Hassø 1934, 25. Hassø 1934, 40-44. Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 65. 133 tory institution was responsible for the safety of all sailors on the ships of the city of Copenhagen. Because Europe was embroiled in huge wars after 1687 and Denmark kept its neutrality for most of the time, the Dannebrog could advance further and further south in the years around 1700.43 This in turn led to more captives who needed ransoming. As a result, in the last decade of the 17th century, we see a ransoming activity of one or two Danish sailors per year.44 At the turn of the century, this decentralized system of ransoming failed, when it became really demanding for the first time. In 1706 the armed frigate “St. Christopher” from Bergen was caught by Barbary corsairs and more than 40 Danish sailors found themselves caught at once after having fought with great courage.45 Already in 1708, another Norwegian ship, the “Fortuna” from Drammen got caught by Algerian Corsairs. Four years later, in 1712, more than 26 Danish sailors still remained in bondage, when two large Norwegian ships, the “Jomfru Anna” from Bergen and the “Ebentzer” from Arendal, were captured by the corsairs. These events again swelled the numbers of the King’s subjects in Northern Africa. At this point, it became obvious that the traditional ways of coping with this problem could no longer suffice. Collections in the entire kingdom did not bring in enough money and Bergen itself was overstretched to conduct the ransoming of its ships’ crews on its own.46 Copenhagen’s Skipperlav had sufficient funds, but it lacked the will to use them for the Norwegian ships’ crews and it lacked professionalism in conducting its task. A special institution, led by experts with connections to a network of merchants spread throughout Europe, was needed. This institution should have its only duty in organizing the ransom of the Danish captives from Northern Africa. The model which was now imitated was the one the southern neighbors of Denmark had by then already used successfully for decades. A Sklavenkasse was to be founded.47 The King personally ordered its creation, following the advice of Sealand’s Bishop, Christian Worm.48 It was to be led by the Bishop and two well-connected merchants from the capital, Abraham Klöcher and Johan Jørgen Soelberg. In one of their first letters to the magistrate of Copenhagen, the new board immediately liquidated the old ineffectual heritage of the skipperlav, explicitly stating in scathing words that they had 43 44 45 46 47 48 Degn and Gøbel 1997, 89. Hassø 1934, 81. Møller 1998, 105. Møller 1998, 108. Called “Slavekasse” in Denmark Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 159-160. 134 heard that the money, which the skipperlav has collected according to its 16 articles, has swelled to a great and sufficient capital, without any captives having been ransomed in a long time (one or another excepted).49 The skipperlav had failed even in its core task, the ransoming of sailors from Copenhagen. Therefore, the new board demanded all the money from the skipperlav reserved for the business of ransoming, which it quickly received. Within a few weeks, a network of ransom was established with its financial hubs in Hamburg and Amsterdam and the German merchant, Johannes Pommer in Venice, as its key contact person, managing the business of ransom in the Mediterranean itself.50 Already before the foundation of the Slavekasse a list of 82 subjects of the Danish King who were languishing in Northern Africa had been compiled.51 With the beginning of its business in April 1715, the board decided to ransom only the captives who had served on Danish ships when they had been caught.52 Of these, eight could already be ransomed in just seven months, and 23 more were freed in the following year.53 The Danish Slavekasse drew its income from the same sources as the German Sklavenkassen; yet in the Kingdom the burden was much higher for the shipowners and much lower for the sailors. All ships which sailed to Holland, England, France, Spain, or Portugal had to pay three shillings per last directly to the Slavekasse (in Hamburg the shipowners only had to pay two thirds of this rate). Also, all sailors of the entire Kingdom were obliged to pay to the Slavekasse (in Hamburg the sailors had to pay three times as much). It is interesting to remark these sailor-friendly rates in the monarchy and the shipownerfriendly rates in the trade-cities. Additionally, biannual collections in the churches throughout the Kingdom also brought revenue for the Slavekasse. Thus, we see after 1715/16 three fully-functioning Sklavenkassen in Hamburg, Lubeck and Denmark, each one closely resembling its sister institutions. All Sklavenkassen were remarkably efficient, with almost no cases of captivity in Northern Africa of an insured sailor lasting longer than one year. Like its German counterparts, the Danish Slavekasse had always tried to be the provider of absolute security for Danish sailors on Danish ships. We can legitimately conclude: It attained this goal at most times of its existence. The Danish Slavekasse existed until 1757. After Denmark had made its last peace treaty with a Maghreb state, i.e. Morocco in 1753, there was no longer a 49 50 51 52 53 Landsarkivet Sjælland, EA-001, Stifts Bispeembede, Kopibog for udgående breve vedr. Slavekassen. 15.5.1715 – Slavekassen til Magistrat i Kiöbenhavn. Landsarkivet Sjælland, EA-001, Stifts Bispeembede, Kopibog for udgående breve vedr. Slavekassen. 20.4.1715 – Slavekassen til Johannes Pommer i Venedig. Møller 1998, 108. Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 160. Landsarkivet Sjælland, EA-001, Stifts Bispeembede, Kopibog for udgående breve vedr. Slavekassen. 30.12.1716 – Slavekassen til Kongen. 135 need to insure Danish sailors against the risk of Muslim captivity. For the Slavekasse, the only tasks remaining were the ransom of the last Danish captives and the unwinding of its business. During over forty years of its existence, the Slavekasse had not only ransomed well over two hundred Danish sailors from captivity54, it had also initiated and financed55 the first peace talks with the Barbary rulers, which in 1746 had brought Denmark the long sought-after peace treaty with Algiers. It had thus worked as a kind of “Ministry for Barbary affairs”. V. The Governmental Institutions of Ransom in the Netherlands After having inherited the merchants and thus the know-how and trade routes from Antwerp, Amsterdam became the center of the 17th century world economy.56 The common enmity of the Netherlands and Algiers against Spain helped the Dutch in the two decades after 1590 to liberate captured sailors from Algiers more easily and ensured a certain benevolence for Dutch ships.57 With the beginning of the 12-year truce in 1609, the Netherlanders had a breakthrough into the Mediterranean.58 In 1611 they were able to obtain a treaty with the Ottoman Emperor and to install an ambassador at Constantinople. It was hoped at The Hague that this would also ensure safety for Dutch ships from attacks from the North African corsairs. Yet the respect for orders from the Sultan was not too high at Algiers and the Dutch cease-fire with Spain irritated Algiers. Thus in the decade from 1610-1620, more and more Netherlanders found themselves on the slave-markets of Algiers. It was decided at The Hague to conclude a treaty with the regency and install a consul there. The consul Wijnant de Keyser arrived in 1616 at Algiers and immediately began ransoming all Dutch slaves at the place. He used governmental funds for this business, expecting the States-General to pay for the liberation of the sailors. Yet, in this point he miscalculated. In 1618, the States-General expressly forbade him to continue ransoming with governmental money, officially stating that the state was only responsible for the sailors on warships, not for the sailors on merchant ships.59 Hereby the States-General set a precedent which would remain valid for more than a century to come. It took the Netherlands until 1726 to obtain a 54 55 56 57 58 59 The most eminent historian of the Danish Slavekassen has counted 224 ransomed slaves from 1715-1753, in: Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 161-163. Wandel 1919, 5-9; Andersen 2000, 37-54. Israel 1989, 38-42. van Krieken 2002, 16-19. Israel 1986, 164-169. van Krieken 2002, 23. 136 stable peace treaty with Algiers and even longer to get one with Morocco. Therefore, Dutch ships were constantly being captured in the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century. A historian has arrived at a number of 6,0007,000 Netherlanders who may have at some time been captives in Northern Africa.60 The ransoming of the Netherlanders was normally carried out by the single provinces and these in turn financed it mostly through collections, lotteries and money from relatives.61 On a national level, several nationwide collections were held in the aftermath of peace accords for this purpose.62 On several occasions, wholesale expeditions with squadrons of warships were sent out to do the ransoming, always with explicit orders to catch as many North Africans as possible in order to exchange them for their Dutch counterparts in the regencies.63 All these measures never sufficed. Algerians were hard to catch and the exchange rate of prisoners was disadvantageous for the Netherlanders. The great problem of voluntary donations was their irregularity, in stark contrast to the permanent collections in Denmark and the Hanse cities. Due to scarcity of funds, it was explicitly decided in 1663 to only ransom Netherlanders, not Scandinavians or Germans who had served on Dutch ships.64 Yet, even for Netherlanders, the money available was never enough. It has been estimated that the quota of Netherlanders ever ransomed was 33-50%.65 This percentage is much lower than the quota in Hamburg, Lubeck or Denmark, which ranged between 80 and 90%.66 At times the creation of a national Sklavenkasse was seriously deliberated. For example, in 1717 the powerful province of Holland tried to push through the foundation of a Sklavenkasse, modeled after the Hamburgian, in the assembly of the States-General.67 It did not succeed with this because the other provinces – Zeeland is explicitly named – opposed the proposal for the following reasons: 1) The corsairs would be encouraged to cruise even more if the Dutch Republic guaranteed all its sailors their ransom. 2) The prices for captives would soar, thus buying back through private means would become more difficult. 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 van Krieken 2002, 131. Ridder 1986, 5-12. Ridder 1986, 12. Ridder 1986, 16-17. van Krieken 2002, 62. van Krieken 2002, 139. This figure has been established for the Danish Slavekasse and is in all likelihood also valid for the German Sklavenkassen: Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 161. van Krieken 2002, 93. 137 3) The North African rulers would lose interest in a peace with the Netherlands, because a state with a Sklavenkasse is a source of revenue for the corsairs. 4) The sailors would no longer defend themselves adequately if they were assured of their later ransom.68 The last reason is especially noteworthy. In all openness it was stated that the terribly feared slavery in Northern Africa was helpful for the commercial interests of the republic’s shipping. This gruesome image put enough scare into the sailors to fight to the last and thus to defend the ship and the cargo better. The value of human security was explicitly put below security of the economy. The United Provinces decided not to intervene and to retain their insufficient system which left the ransoming to local initiatives, voluntary contributions and family members. The Dutch ransoming system seems to have been on the verge of a fundamental change after 1730. In 1728, after the stable peace with Algiers had been attained, the States-General decided to ransom all remaining 256 slaves who had been taken on ships from the republic, be they from the Netherlands or from foreign countries.69 Even after this decision, it took another seven years until the last one of these was liberated. From 1728 until 1736 and from 1743 until 1749, two pastors from the Netherlands were appointed in Algiers to take care of the slaves from the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia.70 At this time a Sklavenkasse was also founded in Zierikzee, which lasted from 1732 until 1747.71 From that year on (1747), the States-General finally accepted the duty of the entire state to buy back all its subjects from Northern Africa.72 When in 1755 the long-sought peace with Morocco was finally achieved, the Netherlands from then on no longer needed to use governmental money to ransom their brethren. Had the peace treaties not been attained, the ransom system of the Sklavenkassen might have been introduced. VI. Typologies of North European Ransom What are we to make of these observations? We have looked at several prominent Early Modern maritime states which all had to deal with the problem of captivity of their own subjects on a large scale and their institutional reactions towards the problem. Three of these states have in common that they created governmental offices to collect funds from their sailors and shipowners and 68 69 70 71 72 Nationaal Archief Den Haag, 1.01.03 – Staten Generaal, 3392, 06.07.1717. Van Krieken 2002, 103. Krieken states that this happened more to ensure the peace with Algiers than out of compassion for the captives. Van Krieken 2002, 137. Ridder 1986, 13-15. Ridder 1986, 14. 138 used these funds to buy back their subjects out of Northern African captivity. We may summarize our findings in a simplified table: Northern European Ransoming Systems Number of captives in Northern Africa from 1590-1830 Denmark, Hamburg, Lubeck 5-800073 Netherlands 6-700074 Average duration of captivity Progressive taxation of the group concerned, additional alms collections Mostly state-run, centralized Mostly less than one year75 Mostly alms collections, only little help from the state Mostly privately, decentralized Three to five years76 Quota of redeemed captives 80-90 %77 33-50 %78 Money for ransom Organization of ransom Many numbers in this table are certainly highly debatable. Yet, even if we allow for a substantial error range, the basic and fundamental differences between the two blocs remain the same. One group created professional organizations dedicated to the ransoming of their own nation’s sailors only, and these institutions, everywhere called Sklavenkassen, were financed by obligatory duties imposed upon the endangered group. The other bloc decided expressly and repeatedly not to do so, even though the problem here was more or less the same, qualitatively and quantitatively. The lack of such organizations in the Netherlands had dire consequences for the Netherlanders captured in Northern Africa. Longer periods of slavery and a high uncertainty of an eventual ransom were direct consequences of the refusal of the state to intervene and to take the entire business into its hands. How are we to explain the refusal of the Netherlanders to install a Sklavenkasse, even though this had dramatic consequences for its sailors? Is it due to the very different naval power of the two blocs? Being the center of the world economy until and beyond 1726, when they finally concluded a lasting peace with the Algerians, the Netherlanders always had very different means at hand to take on the corsair enemy. The naval power of the Hanse cities was marginal in comparison with the United Provinces. The idea of naval power as a deterrent of Sklavenkassen gains plausibility if we look at Denmark’s Slavekasse. It 73 74 75 76 77 78 The wide range is due to the insufficient data available, especially in the cases of the German Sklavenkassen. Yet, the figure with its two limits is the result of intense calculation and taking into account of all available numbers and therefore reliable. Van Krieken 2002, 131. See footnote 66. Boon 1987, 18-19. Only “national” sailors are taken into account, e.g. Hamburgians on Hamburg ships etc. Van Krieken 2002, 139. 139 was founded in 1715, when its naval power was rather weak and the institution ended with the ascent of Denmark’s naval power after the mid-18th century. The Danish case seems to confirm the thesis of incompatibility of Sklavenkassen with a strong navy. Yet, naval power is not a very important factor in the decision process about Sklavenkassen. For one thing, naval expeditions against the corsairs were in most of the cases blatant failures. Only the British and French expeditions in the late 17th century had achieved their aims. But these were the exceptions to the general rule. The Dutch expeditions of 1618-20, 1655-56, 1662, 1664, 1670 and 1721-24 were all costly and only partly effective at attaining their goal.79 In the end, The Hague had to accept a peace treaty in which permanent tributes were stipulated, in contrast to the tribute-free peace treaties which England and France were able to attain. But even more to the point, why should naval power stand in contradiction to state-organized ransoming? The historical evidence simply does not support such an imagined dichotomy. A state with a powerful navy like Great Britain had its “Algiers-duty”, very much resembling a Sklavenkasse, to finance the ransoming of its subjects.80 When in 1720 a “Project tot het ruineeren der Turkze Rovers” was put forward in the Netherlands, it was explicitly stated in one of its articles that a Sklavenkasse should flank the massive naval attack on the corsairs.81 Thus, governmentally organized ransoming and a strong navy within one state are not contradictions. They could and did come together, one could and did exist without the other or both could and often were absent. In the minds of the decision-makers they were to a large measure independent of each other. Are the observed differences due to the political structure of the states in question? The two Hanse cities were small political units, where a Sklavenkasse could easily be introduced by and for limited groups. The entire cities being very dependent on the trade towards southern waters, it was easy to convince all decision-makers of the advantages of Sklavenkassen for all people of the cities. This was not so in Denmark-Norway, where the trade routes went to a large degree east and northwards when the Slavekasse was introduced. Yet, in the absolute monarchy of Denmark-Norway, the decision-making process could at times be very easy. It took one memorandum from Sealand’s Bishop to the King to get the Slavekasse going, without any amendment.82 With a different political structure we may well believe that Denmark-Norway would have gone the same way that the Netherlands did. Here, a central government with limited powers could only act in accord with the provinces. In an absolute 79 80 81 82 Van Krieken 2002, 26, 53-55, 57-67, 94-97. On the Algiers-duty: Matar 2005, 38-75. Project tot het ruineeren der Turkze Rovers [...] 1720. Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 159-160. 140 monarchy, this opposition could be overcome, which was not so in a republic with independently-minded constituent parts. However, it is precisely this observation that allows us to rule out the different political structures as the causator of the (non-)introduction of Sklavenkassen. The political structure was certainly important on the national level, where the decentralized Netherlands could not agree upon a foundation of a Sklavenkasse. Yet, at the local level the differences between the two blocs still remain. In Copenhagen after 1634, we have a de facto Sklavenkasse in the form of the Skipperlav with its obligatory duties and its responsibility to ransom Copenhagen’s sailors. It would have been very easy for the single provinces or cities in the Netherlands to introduce Sklavenkassen at the local level. Yet, the only Sklavenkasse that ever existed in the Netherlands was the local one at Zierikzee, a short-lived and very late foundation. Amsterdam, Middelburg and other great cities never had a Sklavenkasse, even though it would have been very easy to found one. The political structure of the large Dutch harbor cities was very much comparable to Hamburg and Lubeck. In all these cities the power lay in the hands of the richer merchants and the emerging bourgeoisie. The same groups of power-holders easily founded Sklavenkassen in the cities east of the Elbe and refused to do so west of the Elbe. Thus a political structure did not stand in the way of a foundation of Sklavenkassen in the Netherlands. VII. The Combination of Historical “Facts” and Sociological “Theory” After having refuted the more simple explanation for the found typologies, we are still left without a satisfying answer for the discrepancy of the ransoming modes. A more complex model is needed as explanandum for the differences in the organization of ransoming of the two blocs. This shall be done by setting the established typology in a broader perspective and then analyzing it anew. The entire phenomenon of slave ransoming has to be regarded not as something exceptional but structural for the affected maritime societies. The ransoming of Europeans was an affair so stable that we can regard it as an integral part of Early Modern welfare. Like the poor, the group of the slaves to be redeemed was an inherent part of every seafaring society in Early Modern Europe. The authorities were confronted with endless petitions from individuals who needed money to save husbands, relatives or friends from a mortal threat and, regarded much more dangerously, their souls from the arch-enemy of God. The endless flow of supplications aimed at the “imagined empathy” of an entire society. As we have seen, the typology of the chosen ways to produce security for the suffering captives exactly follows confessional lines. In recent years, sociology has turned considerable attention towards the connections between features of the modern welfare states and their respective dominant confession. As an offspring of the widespread discussion and re141 search about and on the welfare state, which was sparked by the first publication of Esping-Andersen’s work on the typologies of the modern welfare states in 199083, the origins of the essential variations between the states of the modern West are now being traced more and more towards religious roots.84 Also, the historians and sociologists with an interest in the Early Modern Epoch have raised their voices in this debate. In his book “The disciplinary revolution”, the American sociologist Philip Gorski has put religion at the centre of the stage of Early Modern history and used it as an explanation of many different phenomena of the epoch.85 Though he is mostly interested in the connections between the state’s power and its respective confession, he has also devoted quite considerable thought to the links between the Reformation and Early Modern forms of poor-relief.86 Gorski in essence argues that Protestant poor-relief was marked by a high degree of centralization and bureaucratization at the level of the state. A sharp line was drawn in the Protestant world between “deserving” and “undeserving” poor; the former received alms, the latter were sent to the “Zuchthaus”. Gorski contrasts this with Catholic poor-relief, which remained to a large degree in the hands of the clergy and never knew a sharp distinction between “deserving” and “undeserving”. He also distinguishes sharply within Protestantism between Calvinist and Lutheran poor-relief: according to him the former was marked by “considerable decentralization, and a harsher but more activist approach towards the poor.”87 Another sociologist, Sigrun Kahl, has elaborated on Gorski’s theses and made far-reaching connections between the religious doctrines of the respective three confessions and the social welfare systems of our present-day states.88 Kahl finally arrives at a table of twelve stylized features of the three confessions. In this table we find core theological statements on work and poverty and the way the poor were treated in the area of the respective confession. The strength of Kahl’s article lies in the very serious attempt to bridge the research of modern sociology on the welfare state and historical research on the Reformation, both of which have more or less ignored each other in the last decades. Even though Kahl never uses the terms explicitly, she clearly tries to describe 83 84 85 86 87 88 Esping-Andersen 1990. Philip Manow has pointed out the many flaws of Esping-Andersen’s model of the three types of modern welfare state: “there is ample evidence that the religious cleavage dimension was also critical to the way that the capitalist conflict was pacified by means of the welfare state. Especially if we account for the crucial differences between Lutheran and reformed Protestantism, we can solve many of the empirical and theoretical problems in Esping-Andersen’s approach”, in: Manow 2004. Gorski 2003. Gorski 2003, 125-137. Gorski 2003, 137. Kahl 2005. 142 distinct group attitudes of inclusion and exclusion towards its poorer members, the groups being distinguished by their confessions. Kahl tries very hard in her article to accentuate the differences between the Lutheran and Calvinist approach towards the poor. She empirically bases these differences mainly on the denseness of “Zuchthäuser” in the Calvinist and Lutheran areas and the degree of centralization of systems of poor-relief. From her article one gets the impression that the distinction between “deserving” and “undeserving” poor was marked in Calvinist areas more by punishment of the “undeserving” and in Lutheran areas more by a relatively effective help for the “deserving”. The “deserving” got no great assistance in the Calvinist world, while in the Lutheran world the state actively intervened on their behalf. Kahl emphasizes that this state intervention in the Lutheran world happened not in opposition to the church but with intimate collaboration between church and state.89 Since we have established that the Sklavenkassen were not an exotic but a normal institution of poor-relief in Early Modern Northern Europe, we can now look at them from the “confessional” angle. We can certainly count the sailors among the “deserving” poor, since they had usually fought bravely to protect the merchandise of their masters, the flag of their state and thus the honor of their rulers.90 Here was a group that clearly did not deserve the drastic plight into which they had fallen. Thus, the decision-making process towards finding an answer to the slaves’ petitions must therefore have been a very hard exercise for the petitioned, since they knew that they were deciding upon the fate of brave members of the community. Their answer to it, whether positive or negative, was thus certainly a reflection of deep convictions with regard to the “imagined empathy” of a given society. It is remarkable how well the models of Gorski and Kahl fit with the Lutheran Sklavenkassen. Centralized and bureaucratically operating governmental offices, relentlessly collecting obligatory duties and using this money in one of the most complicated businesses conceivable: is that not Lutheran poor-relief to its maximum extent? Since the buying back of sailors from slavery was just a form of poor-relief in extremis, we see here the Lutheran way of poor-relief at its extreme. This always happened, as is clearest in the case of the Danish Slavekasse, where Sealand’s Bishop led the entire agency, in close cooperation with the churches. The obligatory insurance is the qualitatively new element of these institutions, to which only Lutheran states resorted. For its subjects in danger of and actually in slavery, the Lutheran state was expected and ready to 89 90 Kahl 2005, 105. It is important to note that only the sailors who had defended themselves bravely were bought back; see: § 5 of the Hamburg Sklavenkasse, printed in: Baasch 1897, 207. 143 provide absolute human security, firstly with institutions, later with the readiness to sign expensive peace treaties with the Barbary regents.91 This strong role of the Lutheran state as a redistributor of money and producer of human security was demanded by the ruled and the authorities were willing to accede in this demand. An unavoidable and undeserved risk of any deserving member of this state was regarded as not tolerable. When such a danger lured, the entire system reacted and secured the neutralization of this threat by spreading the financial burden on the shoulders of all risk-bearers. This differs markedly from the Calvinist world, where the state as a nexus binding the people together was not as strong as in the Lutheran world. What can we deduce from our presentation about the Calvinist welfare state? Kahl has emphasized Calvin’s rejection of state involvement in matters of poor-relief: According to Calvin, poor relief should be part of the church’s ministry. Church and private charities retained a key role in the administration of poor relief. Private charity was part of proving and displaying election. In this sense, Calvinism kept the traditional ostentation of public giving.92 Having no Sklavenkasse but only its repeated discussion and ultimate nonintroduction at hand, it is not hard to see a rejection of state involvement in the Calvinist-dominated Netherlands. Even the hard plight of its sailors in Northern Africa could not move the society at home to overcome its basic propositions on relief-giving. The result was dire for thousands of Netherlanders who got caught by the Muslim corsairs. We have to remark that the people of the United Provinces did care a lot for their brethren in Northern Africa. The Netherlanders gave intensely and over decades huge sums of alms for the ransoming of their relatives. At the moment, we have no data at hand but we can presume that the alms-giving in the Netherlands for the caught sailors brought in much more money in relation to national wealth than in the Lutheran world. Individual generosity tried hard to compensate for the lack of a Sklavenkasse. Yet, the ratio of just 33-50% liberated sailors in the richest parts of Europe proves that in the 17th century, the state as machinery of organization and redistribution had already far surpassed the ability of individual generosity and voluntary commitment. The only way to really produce sustainable and absolute human security lay in the intervention of the state, as the examples of the Lutheran neighbors showed. 91 92 These treaties have usually been regarded solely as parts of a commercially activist policy, see e.g.: Andersen 2000, 37-54. This cannot be doubted, but it should be remarked that in Denmark’s case the Slavekasse had initiated these peace talks, an institution whose function was not commercial but to produce security for its sailors. The aspect of generating security from slavery is thus not just a side-effect of these treaties, but inextricably connected with their commercial aims. Kahl 2005, 110. 144 The Netherlanders had often been asked if they wanted a Sklavenkasse to produce human security for all their sailors. This question could only come before the highest assembly of the state because the slaves in Northern Africa were the poor with the greatest merit. The fact that these proposals had caused the Netherlanders intense debates and thorough questioning of their traditional approach proves that the ultimate refusal of a Sklavenkasse was well-considered and has to be a reflection of the “imagined empathy” of the Netherlandish society at the time. In the end, the state’s intervention was even regarded as harmful for the private ransomers.93 We know that this was not true and that individuals, for all their endeavors, could not compensate for the state in this regard. So with the case studies of the Protestant way of ransoming captives out of Northern Africa, we finally arrive at an observation which in itself fits very well into the established picture of sociological and historical literature. The strong role of the Lutheran state as an embodiment of mutual insurance of a given group and thereby as an active producer of human security can be traced to sources in the existing confessional mentality. The Calvinist state did not act the same way that the Lutheran did; it openly decided not to produce human security when this came into conflict with trade security. The Calvinist state left this most essential sort of poor-relief to the society at large and thus preferred the production of security for the economy of its system, not for individuals. The Lutheran state appears as a social system marked by a high degree of inclusiveness for all deserving members of the community, while the Calvinist state appears as a social system marked by more exclusive tendencies, even for its deserving members. References Printed Sources Project tot het ruineeren der Turkze Rovers van Algier, Tunis, Tripoly en Zalee: Niet alleen tot het beveyligen maar het doen aangroejen van de Navigatie en Commercie deeser Landen (1720), in: Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Hist. Turc. 64/3 Human Development Report 1994 – New Dimensions of Human Security. <http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1994> (accessed July 29, 2010). References Andersen, Dan. The Danish Flag in the Mediterranean. Shipping and Trade, 17471807. Unpublished PhD, University of Copenhagen, 2000. 93 See footnote 68. 145 Baasch, Ernst. Die Hansestädte und die Barbaresken. Kassel: Brunnemann, 1897. Beutin, Ludwig. Der deutsche Seehandel im Mittelmeergebiet bis zu den Napoleonischen Kriegen. Wachholtz, 1933. Bono, Salvatore. Corsari nel Mediterraneo: Cristiani e musulmani fra guerra schiavitù e commercio. Milan: Mondadori, 1993. Bro-Jørgensen, J.O. Forsikringsvæsenets Historie i Danmark indtil det 19. Aarhundrede. Copenhagen: Wesmanns Skandinaviske Forsikringsfond, 1935. Bruijn, Jacobus. “De vaart in Europa.” In Maritieme geschiedenis der Nederlanden 2. Zeventiende eeuw, van 1585 tot ca. 1680, edited by Gustaaf Asaert, 200-241. De Boer maritiem. Bussum: De Boer, 1977. Dams, Jean. “Une ‘redemption’ de captifs au XVIIe siècle.” Mélanges de Science Religieuse 42 (1985): 141-148. Davis, Robert. “Counting European Slaves on the Barbary Coast.” Past and Present 172, no. 1 (2001): 87-124. 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Britain and Barbary, 1589-1689. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. Møller, Anders M. “Oprettelsen af Slavekommissionen.” Handels- og Søfartsmussets Årbog 57 (1998): 100-115. Nielsen, Axel. Dänische Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Jena: G. Fischer, 1933. Panzac, Daniel. La marine ottomane: De l‘apogée à la chute de l‘Empire; (15721923). Paris: CNRS, 2009. Ridder, C. J. den. “Gedenk de gevangenen alsof gij medegevangenen waart. De loskoop van Hollandse zeelieden uit Barbarijse gevangenschap, 1600-1746.” Tijdschrift voor zeegeschiedenis 5 (1986): 3-22. Rühle, Siegfried. “Danzigs Handelsbeziehungen zu Portugal und Spanien.” In Danzigs Handel in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, edited by Siegfried Rühle, 107-23. Danzig: Kafemann, 1925. van Krieken, Gerard. Corsaires et marchands: Les relations entre Alger et les PaysBas, 1604-1830. Saint-Denis: Bouchène, 2002. Wandel, Carl F. Danmark og Barbareskerne: 1746-1845. Copenhagen: Lund, 1919. Wehrmann, Carl. “Geschichte der Sklavenkasse.” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 4 (1884): 158-193. 147 Swedes in Barbary Captivity: The Political Culture of Human Security, Circa 1660-1760 Joachim Östlund Abstract: »Schweden in Gefangenschaft der Barbaresken: Die politische Kultur humaner Sicherheit, circa 1660-1760«. This article aims to present a specific form of “Human Security” during the Early Modern era. As a case study, the relationship between Sweden and the North African states will be put forward. The Swedish maritime expansion in the Mediterranean during the 17th century resulted in insecurity for the men who manned the ships when they became targets for Muslim corsairs from North Africa. This article explores how the Swedish state responded to the threat towards its seamen during a period of 100 years (1660-1760). The Kingdom not only reacted militarily or diplomatically towards this threat. Intense attention was also paid to humanitarian aspects on the level of the individual. The state tried several preventative measures to reduce the risk of captivity and installed a nation-wide ransoming system. The article highlights the complex relationship between state security and human security and shows how cultural values, economy, institutions and international politics also give form and substance to the praxis of the “Production of Human Security”. Keywords: Sweden-North Africa relations, national security, human insecurity, human security, captivity, ransoming. Introduction The Swedish maritime enterprise in the Mediterranean during the middle of the seventeenth century not only resulted in the import of cheap salt but also in new politics of security for the men who manned the ships. Muslim corsairs operating from the present-day Maghreb states posed a serious danger towards the shipping of all European nations in the Mediterranean. The biggest threat was their attempts to seize the cargo and carry their crew to the slave markets of North Africa. Usually the captives were engaged in hard labor and held for ransom. In their letters asking for help and in the writings of eyewitnesses, this bondage was described as slavery. The reactions from relatives and authorities were intense, and the social anxiety about the captivity of large groups of men Address all communications to: Joachim Östlund, Department of History, Lund University, P.O. Box 2074, 220 02 Lund, Sweden; e-mail: [email protected]. This article is a part of an individual research project financed by Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2009-2011. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 148-163 resulted in responses unusual for the Early Modern period. The purpose of this paper is to discuss humanitarian aspects of the necessary protection of trade. The human dimension of security, or the question of security in people’s daily lives, emerged in the 1990s as a conceptual response to two changing dimensions of the international order, referred to as globalization and the end of the Cold War. This shift was defined and explicated in the 1994 UN Human Development Report. According to the UNHDR, human security meant “safety from chronic threats such as hunger, disease and repression” and “protections from sudden and harmful disruptions in the patterns of daily life”.1 The UN identifies seven specific sources of human insecurity: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political sources of human insecurity. Since then the term has been used in different ways. On the online database “Human Security Gateway”, the human security concept is defined separately from national security, and where the latter is defined, its focus is on the defending of the physical and political integrity of states from external military threats. This distinction is put forward to highlight the fact that the goals of national security may in many cases threaten human security: “Ideally, national security and human security should be mutually reinforcing.”2 In summary, the model of human security consists primarily of four features: its focus on the individual, its concern with values of personal safety and freedom, its consideration of indirect threats, and its emphasis on non-coercive means. In the following I will show how human security became an important instrument in the Swedish maritime expansion. The purpose of this article is to trace policies of human security during the period 1660-1760, and to discuss its form and substance. The following questions will be highlighted and discussed in the article: (a) How did the human aspect of security initially become identified? (b) In what ways did human security become an organized and institutionalized part of the Swedish state? (c) How is the Swedish policy of human security related to political, cultural and historical factors? Identifying Human Insecurity During the middle of the seventeenth century Swedish economic politics formulated a new interest: to find cheap salt and markets for Swedish staple commodities in Southern Europe. The rising salt prices in Setubal and Lisbon pushed the Swedish merchants into the Mediterranean, and there they entered a world dominated by sea warfare and violence. The struggle for control between the two dominant empires of the region, Spain and the Ottoman Empire, resulted in an unstable and insecure environment. During the seventeenth century 1 2 Human Development Report 1994, 23. Human Security Report Project. 149 the conflict transmuted into coastal raids, semi-official privateering and piracy. Constantinople’s control over its North African vassals declined and the Barbary Coast became a center of corsairing. On the Christian side, Malta and Livorno played similar roles.3 The insecurity in this area was identified rather quickly when letters from captives in North Africa reached the King, state officials or family members in Sweden. For example, in 1661 a galley slave in Algiers, Johan Arvidsson, sent a letter to the Admiralty about his poor condition. The message was then forwarded to the Church authorities along with the question of whether they could organize alms for a ransom. That was the usual process, and it was repeated in many other cases. But Arvidsson’s case was also taken care of by the Lord High Admiral Carl Gustaf Wrangel himself when he informed the Council about a ransom. Later, alms were collected and the Admiralty also gave money to pay the ransom of the galley slave Arvidsson. This example shows that one human being mattered and that it was a question of high priority.4 How is it possible to understand this response? As Linda Colley has put forward, the Barbary captives embodied a particularly dramatic form of vulnerability. Collections on behalf of North African captives seem to have elicited higher levels of generosity.5 This might also explain why Swedish subjects even gave alms to Greeks who begged for aid in Sweden for their captured family members in Turkey. In 1705 alms were collected all over Sweden for captured monks belonging to the Greek Catholic Archimandrite at the St. Athanasius Cloister.6 But ransoming was sometimes lacking, for different reasons. This becomes visible in a report about a ransom written by Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeldt to the King. Sparwenfeldt was a traveller and researcher who, during a journey in North Africa in 1691, had interviewed Swedish captives. In his report he recommended that a ransom should be paid for “the best, the most functional, the youngest and purest Swedes”. Old, damaged and “un-Swedish” bodies should not be liberated according to this line of thought. Many of the individuals interviewed by Sparwenfelt had been held in captivity for more than ten years, and most of them had been captured on ships from Holland. Because of their Swedish citizenship they had been left behind, according to Sparwenfeldt.7 This was also the praxis among the European states: Each state ransomed its own citizens. It is therefore important to emphasize that human security at this stage was dependent on citizenship. In Sweden, information about what was happening in North Africa was fragmented during the second half of the seventeenth century. This can partly 3 4 5 6 7 Müller 2004, 30-31, 49-51. Ekman 1962, 70. Colley 2002, 77-78. Forsell and Granstedt 1949, 28; Lundström 1906, 119. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Tripolitana, vol. 7, 1694. 150 be explained by the Protestant Reformation, which ended the contact with ransoming organizations that had existed in Catholic European states since the thirteenth century, such as the Mercedarians and the Trinitarians. The Church of Sweden was indeed active in raising ransoms and publishing the plight of Barbary captives, but it lacked the contacts and knowledge of the Catholic redemptionist orders in Continental Europe. The basic information came from sporadic official contacts, and the letters from captives. Let’s take a closer look at the letters – this is where the discourse of security was formulated by the victims. The letters from captives in North Africa give information about what they expected from relatives or authorities at home. What demands were possible? Did they beg for help, demand help, or did they even ask when they would be helped? When Swedish seamen in bondage wrote letters for help, many of them sought aid directly from the King. In a Lutheran society this was a normal thing, since the King was not only the head of state but also the head of the church. According to the Lutheran state ideology, the sovereign symbolizes the Lord – judging, preserving order, and guaranteeing prosperity – and the good shepherd who demonstrates virtues, comforts and gives his blessing. This paternalistic idea of double responsibility was a commonly held norm repeated from the middle of the sixteenth century in prayer days, proclamations and propaganda in everyday life in Swedish society. According to this line of thought, an imagined bond was created between the King and each and every individual in the realm.8 This ideology is also reflected in the letters. Many letters are signed by five, ten or even fifteen people. The first item is typically a salutation to the addressee, and after that there is an explanation of the case. Some petitions are broader in scope, giving details about what has happened and the problems they are dealing with. All the letters are united by their paternalistic subordination in line with Lutheran ideology, the descriptions of their misery, and their ambition to evoke benevolence. The detailed description of their misery should be taken seriously, but at the same time, this was also a rhetorical strategy used to create an emphatic identification and strengthen the will to do honorable deeds. This idea is very distinct in the letters. In many of the early letters compassion with the victim is most important argument for aid, but in some cases demands for help are also put forward, as in the following example: some of us here gathered in greatest truth, on our bare knees, with buoyant bitter tears of the heart and the eyes, praying and demanding, one more time, for Your Royal Highness’ help and liberation.9 8 9 Östlund 2007, 55-56. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, vol. 15, 1680. 151 The next argument is formulated as a direct reflection of the Lutheran ideology. This time the King, not his subjects, is addressed and informed of the consequences of the deeds which reflect the fundament of the political and moral order. The letter says that if the King liberates them, this will be “very delightful to God the Almighty”, and therefore, the King’s “great richness should not diminish, but by the good God many times be blessed and increase”.10 In a religious world view, this argument should not be taken too lightly. The religious view of human security is common to many letters: for example, “all this pain to my body does not hurt me as much as their will [for me] to give up my religion”.11 This shows what they feared. It is also clear that the captives turned the ideological statements back towards the party that represented them, and even raised demands to be liberated. But what is the meaning of freedom according to the captives? Many captives argue that they want to be subjects under a rightful and benevolent king, not a tyrant: “that we one more time could return to our dear fatherland with joy and health … and that we poor slaves continue to be His Royal Highness’ and our most merciful King’s most humble servants.”12 Security, or even freedom, is here defined as belonging to the benevolent King. If the King does not help, his legitimacy is contested and therefore the messages are composed as a reminder of the moral obligation defined by the state. What was the impact of these cries for help? Solutions to Human Insecurity The Swedish response to corsair activity was not entirely similar to how other European states reacted. At an early stage the Swedish state chose negotiation instead of “forceful persuasion”, or coercive diplomacy, towards the North African states. Swedish ships never participated in any bombings of harbors, and even in the beginning of the nineteenth century wars were believed to be “an infinitely high price for security”.13 The first attempt by the state to ransom Swedish captives was made by Captain Jöns Barkman in 1661, the same year that the first letter, from Johan Arvidsson, arrived in Sweden. His visit and contact with the Dey in Algiers was also related in a letter from a large group of captives addressed to the Chancellor of the State in 1662. They wrote that Barkman had visited them twice, but failed in the negotiation to get them re- 10 11 12 13 Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, vol. 15, 1680. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, vol. 15, 1707. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, vol. 15, 1724. Lunds universitetsbibliotek, De la Gardieska collection: historical documents, 25:4, 800-0109. Eric Sköldebrand, consul in Algiers, report: “Upplysningar, rörande De Barbariska Staterne samt olägenhetene och förmonera af Krig eller fred med de samma”, signed in Stockholm, 9 January 1800. 152 leased.14 His failure might explain the next reaction from the state: retribution by corsairing. In 1663 a secret privateer company was founded by the Queen Dowager and a number of councilors. The purpose was to capture Muslim ships in the Red Sea. In September one ship out of two reached its destination and was successful in taking two richy-laden Muslim vessels. But from the investors’ point of view the expedition was not a success.15 This corsair activity was an exception, and after this failure, Swedish politics towards the North African states changed. Among state officials and merchants, the relationship now turned into a question of how to implement solutions for human security. Swedish merchants met the threat from the corsairs with insurance from companies in Amsterdam. Different strategies about “security from the Turk” are also put forward. In a legal case from 1666 about such insurance, it was mentioned that seamen were skeptical towards this shipping; a merchant wrote in a document that “no seaman will sail on that ship because of fear of the Turk.”16 A different kind of insurance, or systems of convoying to meet the risk of Turkish captivity, were discussed by Swedish merchants during the middle of the seventeenth century, and ideas of human security were transformed in this way into an important factor for a successful economic enterprise. On a state level, different non-coercive strategies towards human insecurity were formulated in 1668 when the Board of Trade decided that a peace treaty was needed. This had a humanitarian dimension where one of the motives was: “so that our subjects can trade under secure conditions”. This response reveals an awareness of the importance of the sailors. This was further underlined when, in the same year, the Board of Trade took the initiative of a collection of alms for the ransoming of captives.17 To accomplish peace with the most powerful state in North Africa, Algiers, the plan was to send the Jewish professional negotiator, Azeweda from Amsterdam, together with the Swede Eosander. Unfortunately this plan was cancelled because the ship was caught in ice, and because of certain political factors. Then a new expedition was planned, to be undertaken by Jöns Barkman in 1669. But this initiative was also cancelled when a group of powerful politicians objected with the argument that a Swedish peace with Algiers could create irritation in Holland and England.18 Swedish loyalties in European power politics become a hindrance, and the first step to a harmonization between state security and human security failed. 14 15 16 17 18 Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, vol. 15, 1662. Krëuger 1854, 25-26. Söderberg 1935, 140. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, Letter from the Board of Trade to His Royal Majesty, 1668, 26/4. Ekegård 1924, 252. 153 In 1671 the Swedish seamen in Barbary captivity were officially described as a serious problem in a national proclamation in the churches by the Queen Regent Hedevig Eleonora. Benevolence towards the seamen in bondage was her main argument: Everybody should give alms and show compassion towards these poor victims. This was the wish of the Queen Regent, and it was also motivated by the duty to love one’s neighbor. This view of the victim shows that the individual had a double relationship towards the sovereign: one bound to religion, and the other to the fatherland. Therefore the Queen concluded that there were two motives for collecting ransom funds for these individuals: to save their souls and to secure their bodies.19 This was a rather forceful reaction to a problem that was not yet very serious. At the same time, this announcement reflected one of the greatest fears during the second half of the seventeenth century: the fear of the Turk. In the mid-seventeenth century the salt trade between Sweden and Portugal was established, but Swedish merchants did not enter the Mediterranean extensively until the late 1690s.20 It is clear that the Swedish authorities and merchants were well aware of the risks of sailing in Southern waters, and that a number of strategies had already been put to the test to reduce the risk. During this period no insurance company existed in Sweden, nor was there any official organization for dealing with ransoming. The payment of ransoms depended on initiatives taken by the captives in their letters as a request, hoping for the goodwill of relatives, county governors, the Church, the Admiralty, the King, or the Board of Trade. For example, in 1699 the carpenter Jonas Thorson was captured by corsairs from Algiers, and in 1707 one of his many letters finally reached its destination, his parents in Karlskrona.21 In this letter he told them that he had been sold twice on the slave auction, and then asked them for help to request a collection of alms for his freedom. His parents took the letter to the magistrate and explained the situation. Then the magistrate contacted the county governor, who finally sent a letter to the King requesting national alms.22 Even former captives took the initiative to collect ransoms: for example, Mats “Moor” Börgesson in 1666, who was granted royal permission to collect ransom funds (probably for his comrades left behind in North Africa).23 These examples show that solutions to human insecurity could differ. There existed no formal organization to which the captives could send their letters, 19 20 21 22 23 Lunds universitetsbibliotek, Kongl: may:ts placat, om hielp til the fångnas i Turckiet åtherlösn. Stockholm, 1671. Müller 2004, 55. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: bihang Algerica, 1707. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, Landshövdingarnas skrivelser till Kungl. Majt Blekinge län vol. 2. Landshöv. Otter om en kollekt öfver hela riket för befrielse af sjömannen Jonas Thorson som blifigt tillfångatagen af sjöröfvare och såld till slaf. 1707, 26.7. Landsarkivet i Göteborg, Göteborgs rådhusrätts dombok, January 1666 (digital archive). 154 but as these instances demonstrate, help was given anyway. Because of the irregular system, it is quite difficult to give reliable answers about the results of the practice of human security. More research is needed in order to estimate how many people made it back home during this period. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the situation in Swedish society had changed in major ways – changes that would affect the outcome of human security in the Southern waters. The Realization of Human Security Following the end of the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, secure trading and the economy were of the utmost importance for the bankrupt Swedish state. The humanitarian disaster caused by the war and the downfall of Caroline absolutism resulted in a changed view of citizenship. This can be seen in the constitution of 1720, which, for example, caused Voltaire to declare Sweden to be the “the freest land in the world”. Rousseau called the constitution “an example of perfection” and Gabriel Bonnot de Mably called it “a masterpiece of modern legislation”.24 The disastrous war ended the Swedish era of great power and changed the attitude of many politicians. War was now believed to be the greatest threat to national security, and therefore economic development became a question of national security. With the end of the war, the protection of shipping in the Mediterranean received high priority. This can be seen in a couple of decisions. In 1724 the Swedish Convoy Office (Konvojkommissariatet) was founded, with the purpose of organizing and securing shipping in Southern Europe. Convoying, peace treaties with and consular service in North African states, and the ransoming of captured Swedes were now carried out under the umbrella of one institution. It was financed with the Extra-Licent, a duty established by merchants in 1723 to be paid on exports and imports.25 And in 1726 a decision was made to organize four national collections of alms each year to pay the ransoms of Swedes in Barbary captivity. During these years large amounts of money were collected through alms in Sweden. The Swedish Parliament also established a committee that would be responsible for these funds, the “Algerian Fund Office” (Riksens Ständers deputation öfwer det Algiereiska Fondwercket). As an example of the monetary sums involved, during the years 1755-1760 the Swedish state paid 130,000 Riksdaler for ransomed Swedish captives in Morocco. This amount is equivalent to approx. 5 million Euros today.26 What is important here is that these decisions show how the question 24 25 26 Roberts 1995, 91. Krëuger 1854, 25-27. Olán 1921, 108. 155 of human security was transferred to the state level, and that as a consequence the system became professionalized and institutionalized. Of great importance is the treaty made between Sweden and Algiers in 1729. This treaty was shaped along the lines of other treaties between European states and Algiers, and with it a consular service and the system of Algerian passports were established. The purpose of the treaty was to ensure trade security and, not least, that of the seamen. The Swedish treaty with Algiers also stated that the consul had the right to have a priest at the consulate and that Christian slaves had the right to attend the sermons. The religious aspect of human security was also followed up when Jacob Serenius, a Swedish priest in London, received permission to send “forbidden” hymn books to Swedish captives in Algiers and to other seamen sailing in these waters.27 State officials were also concerned about captives who were held in bondage for longer periods, that “these poor slaves without hope of ransoming should take injury to body and soul”.28 Compared to the political situation during the second half of the seventeenth century, when European power politics became a hindrance for a peace treaty with Algiers, Sweden gained a powerful ally in the beginning of the eighteenth century, namely the Sublime Porte. Together they were united against the common enemy, Russia. This, in turn, affected the relationship towards the North African states. According to David Gustaf Ankarloo, the Swedish consular secretary in Algiers (1801-10), the peace treaty with Algiers was struck under good conditions thanks to the agency of the Sublime Porte.29 With the changing political map, Swedish diplomats could now use the friendship of the Sublime Porte. Swedish diplomats too, for example, raised questions about security from corsairs from the Ottoman regencies Tunis and Tripoli.30 In 1737 the Swedish-Turkish economic relations were settled, and later strengthened with a treaty of commerce and a military alliance.31 According to the researcher Verner Söderberg, the relationship with the Sublime Porte resulted in cheaper treaties and tributes compared to countries such as Denmark, France, England and Spain.32 After the treaty with Algiers, treaties were made with Tunis (1736), Tripoli (1741) and Morocco in 1763. Another important institution during the middle of the eighteenth century was the organization of seamen’s establishments (Sjömanshus) in different cities. There are examples of seamen’s wives apply27 28 29 30 31 32 Jacobowsky 1930, 95. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, Marocko Tanger ang. 3ne svenskar utlösen ur slaveri in T. Composite offices to His Royal Majesty, 1737, 23.11, vol. 13. Lunds universitetsbibliotek, De la Gardieska collection, Codices VIII 32. Ankarloo, David Gustaf, Utdrag af mina bref till M.F., skrifna under mitt vistande i Alger[…]. 1802-1811. Eliasson 2005, 54. Karlson 2003, 52-55. Söderberg 1912, 94-95. Around a half billion Euros in today’s value was paid in total to the North African states. 156 ing for and receiving economic help when their men were enslaved, or worse, when they died in captivity. Ransomed seamen could also get economic help.33 Before the founding of seamen’s establishments, the Convoy Office could also give social funds to ransomed slaves.34 With the seamen’s establishments one can say that the human security aspect was in some way extended to the families of the victims. The consuls in different parts of the Mediterranean world also played an important role for the captives. The duties of the consuls were many. They collected business information, assisted the subjects of their home state in handling contacts with local authorities, and influenced the “protection costs” of the home state’s subjects by informing them of risks, and taking measures to diminish such risks.35 They also gave a helping hand to individuals during their captivity in states with no treaty. The latter is shown in letters by captives and in books written by former captives. In Marcus Berg’s book “Description of the barbarous slavery in the kingdom of Fez and Morocco” (1757), he portrays the help given by the consul in Algiers, George Logie. Berg writes that during their visit in Fez the survival of the group was totally dependent on the help that was given by George Logie, and according to Berg, Logie also gave them money without the permission of the Swedish state. Berg also writes that he met eight French captives who told him that they had received money and food from the Swedish consul George Logie, but non from the French consul.36 Help from a consul is also mentioned in a letter from four Swedish captives in Morocco, but this time from Consul Jakob Martin Bellman in Cadiz (the uncle of the famous Skald Michael Bellman).37 This contact probably meant a lot to the captives. It is also worth mentioning that George Logie is a common reference in a wide range of documents concerning the relationship between Sweden and the North African states. He was not only one of the most important actors in the politics behind peace treaties between Sweden and the North African states but also one of the most active agents of human security in his work of ransoming Swedes, as well as captives of other nationalities. His work was also well rewarded by the Swedish King when his service ended in 1758.38 As has been shown, different agendas were discussed during the seventeenth century in dealing with the threat from the Barbary corsairs. This continued during the eighteenth century. The question of a Swedish insurance system was raised to meet the fear of the Mediterranean waters. Many ship-owners were 33 34 35 36 37 38 Stockholms stadsarkiv, Sjömanshuset, Gratialansökningar 1749-1775 E IVa kolon 3, 17501756 E IVa kolon 1. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, ang. förskotterade medel för bl.a. underhåll åt lösgivna slavar 1732 23.5. City offices vol. 34. Müller 2004, 20. Berg 1757, 35. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Diplomatica Turcica: Bihang Maroccana, vol. 6, 7 May 1760. Krëuger 1854, 15, 240, 355, 399. 157 disappointed with the convoys – they were slow and difficult to organize in an adequate way – but were also skeptical of ideas of a Swedish insurance company: What if only the captain was insured and not the seamen? etc. The importance of this question was also demonstrated when even the government demanded an inquiry (1728) from the Board of Trade, the latter also noting the dilemma if only the skipper, rather than the whole crew, was covered by the insurance.39 These examples speak for themselves: The simple seaman should also be protected from the fear and risk of enslavement. During the seventeenth century there was not enough capital for the establishment of a Swedish insurance company, but in 1739 the “Stockholms sjöassuranskompani” (“Stockholm sea insurance company”) was established. Its purpose was to break the dependence on foreign companies. And, following this, a Swedish “slave insurance” was also created in 1745: “Insurance on the danger of the Turk and on human life” (“Om Försäkring på Fahra för Turcken och på Menniskiors lif”). This insurance was a direct copy of the Hamburg Laws, which date from 1731. The Hamburgian “Assekuranz- und HavarieOrdnung” (“Insurance and Damage Regulation”) was also copied directly by Denmark and Prussia. But this insurance was said to be unpopular in Sweden among the foreign companies. Information about the practical use of this insurance is not available yet, but it was probably of no great importance. Still, it is an interesting example of how people tried to deal with the fear of captivity and human security. The captivity of some hundreds of Swedish seamen, maybe up to a thousand in the end, received serious attention. It is noteworthy that the insurance makes a reference to the Admiralty’s “Sclav-Cassa” (slave fund). The term “Slaf-Cassa” is also used by the famous economist Anders Berch in one of his books (1747). According to him, the security for shipping in the Mediterranean was dependent on convoys and treaties. He also wrote that for the seamen there should also be “Slaf-Cassor” when peace was not possible with the corsairs, so that they would not fear sailing in the Southern waters.40 This term refers to the existing institutions, Sklavenkassen, in Copenhagen, Lübeck and Hamburg.41 The praxis was the same, but in Sweden the Konvojkommissariatet was the central institution for both ransoming and protection of the shipping. Previous analysis has shown that the implementation and realization of human security was related to different historical, political and cultural factors. In the following the analysis will highlight how the legal status of human security could differ in relation to the different political and cultural contexts during the beginning of the eighteenth century. 39 40 41 Söderberg 1935, 148-150. Berch 1747, 323. Ressel 2010. This volume. 158 The Political Culture of Human Security As already mentioned, the European praxis of ransoming was that every state was only responsible for its own subjects. Human security was in this sense limited to citizenship. Other limitations were set by cultural differences. This becomes clear if we compare European treaties regarding prisoners of war with the European peace treaties with the North African states. The praxis among Christian nations of not enslaving prisoners, or civilians, can be seen in an agreement between Sweden and Denmark from 1719. The treatment of the prisoners is regulated in detail. A prisoner of war should be held captive for a maximum of three weeks; he should be treated well and with compassion; he should not be put into any hostile prisons nor forced into any labour, and finally, the wounded or sick have the right to treatment and medicine so that they can be ransomed in good health.42 But in relation to non-Christian societies, these types of agreement were in general not considered applicable in Western Europe.43 The same can be said of the perspective from the other side. In the Swedish treaty with Algiers in 1729, the power relationship becomes clear if we look at the regulations for the captives. According to the treaty no Swedish subjects should be harmed or tortured, and no Swedish subject should be enslaved. If a slave flees to a Swedish warship, this person should be taken back (not according to the treaty with Tunis – in this case the slave is free). Finally, a Swedish subject cannot be forced to ransom a slave, even if the slave is his family member, nor can the slave’s owner be forced to sell against his will (the deal should be struck with both parties’ consent).44 From this we can draw the conclusion that human security is related to the contact between states, and that the animosity between the Muslim world and the Christian world played an important role in how human security was implemented. The legal standards in the Swedish treaty are also related to the international standard, where the more powerful states defined the level of human security. The stipulation of the lack of obligation to ransom subjects is also a blueprint from the English treaty with Algiers of 1682. According to Linda Colley this “meanness”, in terms of human security, was partly a function of the English state’s limited resources at this stage, but also plain meanness.45 The stipulation that the Swedish state, or other European states, was under no obligation to ransom its subjects can therefore partly be interpreted as a failure of human security, even if the treaty resulted in the ending of kidnapping. It is also important to highlight that the price for upholding the peace with 42 43 44 45 Lunds universitetsbibliotek, Cartel emellan Swerige och Danmark/om Krigs-fångarne slutet Stockholm den 30 April/11 Maji Åhr 1719. Rosas 2005, 48-50. Lunds universitetsbibliotek, Freds och handels tractat, emellan kongl. maj:t och cronan Swerige, och republiqven Alger, afhandlad och sluten i Alger then 5/16 aprilis åhr 1729. Colley 2002, 53. 159 the North African states was paid not only with gold, but also with large amounts of weapons and ammunition. In this sense the European states also made it possible for the North African states to continue to threaten their own seamen. It was easier to implement human security where the state had a monopoly of violence, at home. The system of human security that was established by the Swedish state had strict instructions, especially for the Algerian Sea Passes. In January 1730 the “Rules for Algerians Sea Passes” were published. According to the directions, an Algerian Sea Pass could only be given to Swedish skippers and to foreigners if they had been Swedish burghers for three years. Ship-owners had to swear an oath that they were the only owner, and that the pass should only be used on the ship at hand. The documents were then sent from the Magistrate to the Board of Trade, which then issued a pass. All changes regarding ownership had to be reported the Board of Trade. The Sea Pass was restricted to one journey, and when the ship got back home the skipper had to restore the pass to the Board of Trade within eight days if the harbor was in Stockholm, and in other cases within fourteen days to a county governor, who in turn was to restore the pass to the Board of Trade. The same strict regulations were given if the ship was sold on foreign ground. If somebody falsified or misused a pass on a foreign ship, the punishment was death. If a ship-owner gave false information on the pass, large sums of money were to be paid in fines. If a ship sailed without a sea pass, fines were given, and if a ship was captured without a sea pass, the skipper was – if he came back – punished with prison for one month. The fines were shared between the informer and the ransom for captured Swedish subjects in Turkey or Barbary. Fines were also given to any shipper who sailed in the Mediterranean without the Algerian Sea Pass, because this threatened the safety of the crew.46 This clearly shows the importance that was placed on the safety of the seamen. The importance of the correct use of the Algerian Sea Passes was also discussed among state officials. For example, in a document about the security of the Swedish shipping with respect to Algerian cruisers, the importance of following the rules given by passes was discussed: “when an Algerian galley closes in it should be met with friendship and according to the directives”.47 This was a reminder of the directives given in the peace treaty, but also a wish to avoid misunderstandings when Swedish ships were inspected. The strict standards of human security given by the directions of the Algerian Sea Passes were not only meant to protect the seamen from Muslims corsairs but also from “doubtful” merchants engaged in long-distance shipping. This new attitude might also explain the diplomatic conflict between Sweden 46 47 Sandklef 1952, 88-89. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, ang. säkerhet för svenska sjöfaranden mot algeriska kryssare 1743 6.9. Composite officers vol. 15. 160 and Hamburg. This conflict began in 1731 with a request from the Swedish resident at Hamburg, Carl Christoph Stralenheim, to responsible authorities in Hamburg. Stralenheim was instructed to act for the ransoming of 10-12 enslaved Swedes, left in Algiers, who had been caught while serving on Hamburg bottoms.48 This type of request was unusual, maybe unique, between European states at this stage, but the request might be explained by the cultural similarities and the long tradition of economic alliances and friendship between Sweden and Hamburg.49 The debate, in which the Swedes pushed hard for the security of their subjects, can be followed in a numbers of documents in the archives to the end of 1746.50 As an aftermath to this diplomatic controversy, the King and the Board of Trade officially proclaimed in 1748 that Swedish subjects sailing under a foreign flag must ensure their security through the responsible shipping company to avoid the risk of becoming enslaved by any of the African states.51 This was both a warning and a recommendation from the state. Swedish state officials put forward a ransoming request when Swedes were captured on Danish ships, which was implemented, and in turn also helped Danes in captivity in Morocco.52 In these cases we can see that cultural resemblances and contacts had a positive effect on human security. It is therefore important to keep in mind that cultural values and contact between states also gave form and substance to the political process of human security. Conclusion Today, human security is described as an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities. Its proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. It is well known that policies for state security do not necessarily include policies for human security. States are in many cases providers of human insecurity outside as well as inside their own borders. There48 49 50 51 52 Hamburger Staatsarchiv 111-1 Senat C1. VII Lit. Ca. Nr. 2, vol. 3, Fasc. 5a, Document 1. Kellenbenz 1958; Hildebrand 1884. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index, Medelhavet ang. tryggandet av sjöfarten i Medelhavet samt ang. den s.k. slavkassan i Hamburg m.m. Chancellery office to His Royal Majesty 1735 30.1 vol. 23. ang. svenska slavars utlösande i A. Composite offices to His Royal Majesty 1738 12.4 vol. 13. ang. den i algeriska slaveriet varande fältskiären Hiedenreichs 1740 5.2 Composite offices vol. 14. ang. säkerhet för svenska sjöfaranden mot algeriska kryssare 1743 6.9. Composite offices vol. 15. ang. några svenska slavars i A. utlösande genom kollekter 1746 6.12. Chancellery office vol. 37. Publication, angående the swenske siömän utlösen, som under främmande flagg blifwa fångne, 20 June 1748. Landsarkivet Sjælland – EA-001 Sjællands Stift Bispeembde - 1715-1758 Kopibog for udgaaede breve vedr. slavekassen - Bind 1734-1745. fol. 235-239. Riksarkivet Stockholm, Topographic index. Danmark ang. ur marockansk fångenskap utlösta danska undersåtar. Composite offices to His Royal Majesty 1766 1.7, vol. 19a. 161 fore situations where state security and human security are combined are highly interesting to study. This article has used the relationship between Sweden and the North African states as an example of this. This analysis has shown the complex process of human security from 16601760: how human insecurity was identified, how solutions were implemented, the realization of human security, and what political and cultural factors affected this process. It is clear that the Swedish security policy was not only orientated towards state concerns but definitely also humanitarian and responded to ordinary people’s needs when dealing with sources of threats. An interesting shift in the relationship between Sweden and the North African states began around 1720. With the establishment of the Swedish Convoy Office, the policies of national security and human security started to mutually reinforce each other. This was believed to be the most effective tool for the Swedish state to accomplish further economic development in the Mediterranean world. The professionalization and institutionalization of the human security policy (consulates, consuls, Sea Passes etc.) also made it easier for individuals such as George Logie to act more freely as agents of human security, compared to their predecessors. The difficult practice of human security during the Early Modern epoch was partly a function of the state’s limited resources, but different historical, political and cultural variables also played an important role. The complex working of these factors has been highlighted. The Protestant Reformation, Lutheranism, the outcome of the disastrous Great Northern war, and the alliance with the Sublime Porte, were all factors that gave form and substance to the praxis of Swedish human security. In summary, this article has shown that cultural, political and historical factors played an important role for how human security could be carried out in different parts of Early Modern Europe. References Printed Sources Berch, Anders. Inledningen till Almänna huhållningen, innefattande grunden til Politie, oeconomie och Cameral Wetenskapare. Stockholm, 1747. Berg, Marcus. Beskrifning Öfwer Barbariska Slafweriet Uti Kejsaredömet Fez och Marocco i korthet förtattad af Marcus berg, som tillika med många andra Christna det samma utstådt Twenne År och Siu Dagar, och derifrån blifwit utlöst tillika med Åtta stycken andra Swenska den 30 Augusti 1756. Stockholm: Lor. Ludv Grefing, 1757. Human Development Report 1994 – New Dimensions of Human Security (1994). <http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1994> (accessed July 29, 2010). Human Security Report Project. <http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/ aboutUs.php> (accessed July 29, 2010). 162 References Arne, Ture Jonsson. Svenskarna och Österlandet. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1952. Colley, Linda. Captives. Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600-1850. New York: Anchor Books, 2002. Ekegård, Einar. Studier i svensk handelspolitik under den tidigare frihetstiden. Uppsala: Diss. Uppsala: Univ., 1924. Ekman, Carl. Amiralitets-armbössan och amiralitets-krigsmanskassan. Karlskrona: Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet, 1962. Eliasson, Henrik. “Handel och allianser. Sveriges förbindelser med Osmanska riket.” Dragomanen 9 (2005): 49-64. Forsell, Arne, and Granstedt Erik. Prästerståndets riksdagsprotokoll 1642-166. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1949. Hildebrand, Emil. “Den svenska diplomatins organisation i Tyskland under 1600talet.” Historisk Tidskrift (4) (1884). Jacobowsky, C. Vilhelm. Svenskar i främmande land under gångna tider. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri aktiebolag, 1930. Karlson, Åsa. “Familjen Celsing och de svensk-osmanska relationerna under 1700talet.” In Minnet av Konstantinopel: den osmansk-turkiska 1700-talssamlingen på Biby, edited by Karin Ådahl, 35-74. Stockholm: Atlantis, 2003. Kellenbenz, Hermann. “Hamburgs Beziehungen zu Schweden und die Garantieakte von 1674.” In Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte 44 (1958). Krëuger, Johan Henrik. Sveriges förhållande till Barbareskstaterna i Afrika. Stockholm: Norstedt, 1854. Lundström, Herman. “Sverige – protestantismens skyddsmakt i Europa.” In Kyrkohistorisk Årsbok. Uppsala: Svenska kyrkohistoriska föreningen, 1906. Müller, Leos. Consuls, Corsairs, and Commerce. The Swedish Consular Service and Long-distance Shipping, 1720-1815. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. 2004. Östlund, Joachim. Lyckolandet, Maktens legitimering i officiell retorik från stormaktstid till demokratins genombrott. Lund: Sekel bokförlag, 2007. Olán, Eskil. Sjörövarna på Medelhavet och Levantiska Compagniet. Historien om Sveriges gamla handel med Orienten. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1921. Ressel, Magnus. “The North European Way of Ransoming: Explorations into an unknown dimension of the Early Modern Welfare State.” Historical Social Research 35 (4) (2010): 125-147. Roberts, Michael. Sverige under frihetstiden 1719-1772. Stockholm: Prisma, 1995. Rosas, Allan. The Legal Status of Prisoners of War. A Study in International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts. Åbo: Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, 2005. Sandklef, Albert. Allmogesjöfart på Sveriges västkust 1575-1850. Lund: Gleerup, 1973. Söderberg, Tom. Försäkringsväsendets historia i Sverige intill Karl Johanstiden. Stockholm: Wesmanns skandinaviska försäkringsfond, 1935. Söderberg, Verner. “Sveriges mellanhafvanden med Tripolis.” Svensk tidskrift (1912): 91-110 163 The Danish Algerian Sea Passes, 1747-1838: An Example of Extraterritorial Production of Human Security Erik Gøbel Abstract: »Die “Algerischen Seepässe” Dänemarks, 1747-1838: Ein Beispiel der extraterritorialen Produktion humaner Sicherheit«. This paper discusses the Danish “Algerian sea passes”, 1747-1838, as an example of production of “Human Security”. Since the seventeenth century, privateers from the Barbary States (i.e. Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia, and Tripoli) had seized ships under the Danish flag and captured the sailors. Often they were ransomed, in the beginning by family members and from 1715 by the Slave Fund in Copenhagen. Beginning in 1746, however, Denmark signed peace treaties with the Barbary States. Thereafter Danish shipmasters would carry so-called Algerian sea passes which secured safe passage. The system worked well until after 1830 when the privateering business stopped. The Danish authorities issued 28,000 Algerian sea passes which produced specifically “Human Security” for hundreds of thousands of Danish sailors. Insights into this system may challenge our notion of the so-called “Westphalian System”. Keywords: Security at sea, maritime insurance, sea pass, Slave Fund, Barbary States, privateering, Danish maritime history. Introduction The concept of “human security” as it was formulated in 1994 by the United Nations Development Report is a very visible reflection of a marked change of the meaning of “security” in our contemporary world.1 The older, allegedly narrower focus on the military security of nation-states within this field has been more and more relativized and the security of the individual, dubbed “human security”, has become the ultimate goal, at least within the discourse.2 Whereas in the time of the Cold War, a “production of security” meant an easing of tensions between the blocs, nowadays an aspired “production of human security” can serve as justification to infringe on the sovereignty of nation-states.3 One of the qualitatively “new” elements is said to be the de 1 2 3 Address all communications to: Erik Gøbel, The Danish National Archives, Rigsdagsgården 9, 1218 Copenhagen, Denmark; email: [email protected]. I wish to thank Magnus Ressel for useful remarks on an earlier version of this paper. Human Development Report 1994. On the discourse, see: Gasper 2005. See e.g.: Kaldor 2007, 182-197. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 164-189 territorialization of “security production”, often constructed in opposition to a state-based “Westphalian System”.4 This dichotomical construction shall serve here as the starting point for an essay on a specific mode of “production of human security” during the Early Modern Era. If there was a given “Westphalian System”, in which clearly defined rules and demarcations ensured stability and security5, it may be of interest to look at the fringes of it in order to see more clearly its peculiarities and the weaknesses of such a branding. Serving as an example here is the Kingdom of Denmark, a medium-sized power within Early Modern Europe and the Northern African regencies. These were the so-called Barbary States in Northern Africa – Morocco, Tunisia, Tripoli, and especially Algiers, all of which threatened the most basic security of the Danish6 King’s subjects in two ways, as they both raided Danish coasts and seized Danish ships.7 Any territorially based mode of securing the King’s subjects was impossible since most of the danger lured in international waters, i.e. was extraterritorial. Therefore the ways in which a classical European power reacted towards this difficult and often unsolvable threat may give us profound insights into the underlying systems of both sides at large. In this essay the intention is to specify in detail what this danger meant, where it lured and how it was met. The aim of the following is to give a complex example of extraterritorial “production of human security” during the Early Modern Era and thereby enrich our understanding of issues of security production for individuals in a time and international system which is perhaps too narrowly simply called “Westphalian”. The Threat to “Human Security” The Danish King’s subjects living in the islands of the North Atlantic were the ones most threatened by the corsairs from Northern Africa. The corsairs sent, from the sixteenth century, sailing expeditions to the Faroe Islands and Iceland among other places where they went ashore, plundered, killed, and captured many people whom they took as prisoners to Northern Africa. This kind of terror culminated in the early seventeenth century. They landed, for instance in 1627, in several places in Iceland and made more than a hundred people captives after having robbed and destroyed the 4 5 6 7 An overview and a critical examination of this idea is given in: Bacon 2001. It may be remarked that the idea of a “Westphalian” system is not very popular among historians, see e.g.: Duchhardt 1999. The Danish Kings ruled over Denmark, Schleswig, Holstein, Southern Sweden (until 1658), Norway, Faroe Islands, and Greenland, as well as small tropical colonies. In this article, “Danish” refers to all of these possessions. A general history of Danish shipping can be found in Degn and Gøbel 1997; Feldbæk 1997; and Møller 1998. A history of Danish shipping with special regard to the Barbary States, Algerian sea passes etc. can be found in Gøbel 1982-1983; and in Rheinheimer 2001. 165 villages. The same year Algerians killed at least thirty-four people and took with them as prisoners 242 inhabitants from the small island of Heimaey off the southern coast of Iceland.8 In 1629, they carried off thirty women from the settlement of Hvalba in the Faroe Islands.9 The Barbaresques also landed in many other places in Northwest Europe. In 1631, two Barbaresque vessels attacked Baltimore near Cork in Ireland where they took 111 captives, and five years later they went ashore just twelve miles from Bristol and took prisoners; thus 2,000 people were captured and carried away from that region in 16341635.10 Such raids went on for a very long time, as two Tunisian ships cruised in 1817 near the Thames where they seized a vessel from Hamburg and another from Lübeck.11 In order to prevent this odious practice the Danish King sent out men-of-war on several occasions. For instance the ‘Lindormen’ and the ‘Gabriel’, in 1638, whose commanders were instructed “to cruise diligently around the Faroe Islands and Iceland in order to prevent the Turks or others from molesting the King’s subjects”.12 Again, in 1687, a flotilla of six men-of-war was equipped in order to fight against the Moslems in the North Sea around Helgoland and the Elbe’s estuary. But of course the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, and Italy were the most endangered by raids from the nearby Barbary States. Another kind of threat to human security was the fact that vessels from the Barbary Coast often attacked Christian shipping, captured ships and cargoes and made the crew members prisoners in Northern Africa. This had happened since the Middle Ages, but as European trade and shipping increased through the centuries, the Barbaresque problem became more and more serious, also to Danish sailors, shipowners, and merchants. Danish shipping to the Mediterranean had been very limited before the eighteenth century.13 But as time went on the Barbary seizures became a significant problem to ships under the Danish flag in the Mediterranean as well as in the Atlantic off North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Several Danish ships were seized and the eyewitness accounts of that time clearly reflect the fact that the exotic Barbaresques made up a formidable threat to the Christian sailors, who were unable to communicate with them and who were frightened by the hard fate they expected as slaves in the Barbary. We do have a description of such an encounter at sea.14 The ‘Jomfru Christina’, mastered by Hans Thode Gram, departed from its home port Trondheim on 7 September 1769 bound for Lisbon. A month later Cape Finisterre (i.e. the 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Helgason 1997. Wandel 1919,1. Barnby 1970, 27-29; Field 1932, 277-282. Wandel 1919, 120. Bricka 1885-2005, 11 April 1638 and 01 April 1633. Feldbæk 1997, 232. Cf. Bang and Korst 1930, 144-145, 178-179. Moss 1773. Other accounts are e.g. Diderich 1756; and Ravn 1754; and Jacobsen 1821. 166 north-westernmost point of Spain) was sighted, and three days afterwards when the ship was just north of Lisbon, a vessel was sighted to the windward at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. As it approached we became anxious that it might be a Turkish privateer, but did neither expect it to be an Algerian nor that they had declared war on Denmark. Therefore we had confidence in our Turkish sea pass which we had acquired not long ago. As the other vessel came closer it fired a bow cannon so that the cannonball passed us close to our stern. We had no choice but to clew up our course and heave to as the wind was almost calm. When the other vessel came so close that its crew was able to call us, we were ordered to come onboard the privateer and produce our passport15 … Our master went there by the ship’s boat manned by four sailors. The four stayed in the boat waiting for the master to return. After having waited for some time, a lot of Turks and Moors came down and took us onboard their vessel. We became very frightened as we thought they would kill us … Thereupon the Turks took possession of our boat and rowed to our ship. Upon their approach our shipmates heard their strange chattering speech and became aware of the many people, they could not figure out what all this meant. But when they came to our ship it became clear that they were Turks, and they entered the ship like ravenous lions, chased the helmsman away, stroke our Danish colours, and sent our remaining six shipmates down into the ship’s boat. Some of the Turks took the captured sailors to their own xebec, while the rest of them took possession of our ship – which they considered as a lawful prize16. A week earlier the same privateers had succeeded in taking the ‘Rigernes Ønske’ of Copenhagen, so the xebec could disembark a total of twenty Danish prisoners in Algiers. This happened when Algiers had just broken the peace with Denmark, but under normal circumstances the Danes would be allowed to pass without hindrance after having produced their Algerian sea pass. Before the peace treaties were signed, the Danes often avoided being attacked by demonstrating their will to defend themselves. This was the case, for instance, in 1672 near the Canary Islands when the large armed frigate, the ‘Oldenburg’, deterred four Moslem privateers from attacking by showing all its cannons and handguns.17 The Moslems were, however, not definitively illegal pirates. They considered themselves, as did their rulers, as participants in a kind of holy war against the infidels – and thereby qualified as privateers. A privateer (or corsair) was as a rule a private warship authorized by its own government by a letter of marque to capture enemy shipping for profit during a war and to bring their prizes before a prize court. Some privateering vessels were owned partly or even 15 16 17 Danish National Archives, Kommercekollegiet, Algiersk søpasprotokol no. 202, passport no. 111/1769. Moss 1773, 3-7. Henningsen 1953, 52. 167 wholly by governments or princes. Privateering was a different practice from pirates who would attack all vessels at all times and simply take ship, cargo, and crew just like that. Privateering was abolished from international maritime law by the Paris declaration of 1856.18 Figure 1 On 4 October 1769 the Danish ship ‘Rigernes Ønske’ of Copenhagen (in the middle) was seized by an Algerian settee armed with ten guns (to the right). The Danish captives were transferred to the Admiral’s xebec (to the left) which took them to Algiers a month later. Contemporary drawing by Christian Børs who was among the captivated. (Bergen Maritime Museum). The most important base for the privateers was Algiers, but privateering expeditions were also equipped in the ports of Morocco, Tunisia, and Tripoli. The Strait of Gibraltar and the Sicily Channel, which are ten and one hundred-andforty kilometres wide respectively, were the most frequently used hunting grounds. On the other hand, the narrowness of the Strait of Gibraltar meant that in 1796, for instance, the Danish consul Lynch in Gibraltar could send a small boat out west in order to warn Danish shipping entering the Mediterranean that the prince of Algiers had started, in spite of the peace treaty, to seize Danish ships. The Swedes, it can be added, warned their shipping in the same way.19 Ships which were not bound for the Mediterranean were instructed to keep at safe distance from the danger. Thus the West India and Guinea Company’s 18 19 Montmorency 1976, 258-259. Danish National Archives, Board of Commerce, box 1063, Royal resolution of 23 November 1796; Olán 1921, 151. 168 commanders had orders to steer a course west of the Canary Islands so as not to come into sight of these islands and thereby “risk to meet the Turks who often cruise in those waters”; the same held true with regard to the Cape Verde Islands.20 The ships’ articles of the Asiatic Company likewise stated that everybody onboard the large India-men and China-men should be prepared to defend the ship against the Barbary privateers and be ready to die if necessary. Even the ship’s chaplain onboard the ‘Kronprinsen’ en route from Copenhagen to Tranquebar in India in June 1709 had to participate in preparations for defence when a privateer approached.21 As a rule privateers operated first and foremost from April to October, as they wintered in harbour for the rest of the year, as did much European shipping. Most seizures took place in the Mediterranean or within a semicircle within Cape Finisterre, the Azores, and the Canaries. The privateers often lay waiting near the ports, but sometimes they operated instead on the open sea, even as far away as the fishing grounds off Newfoundland. Two or three vessels would operate together and normally only attack weak opponents such as fishing boats or other small vessels. The privateers, on the other hand, were characterized by being fast sailing and effective ships equipped with many sails, much armour, and large crews.22 The size of the total privateering fleet is not known. But the Moroccans, for instance, would have as a rule a fleet of only twelve large and small vessels. Thus, in 1766, they had four frigates armed with sixteen to forty-five cannons and 130 to 330 men, three xebecs with twelve to sixteen guns and 120 to 126 men, as well as three gallions with four to eight guns and 80 to 120 men.23 Traditionally it has been supposed that the privateering business and slavery were essential elements of the economy of the Barbary States, and that the total number of enslaved Europeans was a little higher than one million.24 It has been demonstrated, however, that this was not the case,25 even though 20,000 Christians were kept as slaves in Algeria alone between 1621 and 1627, while the number was a little more than 36,000 in all Barbary together in 1680.26 The latest estimate is that around 180,000 persons were enslaved during the golden days of the corsairs, namely from 1574 to 1644.27 In the eighteenth century, the 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Danish National Archives, West India and Guinea Company, box 27, Instruction of 31 October 1682, par. 11, and instruction of 08 November 1689, par. 4; box 29, Instruction of 10 July 1697; etc. Articler 1752, 32-33; Hans Mesler’s journal. Corresponding rules, dated 18 February 1636, can be found with regard to other mercantile shipping, cf. Secher 1897, 656. Coindreau 1948, 99-101, 113-123. Høst 1779, 175-176. Davis 2003, 3-26. Braudel 1966, 190-212; Weiner 1979, 205. Dan 1684, 310. Panzac 2009, 137-138. 169 number of Christian slaves in Algeria had been reduced to 2,000-3,000, and in the early nineteenth century it was only 1,200.28 Ransom Money An important purpose behind making Christian sailors captives was the possibility of obtaining ransom money from their homes. Therefore, slaves were allowed to write home to their families or authorities and in some instances a few selected slaves were allowed to go home in order to give information about the prisoners, their harsh conditions, and the possibilities for ransoming them. Letters from slaves can be found scattered in Danish and German archives.29 For very long it was up to family and friends to raise the often very large amounts of money necessary to ransom their loved ones from slavery. In many instances, nevertheless, they succeeded, often after having raised a collection in the churches. Severe problems remained, however, in having the money transferred safely to Africa and in seeing to it that the right persons were ransomed. Instead of such individual actions it was realized that it would be much more expedient if a more general and coordinated effort could be established. Through the 1620s sporadic collections of ransom money had been arranged by Danish authorities. But on 2 August 1630, the King and his Council decided that 20,000 rix-dollars should be used for ransoming Danish prisoners from the Barbary States. The large sum turned out, however, to be insufficient to ransom all slaves, so extra money still had to be collected in the early 1640s.30 Seventy of the prisoners taken at Heimaey were still alive in Algeria in 1635 – half of them were ransomed and came home in the summer of 1637, the rest never returned and we do not know their fate.31 It must be supposed, however, that some may have escaped, some have converted to Islam, some have been exchanged for Moslems captured by Christian powers, some may have been ransomed by other Europeans, and some have arranged for their own release.32 In the late seventeenth century, ransom money had become ordinary alms to be asked for in Denmark, either by relatives of slaves or by general collections in the churches. In order to arouse pity in the churchgoers wooden figurines of sailors in chains were exhibited at the church doors.33 28 29 30 31 32 33 Bennett 1960. E.g. Rheinheimer 1999; Rheinheimer 2001; Møller 1998. Bricka 1885-2005, e.g. 2 August 1630, 12 September 1634, 22 December 1636, 18 January 1639, and 9 March 1637; cf. Erslev 1887-1888, 230, 242-243; Braudel 1966, 209-211. Blöndal 1924, 52-72. For instance Bricka 1885-2005, 9 March 1637 and 3 January 1639. E.g. Rheinheimer 2001, 27. 170 Figure 2 Algerian sea pass issued on 5 January 1781 for the ship ‘de Friede’ of Bergen, burthen 67 lasts, commanded by Hans Ellertsen, and bound for Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies. The size of the parchment is 30x40 cm. It is written on the sea pass that the shipowner had taken his oath that vessel and cargo was Danish property. The top section was cut off along the wavy line. (Danish National Archives) An addition to the church collections were the small amounts of money which were provided by the shipmasters’ associations in Bergen and Copenhagen.34 From 1653 and 1707, respectively, every shipmaster and mate paid a small part of their wages, so-called ransom money, to help free Danish sailors from slavery in the Barbary States. From 1715 the money was administered by 34 Hassø 1934, 15, 52, 81-83, 122. 171 the Danish envoy in Brussels who had, before that, been responsible for recovering Danish ships captured by European privateers.35 At that time a number of ships under the Danish flag were seized. The large armoured frigate ‘St. Christopher’ from Bergen with a crew of forty men was taken when it was homebound from Leghorn in June 1706.36 On this occasion the King allowed a collection both in the churches and at peoples’ homes. The revenues were to be administered by the municipal authorities in Bergen to ransom the ship’s officers and as many ordinary sailors as possible. In August 1708, the ‘Fortuna’ of Drammen was seized en route to Cadiz and taken to Algeria, and in August 1712 two more ships under Danish colours were seized on their way home from Portugal and Spain. Supplications from relatives to the King resulted in a comprehensive collection all over his realm. The results were not satisfactory, as all slaves could not be ransomed. For instance twenty-nine out of the forty men from ‘St. Christopher’ were still held as slaves in 1714, and had been so for eight years. Some prisoners, most often masters or mates, succeeded in freeing themselves. Sometimes they borrowed the necessary ransom money from their shipowners or others at home, but often these sums were so high that they could not meet their obligations once they had come back home and had to spend the rest of their lives in poverty.37 The Slave Fund, 1715 In 1715, the slave issue had become a matter of urgency, as more than eighty of the King’s subjects were held as prisoners in Algeria alone.38 The King issued therefore, on 12 April 1715, three ordinances.39 The first one introduced a duty on all shipping to France, Spain, England, Portugal, and Holland, namely three shillings per commercial last of burthen.40 The second ordinance decreed that on two Sundays every year collections should be held in all churches, after the pastors had aroused Christian pity in their flocks. The collected money was to be sent to the Slave Fund in Copenhagen which was established by the third ordinance. The Fund should also receive the afore-mentioned money from the shipmasters’ associations, which was extended, in 1716, to all ports and fixed at two shillings per rix-dollar for shipmasters and mates and at one for ordinary 35 Danish National Archives, Danske Kancelli, Indlæg til Sjællandske Tegnelser 174, 175, and 177/1715 (box D.21-20). Møller 1998, 104; Fossen 1979, 240. 37 Møller 1998, 108. 38 Ibid. 39 Fogtmann 1786-1854, 12 April 1715. – The latest survey of the history of insurance in Denmark is Feldbæk et al. 2007. 40 Danish ships were measured in commercial lasts which roughly equalled a carrying capacity of 2.6 tons. Cf. Møller 1974; Müller 2004, 242. 36 172 sailors – respectively two and one percent, that is.41 Thus, the collections contributed about one half of the money in the Slave Fund, while money from sailors and ships made up the other half.42 (By decree of 26 November 1768, the duty on burthen was abolished, and afterwards only crew-members on vessels with an Algerian sea pass had to pay the so-called ransom money. This had to be paid until 1827).43 Appointed as members of the Slave Fund Commission were a bishop and two competent merchants.44 The Commission had to find the best ways of ransoming slaves, if necessary after having consulted experts in this field. First of all the commissioners should ransom slaves from the Barbary States, and keep accounts of the Slave Fund as well as of the numbers and names of the ransomed slaves. The funds might be increased a little by trying to have ransom money paid for the Turk prisoners who were held in Copenhagen. Finally, the Commission was ordered to present an annual report on their activities and the results. Ordinary marine insurance was not relevant with regard to the odious practice of Moslem privateering. First, it could not be considered as piracy because the privateers were authorized by their governments, and second, there was no war declared against the North Africans. As time went on, special slave insurance was developed, but it was not in common use in Scandinavia. A few shipmasters and mates were, nevertheless, insured in order to make sure that a certain amount of ransom money would be paid out.45 Ransom money fluctuated quite a lot according to circumstances. A shipmaster cost, for example, more than an ordinary sailor, and the amounts also changed over time.46 During the 1630s, ransom money is known to have fluctuated from less than one hundred rix-dollars to almost six hundred rix-dollars.47 In 1714, two shipmasters ransomed themselves at 3,200 and 2,350 rix-dollars each. At the same time a sailor was ransomed for a little less than four hundred rix-dollars, but even that was a sum much larger than what an ordinary family could afford.48 From 1715 to 1736, the Slave Fund Commission ransomed 163 41 Fogtmann 1786-1854, 13 mar 1716; Schou 1777-1850, 13 March 1716. Wandel 1919, 9. 43 Fossen 1979; Kong Friderich den Fierdes Forordninger fra Aar 1707 til 1708 1708, Copenhagen Shipmasters’ Association’s articles of 25 January 1707, par. 16; Schou 17771850, 13 March 1716; Fogtmann 1786-1854, 12 April 1715; Forordning … over … Told, Consumption og Accise … 26de Novembr. Ao 1768 (Copenhagen, 1768): chapt. 21; Forordning om Tolden og Kiøbstad-Consumtionen … 1ste Februarii 1797 (Copenhagen, 1797): par. 367; Schou 1777-1850, 21 August 1747. 44 Instructions for the Slave Fund Commission can be found in Danish National Archives, Danske Kancelli, Sjællandske Tegnelser 177/1715 (box D.20-9). 45 Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 157-167; Lorange 1935, 74 Söderberg 1935, 139-140, 148-151. 46 E.g. Høst 1779, 157. 47 Bricka 1885-2005, 4 October 1627, 2 March 1636, and 9 April 1641; Fossen 1979, 240. 48 Møller 1998, 108. 42 173 Danish subjects for 154,649 rix-dollars or 949 rix-dollars on average, an average which was valid until the Slave Fund was closed down in 1754.49 When, on the other hand, a Danish man-of-war was lying in the roads of Algiers for instance, the prices were drastically reduced. Thus, the ‘Delmenhorst’ ransomed prisoners at eighty rix-dollars per person in 1746, and nine years later the ‘Fyen’ had a slave at only thirty-nine rix-dollars.50 We do not know how many of the Danish King’s subjects were slaves in the Barbary States during the centuries for shorter or longer periods. Even though the number of seizures declined after the middle of the eighteenth century, the number of enslaved Danes probably amounted to thousands. We do know that from 1716 to 1754, the Barbary privateers seized no less than nineteen Danish vessels with 208 men onboard, and when the Staten van Holland, in 1682, ransomed 178 slaves in Algeria who had been engaged on Dutch ships, seven Danes were among the liberated.51 The Danish Slave Fund Commission, nevertheless, would not ransom Danish subjects who had been engaged on foreign vessels.52 The commissioners reported proudly, in 1736, that at that time no Dane was held prisoner in the Barbary States.53 Very soon after its establishment the Slave Fund had engaged local representatives in the financial centres of Hamburg and Amsterdam, as well as the merchant Johannes Pommer in Venice, from where he managed the ransoming business on behalf of the Danes. Between 1715 and 1753 the Fund and its representatives ransomed a total of 224 slaves. Before 1746 fourteen ships were captured and 180 slaves ransomed, i.e. on average 0.5 ships and 6.0 ransomed slaves per year. From 1748 to 1754 it amounted to five seized ships and 44 ransomed seamen, i.e. on average 0.7 and 6.3 respectively per year.54 Even though more ships were seized and more sailors were to be ransomed, the Algerian sea passes were a success as the trade and shipping activities under the Danish colours in the Mediterranean increased at an even higher rate, as demonstrated for instance in the Sound Toll Registers.55 It must be added briefly that many other privateers operated in European waters, yet without taking sailors as slaves. Especially ill-famed were the Maltese Knights and the corsairs of Zeeland during the War of the Spanish Succes- 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 Wandel 1919, 6-9; Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 161-163; cf. Lorange 1935, 74. J. J. Ihnen, Journal was auf der im Jahre 1746 von … C VI nach der mittelländischen See … ausgesandten … Orlog-Schiffe Delmenhorst … sich vorgetragen (copy in Danish National Maritime Museum after manuscript in Stadtarchiv Aurich): 32; Zimmer 1927, 78. Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 157-167; Vries 1684, 160-168. Rheinheimer 2001, 29-30. Wandel 1919, 6. Bro-Jørgensen 1935, 160-164. Bang and Korst 1930. 174 sion. But by far the most seizures were done by British and French privateers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.56 Figure 3 Typical pages of an Algerian sea pass protocol, 1795. The first ships’ names are ‘Anna Dorothea’, ‘Kron Printz Friderich’, ‘Christian Severin’, and ‘die Hoffnung’. Home ports are Copenhagen, Christiansand, Farsund, and Apenrade. Destinations include Saint Croix, Genoa, the Mediterranean, and Lisbon. (Danish National Archives). Treaties, 1746-1845 All Christian seafaring nations experienced the same problems with the Barbary privateers, even great maritime powers such as Britain, the Netherlands, and France. Even though several authors recommended common action against the Moslems, no such action was taken.57 So, the seafaring nations had to cope with the problem on an individual basis – and ended by signing peace treaties with the Barbary States. These, except for Morocco, were not states as such, however, but peripheral territories under the control of the Ottoman Empire. It may seem a little strange to sign a peace treaty in such cases where no war had been declared, but according to Islamic law there was by definition an eternal war going on against the Christians. 56 57 Feldbæk 1997. E.g. Project 1721; Herrmann 1815. 175 The peace treaties were as a rule made after the same pattern. The Europeans promised to deliver once-and-for-all presents as well as annual presents typically consisting first and foremost of bullion, weapons, ammunition, and pretiosa. Even though this was very expensive, it was considered less expensive than the alternative which would be protection by men-of-war of the merchantmen in convoys, a practice which was rather slow and complicated to organize. In return for the presents the Christian mercantile shipping would not be disturbed by the Moslem privateers. This would be secured by providing the merchantmen with a special kind of sea passports which were cut into two pieces, of which the upper part was sent to the Barbary States while the large lower part with the text, which was in a European language, was to be carried by the shipmaster.58 As neither privateers nor European seamen were able to read or understand the spoken language of their counterparts they simply produced their own part of the passport – and if the parts fitted together the European ship should be allowed to pass on without any hindrance. The Christian seafaring nations made use of individual wave lines to cut their passes.59 Entering into a treaty with the Dey of Algiers was discussed in Denmark for a long time, especially after Sweden had concluded such a treaty in 1729.60 The Danish Slave Fund Commission gave their opinion on the matter, in 1736, and suggested to the King a draft which was very much like the text of the peace treaty which was – after futile efforts at contact in 1738 and 1742 – signed by Denmark and Algeria on 10 August 1746.61 In the treaty, King Frederik the Fourth and Dey Ibrahim Pasha assure that they will live in peace with each other for ever, and that “all ships, be they small or large, should never in any way cause each other any harm or damage” (paragraph one);62 the ships must not delay each other (paragraph three); and “when an Algerian privateer meets one of His Majesty’s subjects’ ships, the Algerians may only approach the ship with a barge manned with two persons in addition to the bargemen, no more than two persons are allowed onboard the 58 59 60 61 62 Foreign sea passes are shown e.g. in Müller 2004, 145; Bowen 1926, 189; Granville 1924, 32. Harboe 1839, 418; Henningsen 1970, 17. Müller 2004, 55-60; Boëthius 1922, 99-106. Holm 1897, 159-161; and Holm 1898, 204-211; Bjerg 1996; Wandel 1919, 6-11; Andersen 2000, 37-54; Danish National Archives, Foreign Department of the German Chancery, Special Part, Barbary States, box 1, Report of 13 October 1736 from the Slave Fund Commission. Danish National Archives, Treaty Collection, Original treaties in Turkish, Danish, and French; printed edition published in Danish and German as an appendix to Kong Friderich den Femtes Forordninger 1746 1748; abridged version in Reedtz 1826, 197-198; translation in Wandel 1919, 10-11. This treaty is identical with the treaty of 22 January 1752 with Tripoli, except for an insignificant difference in paragraph 9, cf. Udenrigsministeriet 1882, 22-29. 176 Danish ship, and when the shipmaster has produced his passport they must leave the ship immediately, and no merchant vessel must be detained” (paragraph four). No Dane may be “taken, sold, or made a slave” (paragraph twelve). Furthermore, the rights and obligations of Danish consuls and men-ofwar are acknowledged (paragraphs fifteen through eighteen). It is also agreed that “no Algerian ship, be it large or small, is allowed to run into sight or enter any port belonging to Denmark, as such might give occasion for misunderstandings” (paragraph eight). Strangely enough, no mention of presents or tribute can be found in the peace treaty, but this must have been an implicit condition. After ratification of the treaty by the Danish King and the Divan, its contents were published in Denmark by proclamation of 12 January 1747.63 The Danish treaty was verbally correspondent with the Swedish one from 1729; only two paragraphs differ, as paragraphs eight and twelve are not to be found in the Swedish treaty.64 The Dutch-Algerian treaty of 18 June 1712 is also very much like the Danish and Swedish ones; several paragraphs have identical wording.65 The Dutch tradition dates back to the first treaty with Constantinople in 1660, in which dispositions to many of the later provisions can be found. These were developed in the following treaties between the Netherlands and the Barbary States, culminating in the treaty with Algeria dated 30 April 1629, the content of which is identical with the 1712 treaty.66 The French King signed a treaty with Algeria for the first time in 1619, the English in 1662, and the German Kaiser in 1727.67 The same provisions as in the Danish treaty of 1746 were reiterated almost unchanged in the other treaties which were signed by Denmark and the Barbary States: namely Tunisia on 8 December 1751, Tripoli on 22 January 1752, Morocco on 18 June 1753, the Sublime Porte in Constantinople on 14 October 1756, Morocco again on 25 July 1767, Algeria on 16 May 1772, and Tripoli in 1816, 1824 and 1826 – until the last Danish obligation to pay tribute was repealed by treaty with Morocco dated 5 April 1845.68 The Danish reason for signing these slightly ignominious treaties was mainly economic, namely the important shipping and trade under the Danish flag. However, we should also be aware that these treaties ensured absolute safety for all Danish sailors for the future. That this was also an important 63 64 65 66 67 68 Schou 1777-1850, 12 January 1747. Even though paragraph 8 in the Dutch-Algerian treaty of 26 March 1662 says that both Danish and Swedish sailors onboard Dutch ships might be enslaved, according to Dan 1684, 102. Cau 1725, 449-452; a brief mention can be found in Sandbergen 1931, 155-156. Vries 1684, 19-26, 84-86, 99-103, 134-141. Reftelius 1739, 464-465. Udenrigsministeriet 1882 passim; Udenrigsministeriet 1877, passim. The most important Dutch follow-up treaties were from 1726, 1757, 1794, and 1816, while the Swedish were from 1736, 1741, 1758, 1763, and 1771. 177 reason to sign these treaties can be clearly read from the petition of the Slave Fund to begin peace negotiations with the Barbary States. Here not one economic reason is stated but instead the authors elaborate on the misery of the Christian slaves in Northern Africa.69 However, this did not always ensure full security. On three occasions Barbary States violated the treaties and began to seize Danish ships: Algeria 1769-1772, Tripoli 1796-1797, and Tunisia 18001802. Denmark reacted by sending out squadrons of fifteen, three, and eighteen men-of-war respectively to demonstrate naval force and strength of will, but it turned out to be almost impossible to force the Barbaresques. Instead the Danes had to accept new economic demands from the Moslems, a solution to the conflicts which was still much cheaper than sending out sufficient men-of-war to protect the Danish shipping by convoying the merchantmen.70 Thus, in the 1790s it was estimated that the value of the tributes made up only fifteen percent of the net earnings of the Mediterranean trade and shipping under the Danish flag.71 Considerable additional expenditures by the foreign service and the navy must not be forgotten, however. A very important factor in producing human security was the installation of Danish consuls in the Barbary States: 1747 in Algiers, 1752 in Tunisia and Tripoli, and 1753 in Morocco.72 Another matter for concern was the fact that not a few prisoners converted and abandoned their Christian faith for the sake of Islam, either for practical reasons or from conviction. This, in addition to the hardships of the captured countrymen and the need to have the sailors back to man the Danish fleet, was also an important driving force behind the ransoming efforts.73 It is strange that none of the Danish treaties mention explicitly the introduction of so-called Turkish or Algerian sea passes. Probably it has been implied that this special kind of passport, which was already well known, should be made use of. This was suggested in 1736 by the Slave Fund Commission.74 The Danish Vice Consul in Morocco could state that in the 1760s the sea pass system was working well. When a privateer captain was to depart he picked up from every consul a sea pass (i.e. upper part only) for which he had to make a receipt, and he even received a small gift “in order to prevent him from mistreating ships of those nations at sea”.75 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Wandel 1919, 5-9. Andersen 2000, 184-195, 204-206; Garde 1852, 255-260, 311-326; Linvald 1923, 118-120, 313-318. Cf. Olán 1921, 156-158. Bjerg 1996, 87. Marquard 1952, 440-458. E.g. Bishop Worm’s letter to the King 05 April 1714, in Danish National Archives, Danske Kancelli, Indlæg til Sjællandske Tegnelser 174, 175, and 177/1715 (box D.21-20). Wandel 1919, 6; Müller 2004, 144; Eck 1943, 190-191. Høst 1779, 179. 178 The sea pass system did provide security as is demonstrated from the following example.76 On 30 May 1749, a ship under the Danish colours bound for Marseille was seized near Cape Finisterre by a xebec from Tetuan (a Moroccan port just east of the Gibraltar Strait), because Denmark had not signed a peace treaty with Morocco. The ten Danes were taken prisoners onboard the xebec. The next day, however, our xebec met an English ship from where the shipmaster was ordered to come onboard to us to show his English sea pass. When he had done that the answer to him was: We have peace together. Thereupon he went back to his own ship again to proceed his voyage. The Danes were taken ashore and enslaved. Algerian Sea Pass Protocols, 1747-1848 Fulfilment of the Barbaresque treaties was rather expensive for the Danish government, but it was considered so advantageous after all that Danish authorities made every effort to secure that Algerian sea passes were not abused. A considerable number of regulations were published in Denmark in order to make sure that the authorities could supervise and control the issue of passes etc. On 1 May 1747, the royal ordinance concerning Algerian sea passes was given.77 It was probably inspired from two Dutch placards of 1713 and 1715, which together comprised the same provisions as the Danish ordinance, and which had their roots in the States-General’s ordinances of 1623 and 1625 concerning Turkish sea passports. Another obvious source of inspiration was the Swedish ordinance of 12 January 1730, as the Danish and Swedish texts are very much concordant.78 The Danish ordinance prescribed that the shipowners should take their oath and produce documents which proved to the municipal authorities that the ship belonged to subjects of the Danish King and that it was equipped at the expense of Danes. Furthermore, the shipmaster had to take an oath that he would not in any way abuse the sea pass. Only then could the Board of Commerce in Copenhagen issue an Algerian sea pass. It was written on a large, beautiful parchment form. The sea pass was valid for only one voyage, and the shipmaster had to return it to the Danish authorities immediately upon his return. The Board of Commerce’s supervision was carried out by means of protocols, 76 77 78 Diderich 1756, 11-12. Danish and German text in Kong Friderich den Femtes Forordninger 1747 1748, 31-46; Schou 1777-1850, 1 May 1747. Cf. Andersen 1925, 301-304, 356-357. Cau 1725, 619-620; Vries 1684, 54-56, 62-63; Olán 1921, 66-68, and Müller 2004, 144-145 (ordinance of 1730). 179 called the Algerian Sea Pass Protocols, in which information about all Algerian sea passes that had been issued were registered. Figure 4 Title page of the printed version of the royal Danish ordinance of 1 May 1747 concerning Algerian sea passes. It is written on it that the text has been read at the town hall to the burghers present on 12 May 1747. The name of the town is unknown. (Danish National Archives) At least from March 1748, it was compulsory for all ships under the Danish colours destined to ports beyond Cape Finisterre to carry an Algerian sea pass. This held true for voyages to Spain, Portugal, all ports in the Mediterranean, as well as to Africa, America, and Asia.79 The price of a sea pass was considered rather high by the shipowners. They had to pay fifty rix-dollars to the Slave Fund for having an Algerian sea pass 79 For the following, see Fogtmann 1786-1854, passim; and Schou 1777-1850, passim. Cf. Link 1959, 140. 180 issued, plus two rix-dollars for the form itself, and in many cases also perquisites to the municipal authorities. As from 1783, payment to the Slave Fund was instead regulated according to the burthen of the vessel. When France, in 1830, conquered Algeria the situation with regard to privateering in the Mediterranean changed completely, because Tunisia and Morocco also committed themselves to stopping their privateering business at once. Danish shipowners now wished to have the obligation to carry an Algerian sea pass abolished. The Board of Commerce agreed, whereas the Africa Consular Directorate found that Denmark still had to respect obligations with regard to sea passes stipulated in the treaty with Morocco. Thus, a new Danish ordinance dated 9 July 1831 maintained the sea pass obligation but reduced to one third the fees to be paid. The shipowners were not satisfied and repeated their dissatisfaction, supported by the Board of Commerce. Only when it could be shown, in 1840, that only Sweden and to some degree Norway80 maintained the sea pass obligation – while it had become voluntary in Russia, England, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and had been abolished in Prussia and the Hanseatic Towns – could the Danish Department of Foreign Affairs (which had taken over the issue after the Africa Consular Directorate) and the Board of Finance be persuaded, but only insofar as it should hereafter be voluntary for Danish shipping to take out an Algerian sea pass.81 The result was a royal ordinance of 1 July 1840 in accordance with this cautious point of view. The year after, Sweden also adjusted its sea pass rules.82 The effect came immediately. While 261 Algerian sea passes had been issued in Denmark in 1839, the number was reduced to 149 in 1840, and further to fifty, fifteen, nine and only six in 1844. No Algerian sea pass was issued thereafter. A sea pass was, as already mentioned, only valid for one voyage. But gradually it was accepted that the ships could sail beyond Cape Finisterre from port to port for up to two years. Thereupon the Danish consul in a foreign port would renew the passport for another two years.83 This was important to the many ships which were engaged in the tramp trade without returning to their home port for years on end. But as soon as such a ship returned to domestic waters, the voyage was considered to be finished and the sea pass had to be returned to Copenhagen.84 It was decreed, however, that if this meant delay to 80 81 82 83 84 From 1814, Norway was no longer ruled by the Danish King. Danish National Archives, Udenrigsministeriet/Kommercekollegiet, Samlede sager til konsulatsjournal, file no. 440 (concerning the ordinance of 1 July 1840), file no. 233 (concerning reduction of fees), file no. 772 (concerning fees for Algerian sea passes). Cf. Marwedel 1938, 29. Krëuger 1856, 34-35. Schou 1777-1850, 26 February 1781. Schou 1777-1850, 3 July 1793; Fogtmann 1786-1854, 2 October 1802. 181 the shipping then the old sea pass could be renewed anywhere in the monarchy.85 The Board of Commerce’s Algerian Sea Pass Protocols are preserved in the Danish National Archives from the period 1747-1848, but with a lacuna from mid-October 1771 to the end of 1777.86 The look and layout of the registers changed over time, but the eighteen volumes do contain almost the same kind of information about the individual voyages: 1) passport’s serial number, 2) name of shipowner, 3) name of shipmaster, 4) ship’s name, 5) burthen, 6) home port, 7) destination, 8) date of oath, 9) date of issue of sea pass, 10) date of return of sea pass, 11) name of person who has returned the passport, 12) any other information. At times there would also be information about the amount paid and whether or not the passport had been renewed. The Algerian sea pass form which was handed over to the shipmaster was sealed by the Board of Commerce and signed by the Board members. The document was in Danish and guaranteed that the ship was Danish property; furthermore it mentioned the ship’s name, home port, and burthen, as well as the destination and the shipmaster’s name. Research Potential The research potential of the Algerian Sea Pass Protocols shall not be discussed in detail here. Suffice it to mention that the protocols constitute an unrivalled source material for mapping all long-distance shipping under the Danish colours in the second half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century. The Algerian Sea Pass Protocols have been made use of in mapping shipping to the Mediterranean (by Dan H. Andersen),87 and to Guinea and the West Indies (by Erik Gøbel).88 With regard to India shipping the sea pass protocols have just provided supplementary information compared to other sources.89 The completeness and reliability of information in the Algerian Sea Pass Protocols have been tested and confirmed in different ways.90 Information from the Algerian Sea Pass Protocols can be used both for mapping general trends over time and for following shipping from a single port or even individual shipowners or a single master – all with regard to chronology, number of voyages, burthens, destinations, etc. 85 86 87 88 89 90 Schou 1777-1850, 1 July 1803 and 9 April 1810. It is known that in that period too, a considerable number of Algerian sea passes were issued. One volume of Algerian Sea Pass Protocols has been lost. Andersen 2000, 319-330; Andersen and Voth 2000. Gøbel 1990; Gøbel 1995; Gøbel 2002. Feldbæk 1969, 248-254. Cf. Diller 1999, 79-136. Andersen 2000, 319-330; and Gøbel 1982-1983, 89-98. Cf. Henningsen 1985, 313-316. 182 Diagram 1 Algerian Sea Passes for the Mediterranean, 1748-1806 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 17 48 17 50 17 52 17 54 17 56 17 58 17 60 17 62 17 64 17 66 17 68 17 70 17 72 17 74 17 76 17 78 17 80 17 82 17 84 17 86 17 88 17 90 17 92 17 94 17 96 17 98 18 00 18 02 18 04 18 06 0 Diagram 2 Destinations, 1788, 1798, and 1806 (Total) 1200 1000 No. of Voyages 800 600 400 200 0 Mediterranean Atlantic West Indies Denmark Guinea Schleswig-Holstein Asia Other Norway An example of mapping of a general trend is represented by the adjoining Diagram 1 which shows shipping under the Danish flag in the Mediterranean, 1748-1806.91 Another example is represented by Diagram 2 which demonstrates the enormous importance of Mediterranean shipping compared to other long-distance 91 Calculated from Andersen 2000, 197, 331-332. 183 shipping, as well as the contributions by the different parts of the Danish King’s dominions.92 Epilogue Sailors and ships were exposed to many dangers at sea. Sickness and death were difficult to prevent; shipwreck or general average93 were also inevitable in many cases, but the economic consequences could be modified by means of maritime insurance; privateers, or even pirates, were also a nuisance to shipping. Privateers from the Barbary States used for centuries to be a threat to European shipping and to the human security of Christian sailors, including many of the Danish King’s subjects. The structure of the international political and economic system was therefore important as a decisive background or framework. In the beginning of this article it was asked how the Kingdom of Denmark produced extraterritorial security against these threats from the fringe of the “Westphalian System”. As we have seen, it was with a mixture of measures that the Kingdom tried over the centuries to produce this security for Danish seamen. The most effective way of ensuring respect for its subjects was the signing of tribute-based peace treaties between Denmark and the Barbary States in the mid-eighteenth century. Both parties won by agreeing upon this system and they saw to it that the treaties were usually respected, apart from a few brief periods of disagreement and hostility. After 1830, the threat from the Barbary States faded away and the passports were no longer necessary. But from 1747 to 1844 the Danish authorities issued around 28,000 Algerian sea passes (i.e. almost 300 per year on average) which produced security for hundreds of thousands of Danish sailors. Many peculiarities of a modern understanding of “Human Security” can be found in the examples presented. We find diplomacy, military intervention, ransoming and the payment of tributes. At the centre of all these measures was mostly the ultimate aim of reducing suffering of individuals. An important difference stands out between our modern concept and the ways of production of this sort of security for the individuals of the Early Modern Era, which is that the Danish King acted only for his own subjects and not for the individuals 92 93 Danish National Archives, Kommercekollegiet, Algierske søpasprotokoller no. 1188 (1788), no. 1850 (1798), and no. 1852 (1806). “General average” is a term in marine insurance for the adjustment of a loss when cargo on board a ship belonging to one or more owners has been sacrificed for the safety of the whole, whereby the amount of the loss is shared by all who have shipped cargo in the vessel, for instance if the deck cargo of a ship has had to be jettisoned to safeguard the ship in rough weather. 184 of other states. Yet, it was the individual’s security on which the emphasis was already placed centuries ago, not the security of the state. Both were seen as inextricably linked and the state was ready to devote quite substantial resources to reducing the threat to its subjects. In opposition to a state-centred viewpoint, we can clearly identify a striving towards “human security” in many actions of an absolute monarchy of the so-called classical “Westphalian System”.94 For our modern understanding it may be helpful therefore to take better into consideration the “longue durée” of “human security” and to see it as a result of a centuries-old evolution, which can often be found or even measured throughout history in specific examples, of which one was presented here. References Printed Sources Articler hvorefter Vi Friderich den Femte … at alle og enhver … som antagne ere paa det Asiatiske Compagnies Skibe … [i.e. Asiatic Company’s ships articles]. Copenhagen, 1752. Bang, Nina. and Knud Korst. Tabeller over Skibsfart og Varetransport gennem Øresund 1661-1783 og gennem Storebælt 1701-1748. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1930. 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Horten: Andersen, 1927. 189 Swedish Shipping in Southern Europe and Peace Treaties with North African States: An Economic Security Perspective Leos Müller Abstract: »Die schwedische Schifffahrt in Südeuropa und die Friedensverträge mit den nordafrikanischen Staaten. Eine Betrachtung aus der Perspektive ökonomischer Sicherheit«. In the late eighteenth century, Swedish ships frequently sailed in the Western Mediterranean. They could be found in Marseilles, Livorno, Genoa, Alicante, Sicily, Sardinia, and North Africa, as well as in Cadiz and Lisbon outside the Mediterranean. Indeed, the Mediterranean was an area of great importance for Swedish shipping. How was it possible that Sweden – a small country in northern periphery of Europe – could play such a prominent role in carrying trade in Southern Europe? There are a number of plausible explanations but an especially significant factor was the fact that Sweden had peace treaties with North African states. The treaties improved the security of Swedish-flagged vessels, reducing their protection and operation costs, insurance premiums, etc. It was economically reasonable for foreigners to employ Swedish carriers. The topic of this essay is this connection between the establishment of peace relations between Sweden and North African states and the success of the Swedish carrying business in Southern Europe. The issue is approached from the protection-cost perspective (institutional economics) and related to the different concepts of security: state security, economic security and in a certain sense also human security. Keywords: Swedish Long-Distance Trade, Swedish Shipping Business, Swedish Consular Service, Swedish Convoy Office, Barbary-States, ProtectionCosts. Introduction According to a French report from the mid-eighteenth century, the Swedish merchant marine was the fifth in Europe, behind that of Britain, France, the Dutch Republic and Denmark, but ahead of Spain and the Two Sicilies.1 Sweden was indeed an important maritime state, with a large carrying trade in Southern Europe. At the same time, by conventional economic standards, it 1 Address all communications to: Leos Müller, Department of History, Centre for Maritime Studies, Stockholm University; Södra huset, Hus D, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; e-mail: [email protected]. Romano 1962. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 190-205 was underdeveloped country. The urbanization rate, a good indicator of Early Modern level of development, was extremely low in Sweden.2 What were the causes of the discrepancy between the large merchant fleet and the relative backwardness of the state’s economy? To understand this we have to look closer at origins of Swedish trade and shipping in Southern Europe. The original commercial interest of Sweden in Southern Europe was not shipping business: it was Portuguese salt. Carried by the Dutch, the salt from Setubal had already become the preferred salt quality in Sweden by the first half of the seventeenth century, and because the salt was a strategically important commodity the connection with Southern European salt sources became strategically significant. Sweden’s trade policy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries paid much attention to the issue of salt supplies.3 In the first half of the seventeenth century Sweden’s foreign trade was dependent on the Dutch carrying capacity. After 1650 Sweden entered a new mercantilist policy aiming to reduce the kingdom’s dependency on the Dutch, and a part of the policy involved building up its own merchant marine for trade with Southern Europe. This policy was successful. In the 1670s and 1680s Swedish trade with Southern Europe already became a well-established trade, concerning a large number of ships. Swedish vessels sailed to Portugal in convoys loaded with bar iron, tar and pitch, and weapons, and retuned with cargoes of salt. About twenty vessels annually sailed to Portugal by the late century.4 When the prices of the Portuguese salt increased dramatically, in the early 1690s, the Swedish skippers went into the Mediterranean to find new cheaper sources of salt. This move opened the way for direct Swedish trade within the Mediterranean basin. However, shipping in Southern Europe was a risky business. Vessels were under threat from corsairs from North Africa, cargoes and vessels could be sold and sailors put into captivity. This even applied to Swedish vessels and Swedish sailors. The guerre de course, corsair war, went on for centuries – an expression of the struggle between Muslims and Christians.5 Barbary corsairs had often been characterized as pirates – both by contemporaries and in the historical literature. Such a description is not correct. The corsairs acted with the permission of their rulers in Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers and Morocco. A more proper way to characterize them is as privateers. However, the situation was even more complicated because Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers 2 3 4 5 For a comparative view of Scandinavia in Europe see e.g. van Zanden 2001, 70-80. Stockholm, by far Sweden’s largest city, had about 60,000 inhabitants. Gothenburg and Karlskrona, the second and third cities, had only about 10,000 inhabitants by the late eighteenth century. Carlén 1994; Carlén 1997. Müller 2004, 51. For details see Magnus Ressel’s contribution in this volume. 191 were not independent states but vassals under formal Ottoman rule. In spite of this, they carried out their own “foreign policy”. Indeed, the guerre de course was an important argument for the legitimacy, and semi-independence, of the local rulers.6 The only truly independent state in North Africa was Morocco. The warfare did not only concern shipping. Barbary corsairs were raiding coastal areas of Spain and Portugal and the Canary and Balearic Islands. The numbers of Christian Europeans who were enslaved were substantial. In Algiers there were about 740,000-760,000 slaves between 1520 and 1830. In total there were more than a million European slaves in North Africa.7 The majority were Spanish and Italian, but among the slaves there were also sailors from Northern Europe, including Swedes and Danes. The European powers met the corsair challenge by naval force or by convoying of their shipping. But none of these strategies was efficient. The solution preferred by the North European states was instead peace treaties with the North African states and payment of tribute or ransom for leaving the nation’s merchant marine in peace. This system was fully developed by the seventeenth century. In Sweden the idea of establishing peace treaties with the North African states had already appeared in the 1660s, but nothing happened then.8 The Shipping Policy Package: The Swedish Navigation Act and Peace Treaties During the Great Northern War 1700-1721, the Swedish shipping activities in Southern Europe declined. Especially during the Danish involvement in the war, between 1709 and 1720, the Swedes were excluded from the long-distance carrying trade. Exports and imports were once again carried by the Dutch. The peace with Russia in 1721 ended the war. After that the dependency on Dutch shipping was heavily criticized and in the coming years Sweden launched an ambitious shipping policy. The policy package consisted of three parts. In 1724 Sweden enacted Produktplakatet, the Swedish Navigation Act, which prohibited imports to Sweden on other ships than those of Sweden or the cargo-producing country. 9 The Act was inspired by the English Navigation Acts. It was a result of the political discussion about the condition of Sweden’s foreign trade after 1721. The balance of trade was negative and the Dutch were accused of causing this by high carrying costs. Moreover, dependency on a foreign carrying capacity made Sweden vulnerable, which was an especially sensitive issue as regards salt 6 7 8 9 Windler 2000, 172. Harrison 2007, 413. Ekegård 1924, 78. Müller 2004, 61-65; see also Heckscher 1922; and Heckscher 1940. 192 supplies. Salt, together with Baltic grain, was the most capacity-demanding import. Thus the primary aims of the new shipping policy were securing imports of salt from Southern Europe and reducing the role of Dutch shipping in the import trade. In the long term the purpose was the strengthening of exchange with Southern Europe, not only the imports of the strategically important salt but also the encouragement of exports of Swedish export produce – bar-iron, tar, pitch, and sawn goods. The Swedish Navigation Act appeared to fulfill these aims well. In the years immediately following 1724 the number of ships under the Swedish flag passing the Danish Sound – the best indicator of Swedish shipping activities – increased rapidly. The Dutch shipping to Sweden collapsed. There were in the Sound over a hundred Dutch ships coming from Swedish ports by 1720. In 1725 and 1726 their numbers collapsed to six and three respectively.10 The number of registered ships in Sweden increased from 230 in 1723 to 480 in 1726.11 Thus, in the short term, the Swedish Navigation Act was a big success. Yet it is difficult to evaluate the effect in the long term. There was in eighteenthcentury Sweden a drawn-out discussion about the benefits and costs of the Navigation Act. A large number of political actors argued that it actually made the Swedish carrying trade more expensive, and so increased the prices of imports in Sweden – primarily salt – and made exports less profitable.12 The second part of the institutional package relating to the shipping policy of the 1720s was the peace treaties with North Africa and the innovation of Sweden’s convoy system. Increasing shipping under the Swedish flag to Southern Europe naturally entailed problems with Barbary corsairs. The Swedish policy-makers were well aware of it and in parallel with the work on the Navigation Act they reformed Sweden’s convoy system. A new Convoy Office (Konvojkommissariatet) was established in 1724, with its seat at Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast. 13 This office was responsible for the organization of convoying, a practice that the Swedish merchant marine had used since the 1690s. But convoying was not the only duty of the new office. In addition, the office was dealing with all the problems raised by Barbary corsairs. Thus it handled the payments of ransom and release of Swedish sailors from North Africa. It soon dealt also with negotiations with the North African rulers, the exchange of gifts between Sweden and these states, and the keeping of consular representation on the spot. To fund the Office a new duty, the so-called extra licenten, 10 11 12 13 Bang and Korst 1930-1953, 60-67. Müller 2004, 142, table 5.5. For the discussion see Carlén 1997. Müller 2004, 65-66. 193 was introduced in 1723, and collected by the Convoy Fund (Konvojkassan).14 It is important to point out that this Swedish system differed from that of Denmark, even if the basic precondition of peace with the North African states was the same. The duty, extra licenten, was imposed on all Swedish exports and imports, which was perceived unfair by merchants and ship-owners who had no use of convoying (trade in the Baltic and North Seas). Moreover, the funding by extra licenten was never sufficient and the annual costs of the Convoy Office became a burden of the state.15 Consequently, the system continued to be controversial during the remaining part of the century – in similarity with the Navigation Act. However, in spite of the broad criticism, and a short break (1790-1797), it survived until 1867. Instead of expensive convoying of Swedish merchantmen in Southern Europe and paying ransom for captives, the Swedish authorities aimed to establish peaceful relations with the Barbary corsairs. Three years after the Swedish Navigation Act, in 1727, the steps were already being taken to sign a peace treaty with Algiers. This was actually a consequence of the Dutch treaty with Algiers of 1726. Before 1726, Swedish and Dutch ships went in the same convoys, protecting each other. The Dutch treaty of 1726, however, exclusively concerned the Dutch ships, which left the Swedes out in trouble. The Swedes empowered George Logie, a Scottish merchant with long experience of North Africa, to negotiate the treaty, in which he soon succeeded. The treaty between Sweden and Algiers was signed in April 1729 by Jean von Utfall, the Swedish representative, and the Algiers Dey. A part of the agreement was the exchange of gifts, or perhaps more exactly Sweden’s tributes to Algiers. Sweden sent to Algiers two vessels loaded with 40 guns, 800 sabres, 1,600 cannon balls, masts, anchors, with a total value of 21,000 rix-dollars – a very substantial sum. The Algiers Dey expressed his satisfaction and reciprocated with a liberated captive, two lions and a couple of other wild animals. First, the exchange confirms the picture of small European powers supplying the Barbary fleets with naval necessities and weapons: items that could and were used in the guerre de course against other European powers. Second, the characteristics of the exchange even had a highly symbolic meaning, stressing the superiority of a Muslim ruler over a Christian power.16 Another part of the agreement was the establishment of Swedish consular representation in Algiers, in accordance with the traditional Mediterranean consular system.17 The first Swedish consul appointed to Algiers was George Logie. The consuls in North Africa were supposed to mediate between the Algiers Dey and Sweden, so the consuls had an important diplomatic function. 14 15 16 17 Müller 2004, 68-69, Åmark 1961, 762-775. Åmark 1961, 755. Windler 2000. Steensgaard 1967, 13-55. 194 This was a significant difference in comparison with consular representations in European states. In France, Britain, the Dutch Republic, Russia and other members of the European state system, even including the Ottoman Empire, there was a clear distinction between the diplomatic representation, the embassy at the capital, and consular representation with consulates situated at major ports. The consuls dealt with the promotion of commerce between their home and host countries and with the collection of commercially useful information. The semi-diplomatic role of consuls in North Africa reveals the fact that Algiers and other Barbary states were not seen as members of the European state system. The commercial exchange between Sweden and North Africa was very limited, in spite of the high-flying plans launched during the negotiations. In 1738, nine years after the signing of the treaty, George Logie described the state of Sweden’s trade with Algiers in these words: I find not that Algier can be otherways beneficiall to Sweden than that by having peace with them it gives free liberty to our Ships to go safely on the coasts of Spain and Portugalland to all ports of the Mediterranean with our own Cargoes and have the benefit of being employed and freighted by other Merchants with the same safety that they can ships of other nations and now I am on this subject I must begg leave to acquaint and inform your Lordships that I find no other method or possibility of keeping a firm and secure peace with the kingdom of Algier than now and then that is once in two or three years to give some handsome presents to the Dey and Leading men of the Gouvernment to keep them steadfast in our friendship which is what is practiced by the French by the Hollanders and all other nations in peace with them…. 18 The treaty between Sweden and Algiers also included an article on the introduction of Algerian passports. Accordingly, all vessels under the Swedish flag sailing beyond Cape Finisterre in Spain were obliged to keep a special passport issued by Sweden’s Board of Trade. The passport confirmed for an inspecting corsair crew that the ship under the Swedish flag was indeed from Sweden, had a Swedish crew, captain and ship-owner. Without such a passport the ship and its crew could be taken as captives.19 In similarity with other parts of the treaty, the introduction of Swedish Algerian passports copied a model established by other North European powers. The issuing of Algerian passports by the Board of Trade was a regulated and controlled activity because abuse of passports would put in danger the whole of Sweden’s shipping business in Southern Europe. Articles regarding the Algerian passport issued by the Swedish King on 12 January 1730 indicate how seriously this issue was treated.20 The strict procedure and control of the issuing 18 19 20 Riksarkivet Stockholm, Kommerskollegium Huvudarkiv, Skrivelser från konsuler, Liverpool Livorno 1725-1822, EVIaa: 229, George Logie to the Board of Trade, Leghorn/Livorno 2/13 Oktober 1738. Müller 2004, 144-147. Modée 1740, 803-807: Den 12 Jan. 1730 Reglemente om Algeriske Siöpass. 195 procedure also means that the surviving registers of passports contain reliable data on Swedish shipping beyond Cape Finisterre. The registers will be employed here for the mapping of Swedish shipping activities in Southern Europe. In 1736 George Logie left Algiers for Tunis to negotiate a peace treaty with another Barbary state. This treaty was signed in December 1736 and the text closely followed that of Algiers. Yet the gifts were not as expensive as in the Algiers case. The first Swedish consul arrived in 1738.21 The treaty with the third North African state, Tripoli, was signed in 1741, also negotiated by George Logie. It took another twenty years before the fourth treaty, the treaty with Morocco, was signed. The negotiations were opened in 1761 and the treaty signed in 1763. The Swedish negotiator, Peter Kristian Wulf, became the first Swedish consul in Morocco, seated at Salé. Morocco was the strongest and only truly independent North African state. The third part of the institutional package to promote Swedish shipping was the expansion of the consular system in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Between 1700 and 1750 about twenty new consulates were established in the area – from Smyrna in the Levant to Rouen in France.22 Remarkably, no consulates were established in Northern Europe – with the exception of the consulate in London. Sweden’s trade in Northern Europe was based on other, more traditional trade patterns than the trade in Southern Europe, a new area for the Swedes. The shipping policy package that the Swedish authorities launched in the 1720s also combined a number of aims. It was supposed to replace foreign – read Dutch – carrying capacity in Sweden’s trade. It was supposed to secure sufficient supplies of salt for Sweden and open new trading opportunities for Swedish exports in Southern Europe. Another less apparent intent of the policy was the building-up of a strong Swedish merchant marine and an experienced marine labor that in the case of war could be recruited to the navy. This aspect did not receive much attention in the remaining part of the century, in spite of the fact that this was also common to the English and Swedish Navigation Acts. Finally, it was supposed to make Swedish shipping in Southern Europe safer, reducing risks and protection costs for the Swedish actors. This, most probably, was a very important aspect of the Swedish shipping boom in the second part of the century, a boom which has nothing to do with the Navigation Act of 1724. Swedish authorities appear to have chosen a different solution to security problems in North Africa in comparison with the Dutch, Danes and the Hanseatic cities studied in Magnus Ressel’s article here. From about 1730 the Swedes, instead of paying ransom for individual seamen, formed a semidiplomatic relation with the North African states, paying gift-tributes and with 21 22 Müller 2004, 127. Müller 2004, 42, table 2.1. 196 consular representation in the area. The system was connected to the Convoy Office. It was a public solution ideally financed by the special duty on trade. But the duty had never been sufficient to pay the system and the state was repeatedly forced to cover the missing sums. As the major benefactors of the system were a few merchants and ship-owners engaged in trade in Southern Europe, often members of Stockholm’s mercantile elite, the system was criticized as a exploitation of public means by private interest. Such a criticism was a typical feature of the political struggles in eighteenth-century Sweden. Indeed, exactly the same argument was used against the Navigation Act. The Costs of the Convoy Office and Shipping Activities From the accounts of the Convoy Office, we have a detailed picture of the public costs of the peace treaties with the North African states. The figures as such say a lot. In addition to these transparent public costs there were other large, less visible costs, for example in insurance premiums, relative wages of sailors, freight rates and others. No comparison of the costs and benefits of the system is possible because we have very scattered data on the profitability of the shipping in Southern Europe. Thus the figures may be used to illustrate tendencies and sudden changes in the cost structure. Looking at the long term development of the costs of the Convoy Office, we can notice a slow increase until the 1760s. The annual expenditures oscillate between 50,000 and 100,000 dollar silver money until the 1750s. Then they increase rapidly in the 1760s. The large expenditures during the 1760s related to the peace treaty with Morocco, which was unusually expensive. Some annual expenditures are extremely large, far exceeding the average. This seems to be related to extraordinary outlays: special gifts related to political changes in the principalities, newly appointed consuls, and similar. Such appointments were often connected with additional tributes. The increases are related to new treaties signed. The graph for the period 1777-1796 (in new rix-dollars) indicates a stable level of expenditure. This was the period of boom in Swedish shipping to Southern Europe. 197 Figure 1: The Costs of the Swedish Convoy Office 1726-1796 (1726-1776 Dollars Silver Money) Figure 1 (Cont.): (1777-1796 new rix-dollars). Source: Karl Åmark, Sveriges statsfinanser, 1719-1809 (Stockholm, 1961), 762-775. Note: In 1777 Sweden introduced a new monetary system that makes it difficult to compare data from the periods. It is interesting to compare the development of the Office outlays with the data of shipping activities based on Algerian passport registers. As pointed out above, the registers provide a reliable data set for the long-term development of Swedish shipping in Southern Europe.23 The registers cover the period between 1739 and 1831 and they include information about 30,000 passports, represent23 Müller 2004, 144-149. 198 ing on average about 300 voyages per annum destined south of Cape Finisterre. However, when we look closely at the data, it is apparent that until 1760 the annual number of ships never exceeded 200. The level of shipping activities was quite stable at about 150 voyages per annum, with a noticeable increase during the Seven Years’ War. This indicates that the shipping policy package introduced in the 1720s and 1730s did not actually have any significant effect. It seems to strengthen the argument of critics of mercantilist policy: that the policy was costly but did not promote shipping very much. The situation changed in the 1770s. The number of ships annually sailing beyond Cape Finisterre rapidly increased. First, between 1770 and 1778 the number of passports issued rose from 198 to 287, almost by 50 percent. Another jump came between 1778 and 1782, when the passports issued reached 441, another increase by 50 percent in only five years. The expansion was directly related to the American War of Independence. The war entailed a demand for neutral carrying capacity and Sweden, which stayed out of the war, could provide such a capacity. The situation became even more beneficial in 1780 when Russia, Denmark and Sweden created the League of Armed Neutrality. The British, who did not respect Sweden’s neutral flag before 1780, now began to treat the Swedes in a better way. In addition, from the end of 1780 the Dutch Republic, the largest neutral carrier in Europe, became involved in the war with Britain – the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784). The neutral Swedish and Danish vessels replaced the missing Dutch capacity.24 It became apparent that neutral shipping could be a very profitable business for Sweden. The same strategy was then applied during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Dutch and French were again involved in the war against Britain, leaving the Danish and Swedish – and this time even the US – merchant marines as the neutral tonnage. According to the Swedish Algerian passport registers, the number of Swedish-flagged voyages increased from 257 in 1792 to 624 in 1800. The figures for the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) are volatile owing to a new vulnerability of European neutrals. The policy employed by the Dutch, Danes and Swedes between 1756 and 1800 did not work during the total war of 1804-1815. The picture of Swedish shipping booms directly related to the wartime conditions is confirmed by the data for traffic in the Sound and the development of registered Swedish vessels.25 Does this mean that the Anglo-French warfare and Sweden’s neutrality are the only determinants of the development, and that the shipping policy package from the early eighteenth century is insignificant? We have seen that the shipping policy package of the 1720s did not matter 24 25 On the League of Armed Neutrality and shipping business see Feldbæk 1971; Feldbæk 1983; Feldbæk 1969; De Madariaga 1962; and Müller 2010. Johansen 1983; Müller 2004, 142, table 5.5; and Kilborn 2009. 199 much. Such a view would confirm the criticism of shipping policy by contemporaries, but it would not explain why the policy was also used during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and why it survived until the midnineteenth century. The peaceful relations with North Africa and the consular network in Southern Europe were the precondition of the development. A very large share of the Swedish shipping boom in the 1770s, 1780s and the 1790s was located in Southern Europe. About one third of the Swedish carrying capacity was actually employed in Southern Europe, in commodity trade and tramp shipping.26 All this suggests that the shipping policy package was necessary. The willingness of authorities to pay for the Convoy Office and to accept the costs of keeping peace relations with North Africa also confirms that the policy was seen as a necessity. Without the peace in North Africa, Swedish ships would be at risk in the Mediterranean even during the Napoleonic Wars. The significance of peace in the Mediterranean is illustrated by the last conflict between Sweden and a Barbary state, namely the Tripoli “war” of 18011802. The Swedish naval presence outside Tripoli was of no avail, nor was cooperation with the US navy. Eventually peace was bought at a price of 650,000 rix-dollars.27 Figure 2: Number of Algerian Passports Issued 1739-1820 Source: Kommerskollegium, Huvudarkivet, Sjöpassdiarier för åren 1739-1800, C II b. Board of Trade, Swedish National Archives, Stockholm. 26 27 It was somewhat different in Denmark with its large Atlantic and Asiatic shipping. See Johansen 1992 and Feldbæk 1969. Borg 1987; Krëuger 1856, 71-78. 200 Economic Security, National Security, and the Protection-Cost Approach The differences between the Swedish policy regarding North African states and the exploitation of Sweden’s neutrality point at the diverse options that Sweden had regarding security and risk-diminishing strategies. Sweden’s eighteenthcentury neutrality was vulnerable, dependent on the good will of Britain and other great powers and the overall functioning of an anarchical European state system.28 Sweden had very limited possibilities of influencing the behavior of the great powers. A military confrontation was out of reach; the only way to meet the challenge of a great power was through diplomatic means. The same limited options, and a final failure of neutrality policy, may be noted in the Dutch Republic and in Denmark. All three neutrals were forced into “impossible” wars against great powers: the Dutch Republic (1780) and Denmark (1807) against Britain, and Sweden (1808) against Russia. That kind of risk was also impossible to predict, calculate or insure against. The peace with Russia or Britain could not be bought for any calculable price, which points at the different kind of security concept in this context – namely national security.29 The vulnerability of Swedish shipping in Southern Europe was of a different kind. It could be met by combined diplomatic and economic means. The threat posed by Barbary corsairs concerned economic security – the possibility of a loss of cargo and ship, and human security – the possibility of captivity or enslavement. But the threat never concerned the national security of Sweden. This distinction is very important if we aim to study Swedish shipping in Southern Europe from an economic perspective. National security, on the one hand, is about the state’s security; the issue of costs or profits does not matter if the state is in danger. Economic security, on the other hand, is about costs and profitability of a business. Regarding the situation in the Mediterranean, the security was about protection costs and competitive advantages, and human risks, not about the threat to national security. The role of protection costs in shipping has traditionally been related to the successful development of seaborne trade. European seaborne trade expanded during the whole Early Modern period, and the expansion could not be explained by any significant technological change in shipping which would affect the production costs of shipping. Indeed, a sailing ship of 1800 did not differ very much from a sailing ship of 1500, whereas a steam ship of 1900 was very different in comparison with a sailing ship of 1800. Thus, the expansion of seaborne trade before 1800 had to be explained in another way. 28 29 Schroeder 1994, passim. For the different concepts of security see Paris 2001. 201 One explanation that has attracted much attention and that is relevant in the context of this essay is the decline in transport costs.30 The larger the share of transport costs in the commodity price, the larger the impact of the decline in transport costs on the final commodity price. Lower transport costs made commodities cheaper and so more affordable. With a limited technological change in shipping before the mid-nineteenth century, the most efficient way to reduce overall transport costs was the decline in transaction and protection costs. The issue of protection costs is especially interesting in waters that were troubled by violence, such as the Mediterranean owing to the guerre de course. Even small improvements in the security of shipping could significantly improve the profitability of the whole business. Improved security of shipping had an impact on many other costs. It reduced insurance premiums. The lower insurance premiums are actually mentioned by Swedish consuls as a competitive advantage of Swedish shipping in the Mediterranean.31 Most probably, improved security made seamen less hesitant to sail in the Mediterranean and so it might have reduced wages. Contemporary treatises show that Swedish and Danish sailors were paid less than their Southern counterparts, even if this fact cannot immediately be related to the improved security of Danish and Swedish shipping.32 The protection cost approach was first employed by Frederic C. Lane, a historian of Venice, to explain the success of Venice as a commercial republic. He pointed out the significance of a state that provides security for the shipping of its citizens. In this way protection costs are made public: instead of paying for a large crew and armaments on his ship, the ship-owner pays the state for protection.33 The Swedish historian Jan Glete employed the same logic to explain the boom of Dutch seaborne trade in the Baltic Sea. The royal navies of Denmark and Sweden made the Baltic waters safe and so kept the protection costs low – especially of Dutch shipping. The Fluit could be such a superior carrier in the Baltic trade because it sailed in relatively safe waters.34 Glete’s and Lane’s works were concerned primarily with the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. But the same approach might be used to characterize the Northern European policies toward the Barbary corsairs in the eighteenth century. The policy package employed by Sweden from the 1720s made the protection costs of Swedish ship-owners public, and the ship-owners paid the state for protection – extra licenten. Because the 30 31 32 33 34 For the effect of the decline in transport costs (transport revolution) on the expansion of overseas trade see O’Rourke and Williamson 2002; O’Rourke and Williamson 2004; for a contrary view see Flynn and Giraldez 2004; and others. Müller 2004, 73. Liljencrants 1768. Lane 1950; Lane 1958. Glete 2000, 125-126; on the fluit design’s advantages see Barbour 1996, 122-123. 202 use of naval force – convoying – was expensive and inefficient, the office instead chose to pay for security by the acknowledgment of North African states and payments of tributes. Sweden, owing to the peace treaties with the North African states and owing to its neutrality, had low protection costs, and these costs were made public. Certainly, this was an important factor for the improved economic security of the shipping business under the Swedish flag and one explanation for the successful development of the Swedish merchant marine, becoming the fifth in Europe after the American War of Independence. It is worth mentioning that even Douglass C. North, a Nobel laureate in economics, and his colleague Gary M. Walton back in the 1960s argued that the success of North American shipping in the eighteenth century was related to the reduced uncertainties such as piracy and privateering.35 Another factor was the improved organization of shipping, but that is not our focus here. The protection-cost approach employed in the development of Swedish shipping in Southern Europe also relates closely to the neo-institutional economic school, to the idea of protection costs as a component of transaction costs. References Printed Sources Bang, Nina Ellinger, and Knud Korst. 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Walton, Gary M. “Sources of Productivity Change in American Colonial Shipping, 1675-1775.” The Economic History Review 1 (1967): 67-78. Windler, Christian. “Tributes and presents in Franco-Tunisian diplomacy.” Journal of Early Modern History 4 (2000): 168-199. 205 Special Issue The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES, DISASTERS, AND HUMAN SECURITY No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 Human Security in the Renaissance? Securitas, Infrastructure, Collective Goods and Natural Hazards in Tuscany and the Upper Rhine Valley Gerrit Jasper Schenk Abstract: »Human Security in der Renaissance? Securitas, Infrastruktur, Gemeinschaftsgüter und Naturgefahren in der Toskana und im Oberrheintal«. This article investigates the character of collective perceptions of security in the Renaissance. In addition to the findings of conceptual history, an picture analysis will be used. Besides the concern for salvation and protection from violence and injustice, public welfare was the task of a good government in material terms as well (provision of food, infrastructure). It also comprised the prevention of natural hazards. Legitimation strategies of those who governed and the needs of those who were governed had – according to the region – an impact on the development of specific ways of dealing with natural hazards. “Human security” thus played a part in state-building processes. Keywords: security, infrastructure, collective goods, natural hazards, disasters, Lorenzetti, Tuscany, Florence, Alsace, Strasbourg, Arno, Rhine. Point of Departure In this article, several considerations of a systematic type are developed concerning the concept of security and its sociopolitical provision in the Renaissance. A working hypothesis is the consideration that the height of the Western Modern Age, in which the state functioned principally as a guarantor for “human security”, represents an occurrence that is extremely rich in historical conditions. In fact, with respect to postmodern privatisation even of state security, the Western Modern state is perhaps even an exception.1 The first step therefore deals with the reconstruction of a stage in the development of – perhaps typically European – perceptions of “human security” and several early conditions for their current establishment as, depending on the standpoint, a post-colonial instrument of power or a cosmopolitan ideal. Using two regions as an example, a second step will be to consider which role the understanding of what security is, or should be, played with respect to collective goods and to the threat that natural risks pose for these goods. The regions chosen – Tuscany 1 Address all communications to: Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Technical University Darmstadt, Residenzschloss, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. See MacFarlane and Khong 2006, 11-14 on questions of definition. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 209-233 and the Upper Rhine Valley – of course cannot stand for the whole of Europe. Their differences, from geomorphology to the sociopolitical structure, can, however, in terms of comparative heuristics, reveal similarities and differences when handling natural risks.2 Several researchers, from Kingreen to MacFarlane/Foong Khong, view the European Middle Ages as a chaotic phase of competing powers which, at best, knew fragmented forms of “human security”.3 It makes sense to broach the issue of safety from violence for the Middle Ages too, in particular safety within or among communities, as has been carried out many times for other eras.4 However, a second topic area is also closely connected to the question of security of the people. In this area, prospective answers are also possible for the question of the origin and path dependency5 in the development of the concept and reality of modern “human security”. The reference here is to the descriptively portrayed, sociopolitical “public services” and “infrastructure”6, and the threat which is posed to these by natural occurrences such as, for example, floods and earthquakes along with all of their consequences, including the destruction of streets, interruptions to trade, crop failures, hunger, migration and social insecurity. Here it can namely be shown that, firstly, towards the end of the Middle Ages there were highly pragmatic perceptions of “security” in connection with perceptions of the common good and the fair use of collective goods.7 In addition, it can be demonstrated how a close sociopolitical connection between security perceptions and security requirements on the one hand, and the institutional methods of dealing with the threat to this security on the other, developed. This development, which resulted from the interests of a social “above” and “below” which to a certain extent stood in contrast to one another, converged in the culmination of “the state”. Securitas in the Renaissance – a Different Conceptual History Around 1338/1339, Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted frescoes that conveyed a highly political meaning in the governmental hall of the ruling administration, the Nove, in the town hall of the Republic of Siena.8 Until the 18th century, 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 With respect to the methodical functions of the comparison and heuristical, descriptive, analytical and paradigmatic aspects cf. Haupt and Kocka 1996, 12-15. Kingreen 2003, 28; MacFarlane and Foong Khong 2006, 29-36. Cf. the articles in this volume, in addition e.g. Härter 2010; Lüdtke and Wildt 2008; Tomuschat 2008, 73-74. Werle 2007. On this somewhat problematic concept cf. Vec 2008. On (modern) infrastructure cf. Laak 2004. Cf. Moss et al. 2009; Gailing et al. 2009. Cf. Starn 1994, 12-20. The dating is attested by accounts. 210 peace and war were identified as the topic of the opposing frescoes; in 1792, Luigi Lanzi interpreted them as a moralising instruction about good and bad government and the effects of these on town and country: a perspective that served as a model, that helped the frescoes to be characterised as Buon Governo und Malgoverno, and that still shapes art historical discussion about this masterpiece by Lorenzetti today.9 An extremely complex allegory of good government or social peace is indeed portrayed on the northern wall of the governmental hall. Peace, or Buon Governo, is suggestively characterised by nine virtues: fides, charitas, spes, pax, fortitudo, prudentia, magnanimitas, temperantia, iustitia. Added to these are sapientia, iustitia comutativa and distributiva as well as concordia. The eastern wall, joining on to this, shows the peaceful and benedictory effects on town and country, which discernibly represent Siena and its contado.10 On the western wall and dialectically connected with the latter, one finds the portrayal of Malgoverno, or war, together with the effects on town and country, above which fear (timor) hovers, akin to a dark angel.11 Image 1: Securitas 9 Cf. Southard 1980, 361-365; Rowley 1958; Rubinstein 1958; Feldges-Henning 1972; Frugoni 1979a; and Frugoni 1979b; Skinner 2009; Starn 1994, 12-20. Gibbs 1999 presumes that Lorenzetti, in the allegory of good government, originally gave Iustitia a positioning as prominent as Pax; this does not affect my interpretation. 10 Cf. Feldges-Henning 1972, 159-162; Frugoni 1979a, 24. 11 Cf. Starn 1994, 42-43; Frugoni 1979a, 24. 211 The personification of security takes an unmistakably central position in the fresco of peace with respect to the portrayal of Buon Governo and its effects on town and country. The angel-like winged securitas hovers above the city gate at the city limits, facing towards the peaceful cultural landscape, wrapped in filigree white fabric, holding a banner in her right hand, and in her left, gallows with a person hanging from them (see image 1). In terms of her form, she visibly corresponds to an important figure in the allegory of Buon Governo: pax. In Lorenzetti’s fresco, pax is striking due to her leaning position in comparison with the other virtues. The way in which she is portrayed is also comparatively unusual: her feet rest on pieces of armour. She is dressed in white clothing, which traces the shape of her body in classical folds, and holds a large olive branch in her left hand. According to Chiara Frugoni, who interprets the frescoes as political propaganda of the ruling Nove, the figure of pax corresponds to that of securitas: “Securitas and pax form the binominal of concordia … The picture even suggests a yet subtler differentiation: Security in the city rests upon peace among its inhabitants…”.12 Lorenzetti’s frescoes have inspired a multitude of art historical and historical interpretations, from Nicolai Rubinstein to Quentin Skinner:13 They are interpreted, for example, as a theological argumentation for the government of the Nove, drawing on the biblical Book of Wisdom; as a portrayal of Siena as the divine Jerusalem (or Babylon); as a pre-humanistic rediscovery of ancient Roman ideals; as a depiction of the secular ideal of a republican society in the wake of a rediscovery of Aristotelian politics, whether inspired by Thomas Aquinas, or conveyed by Brunetto Latini’s encyclopaedic Li livres dou tresor; as praise of the bourgeois work ethic and industriousness, owing to, for example, the portrayal of the artes mechanicae in town and country; or as a depiction of astrological concepts concerning the ways in which the planets influence life on earth (the concept of planet children) – the embodiments of planets are indeed located above the frescoes. Each interpretation can be supported by strong arguments, but two things are clear among the variety of interpretations: Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes provide information – maybe exceptionally – about late medieval perceptions of salus publicua, which can be described as public welfare or good social “configuration of order”.14 Securitas plays an important part in this configuration of order. The frescoes convey messages almost propagandistically, such as, for example, the statement that security in the Middle Ages is primarily 12 13 14 Frugoni 1979b, 76: “Securitas e Pax costituiscono un binomio nella concordia ... L’immagine suggerisce una distinzione ancora più sottile: nella città la sicurezza è nella pace dei suoi abitanti...”. Following the reconstruction by Gibbs 1999 securitas also corresponds iconographically to iustitia. Differentiated survey by Schmidt 2002, 84-137. On salus publicus and its relation to securitas since antiquity see Eberhard 1986, 244. On the concept of configuration of order see Schneidmüller and Weinfurter 2006. 212 connected with peace and justice, which are guaranteed internally by good jurisdiction and government, and that this security is based on the models of the above-mentioned virtues. However, there are even subtler traces of contemporary concepts of security, which Lorenzetti perhaps did not consciously aim to portray. The frescoes must hence be examined not for perceptible intentions, but rather for implicit perceptions and collective attitudes.15 In the research it is discussed whether the images of pax and securitas have Roman templates, e.g. coin designs. From Nero to Constantine, coins personified the Securitas Augusti as an objective of the ruling powers within the Imperium Romanum and aimed at legitimising the policies of the emperor.16 If Lorenzetti was really making a reference to this iconographic tradition, then he did so loosely – his pax is holding an olive branch instead of (like the Roman securitas) a spear in her hands, and the grim attribute of his securitas is nowhere to be found on Roman coins. Robert Gibbs recently called attention to the fact that Lorenzetti is more likely to have been referring back to illustrations in contemporary Bolognese law manuscripts of the Decretum Gratiani and in the Digest. Here the man hanging from the gallows can be found as an illustration for the second book of the Digest (de iurisdictione), harvest scenes as illustrations for texts about usufruct, pictures of cultural landscapes for texts about border and access rights, and scenes of building activity very similar to those that shape Lorenzetti’s cycle of frescoes.17 Following Gibbs’ line of reasoning, the juristic emblems refer to the everyday administration of justice as a guarantor of social securitas. This much more direct connection to contemporary images strikingly accentuates the public dimension of securitas18 and emphasises the concern of the ruling parties for public welfare. In terms of the history of ideas, a long line can therefore be drawn, with the help of either ancient coins or the contemporary illustrations of the Institutiones of Justinianus, from the legitimisation strategies of the Roman emperors to those of the governments of Italian city states during the Renaissance.19 15 16 17 18 19 The intention is to interpret the frescoes not only as a ‘source of tradition’ but also as a ‘remainder’. Cf. Rowley 1958, 95. A Neroic Dupondius, Lugdunum, 64 AD is particularly close to the way securitas is portrayed, cf. Cohen 1880, 300-301, nos. 321-25; Mattingly 1923, 267268, for example nos. 344-349; Mattingly and Sydenham 1923, 164-165, nos. 284-297. Gibbs 1996-1997, 210-212 with Fig. 6; Gibbs 2002, 174; L’Engle 2002, 229-230 with Fig. 4. Cf. also Ebel et al. 1988, 162-163, 196. More probably in terms of a perception of ancient conceptions than in terms of a continuous tradition. 213 Image 2: Landscape The art historian Max Seidel goes even further and sees a depiction of the security, agricultural, trade and traffic policies of the Republic of Siena in the magnificent panoramic picture of the cultural landscape before the gates of the well-governed city (see image 2). On three levels, he claims, one can discern firstly a very clear depiction of Sienese politics in town and contado, secondly a symbolic depiction of the underlying state theory and thirdly the mythological-astrological superelevation of a political doctrine of security by means of peace and harmony.20 In my opinion, Seidel convincingly shows that one can find very specific, material connections to the governmental politics of the Nove in the first third of the 14th century in the picture. For this purpose, he consults council minutes on crop policies, statutes of the Sienese road construction authorities, land and tax registers as well as chronicles of that period.21 The scenes of grain cultivation and of harvesting could therefore be understood, for example, as an illustration of the reactions of the Nove to the climate-related crop failures and years of famine in the first third of the 14th century.22 In order to prevent the imminent danger of social unrest and strife due to a lack of corn, the council minutes state, the Nove levied a forced loan of 15,000 florins in 1330 for the purchase of grain and in 1340 they even imported grain for 40,000 florins.23 The argument used here is hence a type of social emergency situation, which justifies the impingement of ownership rights for the higher aim of ensuring “state” security. While the reason for tax collection is explained in the council minutes as the preservation of public security and the concern for pub- 20 21 22 23 Seidel 1999, 7. Seidel 1999. Seidel 1999, 49. On the famines from 1315-1317 in (mainly Northern) Europe and a possible climate impact cf. Dodds 2007. Seidel 1999, 51. 214 lic welfare, the frescoes, with their portrayal of a secure, rich harvest can also be understood as a subtle depiction of the government’s legitimisation strategy. According to Seidel, the policies of the republic concerning infrastructure are depicted even more concretely. Although the responsibility for maintaining land and water routes theoretically fell under the regalia of the emperor, from the High Middle Ages onwards the related rights and duties had in fact mostly been handed over to various rulers depending on the region.24 Residents were often called upon to maintain the routes, but in the Italian city states the local council usually organised the construction and maintenance of public roads itself.25 The street in the foreground of the picture displaying the effects of Buon Governo on the countryside is, according to Seidel, a classic example of a strata magistra. It has a plastered surface, as stipulated by the Sienese Statuto dei Viarî, is well lit and traverses the country in a clear manner, as laid down by the security measures of the Nove against highwaymen.26 In terms of its building technique, the bridge visible in the background also provides a reference to the contemporary measures of the Nove, who replaced the old wooden and stone bridges in the valley of the Arbia River and thereby enabled the transport of heavy materials such as millstones as well as roof beams for the construction of cathedrals.27 Moreover, it is indubitably no coincidence that the cultural landscape in the background displays a mill, as a rich harvest and the transport of crops into the town were closely connected with the concern for milling grain.28 Here too, the regiment of the Nove is celebrated in the picture as a guarantor of security and economic prosperity, or, read inversely, the controlling, possibly expropriating involvement of the “state” is discernible here. The Republic of Siena, in fact, not only operated an active policy of street construction, but in the area of water supply even ensured the well-being of the city inhabitants as early as the 14th century with miles of subterranean aqueducts.29 What the banner of securitas demands is thus made visible in the cultural landscape: “That each person may go on his way freely without fear and everyone may cultivate his field by means of work, as long as the local authorities keep this lady in power, for she has taken all strength away from the wrongdoers”.30 The allegory of Buon Governo repeats this on an abstract level, in con24 Szabó 2007, 107. Cf. Duvia 2007, 212-213; Stopani 1993, 28-29. 26 Seidel 1999, 53-54; 55-58. 27 Seidel 1999, 54-55. 28 Cf. Balestracci 2003. 29 Cf. Balestracci 2003. 30 “SENZA PAURA OGN UOM FRANCO CAMINI/ E LAVORANDO SEMINI CIASCUNO/ MENTRE CHE TAL COMUNO/ MANTERRÀ QUESTA DON[N]A I[N] SIGNORIA/ CH’EL À LEVATA A’ REI OGNI BALIA”. In historical scholarship the lady (donna) is generally considered to be Iustitia, but the inscription on the board seems to refer 25 215 nection with state theory. The equivalent is ultimately also found in macrocosmic congruence on the medallions above the fresco by means of the portrayal of the planet Mercury and the moon, which are understood to be the cause of, or at least a beneficial factor in, the human activities shown on the fresco – something that is disputed by contemporaries. The embodiment of astrology in the medallion under the fresco supports this interpretation.31 Lorenzetti’s frescoes can be read on several levels and from different perspectives. Securitas is portrayed, among other things, as a worldly governmental aim to be striven for in a sociopolitical sense and is brought into connection with very pragmatic, material concerns: security of the roads, agricultural well-being and livelihood, trade and exchange, peace and legal security. This observation therefore expands findings from conceptual history relating to contemporary intellectual discourses, which were usually shaped by clergymen and sometimes by lawyers, and clearly differentiates them. The conceptual history of the semantic field of securitas (and related terms) is unfortunately not sufficiently elaborated for the Medieval millenium.32 On the one hand, a theological discourse which opposed securitas and certitudo to each other can be traced from late antiquity to the period of the Protestant Reformation (strongly simplified): Augustine sees securitas as a negative standpoint in contrast to certitudo, certainty of faith, and Martin Luther still describes securitas as the standpoint of those who do not trust God. The term certitudo underwent a differentiation in the course of the Middle Ages, which can ideally be divided along three lines: theological ‘salvation certainty’, philosophical ‘knowledge certainty’ and political ‘operation certainty’, whereas in the Late Middle Ages, the term securitas, in terms of ancient perceptions, still seems to have been experiencing a kind of Renaissance.33 This ancient perception of securitas publica, which referred to the pragmatic aspects mentioned above (security of the streets, etc.) had been taken up again since the High Middle Ages, at the latest in the context of the discussion of the ruler’s concern for utilitas publica (John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas).34 Lorenzetti’s frescoes therefore show conceptual facets of securitas which only at first glance have little to do with the high-brow discourse of the theolo- 31 32 33 34 to the personification who holds her and who is labeled as SECVRITAS; see Delumeau 1989, 22. The differentiation between iustitia and securitas is actually not clear here, either iconographically or conceptually. Starn 1994, 96; Greenstein 1988, 498-500. On the planet children see Blume 2000. There was no agreement on the impact of stars on human life among contemporaries since the determination of man by stars was not in line with the religiously motivated postulate of human autonomy. The majority of contemporaries, however, assumed at least a certain impact of stars on human action, cf. Kunze, 1986, 183-185. Cf. for this passage Arends 2008; Liesner 2002; Conze 1984; Makropoulos 1995; SchrimmHeins 1990; Kingreen 2003, 27-28. Liesner 2002, 80-81. See below note 37; Eberhard 1985, 196-198. 216 gians. They tie in with the ancient tradition, but are conceptually broadened by transcendent cosmological references and are interspersed with Christian ideals: ideal concepts such as peace and justice, material goods as well as income, livelihood and advancement. These very practical, material concepts shaped the social order and the material housing of the people, namely city and nature, as shown by the cultural landscape in front of the gates of the city. Microcosm and macrocosm, city and country, rulers and ruled are analogously related to one another. The astrological interdependence of macrocosm and microcosm was compatible with Christian perceptions, since in the book of nature it was possible to recognise the will of God, who at the same time, using Aristotelian logic, was also thought to move the stars as a prima causa.35 Hence, in descriptive terminology, the unmistakable aims of Renaissance security can be identified as public welfare and services. Christian ideals (caritas, misericordia) not only obligated individuals but also governances to care for public welfare.36 The public services stretched to collective goods such as the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, but also the provision of food and protection from violence and injustice. Classic areas of what is today understood as “human security”, which it was in the interest of the government to provide owing to the benefit of it for trade and exchange, are thereby covered.37 A Buon governo that saw a threat to this security thus had to seek counter-measures, preventively protect its citizens, organise help in emergencies and rebuild what was destroyed. Using Siena as an example, it has already been seen how these kinds of counter-measures might have looked in the case of crop failures, imminent price increases and famine in 1330 and 1340. It was possible to supplement measures such as forced loans and the import of grain with regulations against price increases and the construction and maintenance of city corn houses as storage facilities to ensure against supply shortages.38 They were intended to guarantee the security of the community, but were also necessary for the military, and were part of city politics. However, not only the city as an enclosed space, but also the infrastructure built in the contado provided security against the threat from hostile nations and from nature. This infrastructure included roads and bridges, ditches, dams, fountains and roadhouses. These had to be constructed and maintained, and not only in Siena, but also in Florence, the 35 Cf. North 1986, 55-56, 74-75; Weltecke 2003, 188-189; Schenk 2010, 508-509. Levin 2004, 22-24. Cf. note 1; on the duty of the ruler see Ptolemaeus, book 2, chapter 12, 553: “Ut autem stratae in sua communitate sint liberae, et transeuntibus forent securae, iura principibus permittunt pedagia. […] amplius autem, et viarum securitas in regimine regni principibus est fructuosa, quia illuc magis confluunt mercatores cum mercibus, unde et regnum in divitiis crescit […].” Cf. also Conze 1984. 38 For Florence cf. Pinto 1978, 22-23, 107-120. For examples from the 15th century north of the Alps cf. Jörg 2008, 178-318. 36 37 217 whole of Tuscany, and generally throughout Europe, albeit with strong regional differences in quality, quantity and day-to-day administration.39 Securitas, Infrastructure and Averting Danger A second aspect of the topic now comes into focus: Natural hazards and disasters also represent a threat to societal security owing to the destruction of infrastructure. In fact, an extreme natural occurrence by definition only becomes a disaster if society is affected. Disasters are always the result of complex, historically-induced and process-driven causalities at the intersections between nature and culture.40 The sociopolitical dimension plays a large part in the reaction to or prevention of disasters by societies. Political power thereby consists not only of forms of causal power such as, for example, the ability to assert one’s own wishes in a social relationship, even in the face of adversity.41 In the sense of Hannah Arendt, it can also include modal forms of political power, for example, the self-empowerment of groups by means of common perceptions, attitudes and specific actions.42 This becomes particularly perceptible in the case of disasters that are not connected with an everyday threat from natural forces, but instead shake a community suddenly and perturbingly, such as earthquakes, for example. These occurrences were often understood as God’s reaction to sinful behaviour of the community and as a warning sign encouraging people to return to God and repent – a demonstration of certitudo in belief was therefore desired in order to regain the securitas of the community. Common practices of this kind were masses and Rogation processions for the purpose of re-establishing unity, strength of belief and solidarity, and to protect the community from future danger.43 When in 1466 Siena was shaken by an earthquake on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15th August), the day of the city’s patron saint, of all days, the people reacted with a procession – quite typical behaviour, as will be seen.44 However, besides tradition-bound forms of behaviour, the ways of dealing with recurring dangers could also lead to specific formalised behavioural patterns and sociopolitical order configurations, e.g. rule-governed behaviour as well as the formation of cooperatives and administrations that were responsible 39 40 41 42 43 44 Cf. e.g. Seidel 1999, 139-140; Casali 1995, 53-91. Cf. Hewitt 1997; Oliver-Smith 2002, 25-26 (“multidimensionality of disaster”), 43-45; Garçia-Acosta 2002, 60-62. Weber 2005, 38. Arendt 1970, 45; Krause and Rölli 2008, 7-18. Delumeau 1989, 90-176; Schenk 2009a, 73-74. Morandi 1964, 98-99; the earthquake is not registered by Guidoboni and Comastri 2005 and would deserve a detailed investigation. 218 for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. These types of reaction to and the prevention of disasters were often oriented towards public welfare, which, however, was defined in different ways and could become the subject of dispute. Conflicts concerning what brings security to the community are particularly illuminating for the question of competing agents, beneficiaries, winners and losers and their argumentation and legitimisation strategies when providing security.45 In the following, a few examples of these kinds of conflicts and of how they were handled administratively beyond the Republic of Siena will be presented. Case Studies: Florence and Strasbourg The commune of Florence, which established itself as a republic in the 12th century and constructed an extensive network of roads and bridges throughout its contado in a phase of expansion in the 13th and 14th centuries, serves as the first example.46 During the years 1360-1370, the plain from San Salvi and Ricorboli to the east of the gates of Florence faced the threat of floods due to the meandering Arno. After a catastrophic flood that claimed hundreds of lives in November 1333, the commune passed a strict ban on obstructing the course of the river in this zone with weirs for mills, for example.47 However, the security of the city faced a different threat as a result, because no mills for the production of flour would have been available in the case of a siege.48 Soon the commune allowed mills to be operated precisely in the aforementioned zone, which increased the danger of floods due to backwater, but also generated jobs and tax revenues.49 In 1371, the republic decided by way of precaution to protect the northern banks with a wall at the residents’ expense, because a vital street to Bologna traversed this area.50 No lasting success seems to have been achieved, however, because in 1380/81 a commission of the responsible administrative body, the Ufficio di Torre, inspected the locality and decided on extensive building measures.51 A short time later, one of the local mill operators was sued for damages by a neighbour, because the backwater had damaged his private property. In 1383, the defendant fought back with an expert’s report based on Roman law about ownership rights and liability laws in connection 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Schenk 2009b, 18 Cf. for general issues Luzzati 1986; La Roncière 2005, 27-100. Cf. Schenk 2007, 367, 373-374; La Roncière 2005, 130-133. Cf. on the communal mills Muendel 1991, 375; Papaccio 2008, 76-79. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Provvisioni Reg. 55, fol. 135r+v (February 1368). Cantini 1800, 118. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Capitani di Parte guelfa, numeri rossi 105, fol. 33r; ibid., Provvisioni Reg. 70, fol. 65r+v; ibid., Provvisioni Dupl. 37, fol. 145v-157v. On the complex history of the multifunctional Ufficio di Torre and its different elements and names see Guidi 1981, 283-293; Casali 1995, 53-72; La Roncière 2005, 57-73. 219 with the private usage of public goods, which was compiled by the Florentine lawyer Donato Ricchi de Aldighieri. The expert was a pupil of the famous jurist Bartolo de Sassoferrato (1313/14-1357), in his time the author of the first large medieval treatise about usage rights, property rights and liability law in the context of meandering rivers.52 The legal situation was complicated, because the mill operator’s private usage led to damages for the commune, whose costs were transferred to the general public by means of taxes. Nevertheless, the expert acquitted the mill operator of indemnity claims.53 However, the flooding problem remained virulent and at intervals it caused severe, sometimes catastrophic damage to the course of the Arno. During the course of the next two centuries, institutions specialising in building infrastructure, such as the above-mentioned Ufficio di Torre, among others, worked to combat the consequences of flooding. Although the term “security” is not explicitly used in the sources here, we can talk about a kind of “security policy” in the Florentine republic. Just as Lorenzetti’s allegory of securitas implicitly addresses the responsibility of the Buon Governo of the Nove for the infrastructure in Siena, the responsibility of the republic of Florence for the bonum commune in the city and Contado becomes perceptible. After the Medici came to power in 1530, taxes were regularly levied on draught cattle in order to finance the costs of building infrastructure.54 This was justified with reference to the economic benefits of using streets and bridges for trade, and the duty of the Medici government to the felice stato.55 Stato is not to be understood as the modern state; the term has an overtone here that can perhaps be expressed in English as “state” in the sense of “situation, circumstances”, or as “public welfare” – the rulers were under obligation to create a state of contentment within the community. This wording should not hide the fact that the cattle tax primarily affected not the traders in the city, but the regional farmers. However, land owners also benefitted from repair and adjustment measures. After a flood in September 1557, for example, the property belonging to the heir of Ottaviano de’ Medici on the river Marina, just before it joins the Bisenzio, was damaged. The commune of Florence examined and 52 53 54 55 Significant edition: Cavallar 2004. Edition of the expert opinion in Cantini 1800, 119-122. Cf. for general issues Mannori 2005, 59-90; on the history of administration of infrastructures under the Medici cf. Spini 1976; Pratilli 1998; Vivoli 1998. Cf. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Capitani di parte guelfa, numeri rossi 105, fol. 299v (1533), fol. 311v (1545); ibid., Senato dei quarantotto, 14, fol. 56r (23 July 1549), Volendo l’illustrissimo et eccellentissimo s(ign)or il s(ign)or Duca di Fiorenza per remedio all’infiniti danni che fanno et farebbono e fiumi del suo amplissimo et felice stato se e’ non vi si obviassi et advertendo che di tal suo desiderio e non se ne può vedere facilmente l’effecto senza qualche buono et certo assegnamento di denari […]. The republic had charged fees as well but in most cases limited in duration or location. 220 repaired the damages in this zone.56 From the middle of the 13th century onwards, the Republic of Florence, later the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, at first reacted to the threat posed by floods to security, infrastructure and prosperity with commissions that were formed ad hoc, then in the course of time, due to the expansion of the territories and the growing complexity of the state system, with specialised administrative units.57 Despite certain tendencies towards centralisation, the actions of the Florentine administration were mostly just reactions. Private economic interests, political-military expansions, natural hazards and security requirements drove this development. The interplay of local requirements and the reaction from Florence had a formative effect on administration and ‘state’.58 In line with recent research, one can speak here of “empowering interactions” between the sociopolitical “below” and “above”.59 It was only in the period of the Medici that this trend towards a type of refeudalisation was broken.60 However, the provision of security could also take place on other levels, which are discussed in more detail in historical research due to their (reputedly) typical “Medieval” character. For example, from the middle of the 14th until the 17th century, the commune of Florence was accustomed to ask for divine help in the case of bad weather, earthquakes, epidemics, war, religious or political unrest, or for intercession and mercy in view of these afflictions, by carrying out processions in honour of and with a picture of the Madonna from nearby Impruneta.61 Moral wrongdoing was namely seen as a cause of threats to security, even those posed by natural hazards. This was supported by a widespread school of thought based on the theological concept of punishment, which saw analogies with the biblical Flood in the sense of a “peccatogenic cause study”: God was cautioning or punishing the sinful world by means of a disaster.62 Soon after a devastating earthquake turned thousands of houses into rubble in the Mugello valley north of Florence in the night of 12th to 13th June 1542, the senate forbade sodomy and blasphemy in unusually clear language, seem- 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Capitani di parte guelfa, numeri neri 960, no. 87 and the drawing between nos. 248 and 249: Report by Dominico di Zanobi on damage to the property of Filippo Arrighetti and Carlo Strozzi. It probably refers to the former property of Ottaviano de’ Medici (1484-1546), father of the later Pope Leo XI (1605). See comments above, notes 51 and 54 and Guarini 2000, passage 2. Nicholas 1997, 156 even characterises the late medieval Italian city administration as “overgoverned”. On this concept see Blockmans et al. 2009. Cf. Rombai 1994, 4. Casotti 1714; Trexler 1972; Processions might be a kind of ritual to calm God’s anger. Groh et al. 2003, 20, mentions “peccatogene(n) Ursachenforschung”. 221 ingly owing to this sign of God’s wrath.63 The Florentine senate was under the control of the Medici family, who originally came from the Mugello valley. Even though Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici himself seems to have rejected an interpretation of the occurrence along the lines of the theological concept of punishment, as a letter reveals, nevertheless the government of Florence clearly held itself responsible for the moral “state” (stato) of the community.64 Thus, processions, moral obligations and bans on luxury items could be understood as contemporary security policies. This was not only the case in Florence. When the earth moved in Strasbourg in 1357, but without causing much damage, the Strasbourg City Council forbade its citizens from wearing gold jewellery not befitting their social status. In addition, the City Council specially decreed an annual procession of penitents, which had the explicit purpose of pacifying God’s wrath and can therefore be understood as a type of appeasement ritual.65 This procession was to be repeated yearly and was connected with a sacrifice in honour of Mary, the patron saint of the city, and with alms given to the city’s poor. This so-called “Saint Lucas procession” was in fact continued until the first third of the 16th century as a type of admonitory memoria of the earthquake. The decree of alms additionally represents a demonstration of Christian virtues such as caritas and misericordia.66 The aim of this was evidently to spell out the duty of the rich to take care of the poor. As was the case with the ban on gold jewellery, the correct social order, i.e. the relationship between the social upper and lower class that prevailed despite all differences, is thereby choreographed. The objective of the portrayal is thus the establishment of the order willed by God as a condition for the security of the whole community. Nevertheless, this provision of security by means of actions was by no means socially inclusive, but rather the opposite. For one thing, it aimed only symbolically, not materially, at a social balance. For another, it also allowed communities to react to the actual or perceived threat to their security by searching for scapegoats. In historical scholarship, this is discussed using the example of the Jewish pogroms of 1348 as a reaction to the plague (Jews as well-poisoners) and the witch-hunting as a reaction to the worsening of the climate and the crop failures of the Little Ice Age.67 Both examples are not without their problems, however: The Jewish pogroms very often had other 63 64 65 66 67 Cf. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Senato dei Quarantotto 5, fol. 7v-9v, 33r+v; ibid., Senato dei Quarantotto 14, fol. 56r; on the earthquake Bellandi and Rhodes 1987, 1 and the Catalogo dei forti terremoti d’Itali, dated June 13, 1542. Letter: Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4299, fol. 253r. On the theology of punishment cf. Ildefonso 1785, 251-253 with regard to bad weather in 1511. Cf. Schenk 2010, 516-517. For the presence of the virtues in daily life cf. Nari 1991. Cf. with differences in detail Graus 1988, 335-340, 377-389; Behringer 1999. 222 causes – for example, economic, political, or religious.68 There are also arguments against drawing parallels between the worsening climate and witch hunts: The accusations of weather-related magic were frequently rooted in, for example, familial, neighbourly or sociopolitical conflicts and only had serious effects when a particularly zealous inquisitor was in the area.69 Nevertheless, there are connections between catastrophic weather events, the increase in the number of accusations of weather-related magic and witch hunts. A causal connection between strong precipitation, a landslide and the persecution of Jews can even be attested to in at least one case (Ravensburg 1430).70 This form of social security provision by means of persecuting “guilty” fringe groups thus had an extremely excluding character. With the cultural anthropologist Mary Douglas, one can suspect that a common cultural model underlies both the moral obligations and the search for scapegoats, namely a culturespecific perception of purity that is threatened by sin in the form of deviant behaviour or maladjusted groups.71 It is still to be clarified to what extent this search for culpability and culprits after a disaster is rooted more in cultural than religious conditions and to what extent it is culture- and epoch-specific. Caritas as a kind of elementary care for the members of a society who were in need was more widespread in the Middle Ages than it appears at first glance. Survival was part of human security, while the securing of this survival was a duty of the government, even if all too often the means did not suffice for this purpose. This was also the case in connection with disasters. In the summer of 1529, the Upper Rhine Plain was struck by a flood disaster. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of refugees made their way to Strasbourg and found acceptance. The city brought them to a Barfüsserkloster and other religious establishments, fed them, and let those fit for employment work on the city fortifications.72 Contemporaries suspected that not only the weather, but also flaws in the water engineering of the smaller rivers Ill, Bruche, Zembs and Brunnwasser had caused the flood disaster. The Strasbourg bishop, Wilhelm (III) von Hohnstein (1506-1541) formulated this very clearly, as a letter from 28th September 1529 reveals.73 He was a member of a cooperative which since the start of the 15th century had been dealing with improvements to watercourses as 68 69 70 71 72 73 Cf. the overview of previous research in Toch 2003, 59-67, 110-120. Cf. especially with regard to Alsace Behringer and Jerouschek 2000, 9-97. Cf. Wolff 2008, 486-487. I owe this evidence to Karel Hruza. See Douglas 1992, 3-121. Cf. Winckelmann 1922, 150; Jütte 2005, 231-233; Jörg 2008, 264, 340. Strasbourg, Archives de ville, série VI 209 (33), No. 4: “Ersamen wÿsen lieben getruwen und besondern gut frundt, wir stehend jnn dheinen zwÿfel, euch sÿge unverborgen unnd jnn gutem wissen, wie die größe unnd uberfluß der wassern des Rheins, Ÿll, Zems unnd Brunwasser disß vergangnen summer den gemeinen man, dern lantz ort von Colmar oben herab bisß gein Straßburg ein mercklichen schweren unnd verderblichen schaden zugefügt hatt … dwil wir dann vernemen, das sollichs die groß mercklich nodturfft erfordert, domit unuberbringlicher verderblicher schad verhütet blibe”. 223 transport routes, the regulation of competing rights of use (fishing, mills, irrigation) and preventive measures against floods: the so-called Illsassen.74 The earliest still existing contract between residents and persons holding rights in the watercourses, with a duration of 10 years, dates from the year 1404. The residents subsequently formed a cooperative and established an official river regiment dealing with rights and duties, the construction of dams and canals, bank reinforcement, inspections, penalty clauses, arbitration processes in the case of conflicts, etc. As stated in an Ill regulation of 1459, the union took place with the purpose of gemeines nutzes und notdurfft (common usage and emergency aid).75 In other words: The Ill cooperative, with public welfare and the elimination of hardship as its objectives, represents a further type of institutionalised security provision in the Late Middle Ages. The complex development of the Ill cooperative can only be mentioned briefly here. Besides the bishop and the Strasbourg cathedral chapter, the cities of Strasbourg, Schlettstadt and Kolmar, Ebersmunster Abbey, the Rappoltstein family, the Herrschaft Rathsamhausen and numerous small communes, among others, were involved in the cooperative during its first phase. As early as the 15th century, damage prevention is mentioned as a task of the cooperative in connection with river regulations; finally, in 1531, there are concrete discussions about the “prevention of future ruinous damages”.76 In the years of crisis after 1530, the cooperative formed an einung (union) with detailed instructions that were summarised in a wasserordnung (water regulations). In the long run, this Ill cooperative was to become a political factor, but above all it played an important part in resolving conflicts, and ultimately, at the start of the 17th century, referred to its 29 members (incorrectly according to the law) as “Illstände” in the emerging corporative state. The Ill cooperative only came to an end with the French occupation of Alsace, whereby even the French intendant referred to the old rules, which were still to be taken as an approved basis.77 In reality, the administration, which on the surface was highly centralised, seems to have been structured in a subsidiary manner. In contrast to the situation in Florence, a pragmatic culture of adjustment established itself here amid converging and competing interests. The Illsassen, organised in a cooperative, carried out their tasks for centuries with some suc74 Only basically known through Sittler 1952; and Eichenlaub 1990, 189-195. The author is preparing a detailed study on the Ill cooperative. 75 Quotation: Strasbourg, Archives de ville, série VI 209 (1, 4); on ‘gemeiner Nutzen’ (common usage) in the friction between authority and cooperative cf. Eberhard 1986. 76 Strasbourg, Archives de ville, série VI 209 (33), no. 11: The council of the bishop writes to the councillor of Strasbourg on November 6, 1531 on the extension of tasks to the river: “Zembs sampt anderen nebenflusßen mit besichtigen und nach jren guten gewißnen ordnen sollen, wie sie am nutzlichstenn zu furkhemung verrer verderblicher schadenns achtenn mogenn […]”. 77 Cf. Sittler 1952, 145-146; Eichenlaub 1990, 193. 224 cess. In this context, it is almost certainly possible to speak of a type of statebuilding from below, which led to characteristic forms of regional politics with a subsidiary character. This political-legal concept of regulating a river for economic reasons is no exception, but is rather the rule in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Southwest of the empire.78 In the empire to the north of the Alps, the cooperative organisation of public interests represented a substantial line of tradition in dealing with common goods as well as the political organisation of public welfare and the provision of security in town and country. Here the term ‘security’ does not appear in the sources either, but can be interpreted descriptively. The differences between Tuscany and the Upper Rhine Valley with regard to the public organisation of security issues can be related to the specific historical development of the communities south and north of the Alps, but can also result from different legal traditions and last but not least, socioeconomic conditions. The differences as well as their reasons would deserve a detailed analysis. Conclusion and Hypotheses In Renaissance Europe, the provision of security represented a significant task of many different political communities. This encompassed firstly the concern for individual salvation, meaning that it searched for certitudo in faith. On a pragmatic level though, the provision of security was also the concern for protecting citizens from violence, war, injustice, hunger, price increases, disasters such as epidemics; the concern for public welfare (salus publica, gemeiner nutzen – the common good)79 and thus ultimately also the concern for public services, i.e. food and infrastructure. The leaders legitimised their actions by, among other things, at least symbolically taking care of this security. The unique and early allegory of securitas in Lorenzetti’s fresco stands at least for this symbolic responsibility of a Buon Governo. Evidently only very modest instruments were available for this purpose in comparison to the present day. However, it needs to be stated that already prior to the beginning of the Early Modern period and maybe starting from the Italian town republics in an unique amalgam of ancient and medieval traditions a new, pragmatic concept of “security” began to develop. Without being mentioned explicitly, it represented one of several reasons for the development of specialised institutions which were supposed to take care of e.g. infrastructure, buildings, protection from misery 78 79 Of importance are e.g. the “Runsgenossenschaften” and the “Schuttergenossen” east of the river Rhine, with a “Schutter” court to resolve legal issues and quarrels. Cf. Mone 1852 for the east of the Rhine; Gerlach 1990, 45, for the river Main 125-129. Cf. Eberhard 1986. 225 and violence and the maintenance of law and order.80 In the Late Middle Ages, the provision of security itself displays an astonishing plurality of forms. It took place at the most diverse levels, from the emerging gute policey and the developing legal system to city statutes and sovereign regulations. Politically, it tended to be organised from above, as was the case in Florence, but in certain sectors there was also interaction between above and below, as the example of the Ill cooperative shows. André Holenstein coined the term “empowering interaction” for this and characterised the related effects as “statebuilding from below”.81 The question of who provided security in the encompassing sense mentioned, and in what way, has a place at the centre of political debate. In 1981, the economic historian Eric Lionel Jones identified the specific connection between environment, the capitalist economic system and political structure as a significant basis for the “European miracle”. 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The development of the ‘food security’ concept in the 1990s marked a significant change away from state-centred strategies that focused on food availability, towards policies aimed at food access and strengthening individual ‘entitlements’ (A. Sen) to food. This essay applies the food security approach to early modern food regimes, drawing on the example of the state-granary system in 18th century Prussia to investigate their agents, zones of conflict, and limits. The evident failure of technology-centred approaches raises questions about established periodisations, and modernisation narratives on the ‘great escape’ from hunger. The granary as a ‘technology of risk’ illustrates the social construction of ‘security’ through the labelling of security providers and security takers as well as the performance of exclusion and inclusion. Keywords: Food security, famine, granary, Prussia, Frederick II of Prussia, food regime, security regime, entitlements, exclusion. Food security is a relatively recent addition to the political concerns governing development, nutrition and human rights. The concept rose to prominence alongside ‘human security’ during several UN-sponsored conferences in the late 1990s. It marked a decisive shift away from earlier strategies that had focused not on food security, but on food availability. These earlier approaches considered food access only in terms of physical accessibility, resulting in programs to raise global food production and to ensure rapid deployment of stored grain during emergencies. By the 1990s, however, it had become depressingly obvious that the physical availability of foodstuffs alone did very little to prevent malnutrition and starvation. Even though per-capita production of food has grown, hunger has not gone away.1 1 Address all communications to: Dominik Collet, Graduiertenkolleg Interdisziplinäre Umweltgeschichte, Seminar für Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte, Universität Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Hall 1998. The development of the ‘food security’ concept is closely related to that of ‘human security’, sharing its shift away from state-focused approaches to a wider scope of providers or ‘agents’ of security, analysing multi-polar ‘governance’ instead of state ‘policy’. Translated into political action, it has also been accused of sharing the latter’s neocolonial undertones, facilitating the de-legitimisation and circumvention of non-Western governments. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 234-252 Accordingly new approaches began to focus less on physical and more on economic and social access to food. These policies highlighted poverty, inequality and the shifting ‘entitlements’ (A. Sen) to foodstuffs. They would look at individual rather than household provisions, reconsidering the skewed distribution of food according to gender and age. They would identify cultural barriers to certain foods and distributive practices, and analyse the wide range of environmental challenges to food access. In short: the concept of food security shifted the focus away from technological towards political, socio-economic and cultural factors.2 Significantly for the historical sciences, this shift challenges established demarcation lines between contemporary and pre-modern societies. Railroads, for example – once cherished as the ultimate weapon against famine – are no longer regarded as crucial prerequisites to food security. In fact they have frequently been shown to exert a negative impact, facilitating outward as well as inward flows of food during shortages.3 In most historical narratives, however, it is still improved storage and transportation, silos and railways which delineate the advent of supposedly ‘modern’ and ‘secure’ food regimes. Historians have by and large ignored the challenge of development economics and held on to established modernisation narratives. Accordingly, they have focused predominantly on technological developments that supposedly mark a clear break, ‘the great escape’ to use David Arnold’s term, from the pre-modern cycle of perpetual subsistence crisis: demographic growth, climatic disaster, famine, and population decline.4 This essay will test the reach of the ‘food security’ concept on one prominent example of early modern society’s food regimes that figured strongly in historical debates as well as in later narratives: the public granary. I will briefly sketch its genesis, focusing especially on late 18th century Prussia, where they were widely regarded as a cure-all to food insecurity. In a second part I will discuss some of the conflicts that surrounded these structures and try to explain their ultimate failure to provide secure food access by looking at their socioeconomic and cultural role in early modern societies. Finally, I will use these observations to speculate on the more general issues of security and risk as well as their periodisation. The Ecology of the Granary For most of the developed world, hunger resides in the past. In 2006 a study claimed that the 800 million clinically obese people now slightly surpass the 2 3 4 Hall 1998, Chapter 3: The History of Food Security. Davis 2002, 26-27, 332. Arnold 1988, 68-72. 235 numbers of malnourished humans living on our planet.5 This ‘balanced’ picture, however, cannot mask the fact that food deficiency has never left us, neither in the so-called developing world, nor in the industrialised nations. In fact, one of the reasons politicians in the West have embraced the ‘food security’ concept is the possibility of re-labelling the increasing number of poor people in Western, industrialised countries as ‘food insecure’, thereby avoiding the politically far more damaging term: hungry. Even though the ‘right to food’ has only recently been incorporated into many national laws, the protection from want has always been a policy cornerstone. Indeed it lies at the very heart of why humans form a society. To secure access to food for his people is the prime responsibility of any ruler and a foundation of legitimate government. Some of the oldest written documents describe grain supply as a crucial statecraft. Chinese texts from the 5th century BC reckon that provisions for 9 years are advisable while 3 years are necessary for any government to survive and that only “when the granaries are full [the people] will know propriety and moderation.” Similar provisions abound in Roman scripture and the Bible.6 Public granaries can be found in most complex societies. The growth of towns constituted one of the driving factors for ever larger granaries. The ruins of ancient Rome’s public storehouses or the massive Chinese ‘ever-normal’ granaries continue to amaze people today.7 Europe’s earliest surviving buildings date from the heyday of medieval cities. Later public granaries followed the increasing division of labour to the sites of mines, manufactories and military garrisons that often lay too far away from farming resources to support their residents. In the 17th and 18th centuries, granaries rapidly expanded alongside the early modern state and its growing populations. Early modern granaries occupied increasingly massive structures (Illustration 1). They were designed to support heavy weights and to protect the grain from fire, moisture and rodents, storing it in waist-high boxes, often on multiple low storeys with a raised ground floor and double walls to keep out humidity.8 Their solid appearance also reflected positively on their communal or noble patrons, visualising their respective commitment to the support of subjects or citizens, very much helped by the fact that granaries had to be placed in easy reach of large populations and were often situated right in the city centre (Illustration 2). A prominently positioned granary also marked and illustrated security claims in opposition to other providers of relief such as the church or 5 6 7 8 BBC, “Overweight ‘top world’s hungry’” 2006. Cf. Will and Wong 1991, 2, 15, who also consider the establishment of a comprehensive public granaries system in early modern China as a consequence of the Quing conquerors’ increased need for legitimisation. Cf. Rickman 1988. On the structural design and the turning and preservation techniques of early modern granaries, cf. Dinglinger 1768. 236 private charity. Granaries only lost their prominence when improved transportation made it possible to store grain close to the producer and free precious city space during the 19th century. Even in today’s distributed markets, however, the German government still keeps a strategic ‘Bundesreserve’ (federal reserve) of grain, stored in secret locations according to the ‘Ernährungssicherstellungsgesetz’ (food securitisation law) which last provided uncontaminated food supplies during the Chernobyl fallout of 1986.9 Illustration 1: Vertical Section of an Ideal Granary (1768) Dinglinger 1768, Table 1 (Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen). This brief sketch of the granary’s genesis already hints at some zones of conflict. Many depots originated not from the need to provide secure food, but to store tribute grain – grain constituting not just a food resource but a form of currency in pre-monetary societies.10 The appearance of granaries in towns, mining villages and the sites of factories illustrates the momentous inequalities in supply between producers and consumers. Similarly, the construction of storage for military purposes foreshadows conflicts of access and precedence, relief and war. Finally many granaries, such as the Roman storehouses, started as private enterprises and became ‘public’, that is controlled by the authorities, only through coercion or forceful appropriation – a process that indicates di9 10 These reserves cover only a few weeks demand and would thus have met with strong disapproval from ancient China’s statesmen. Cf. Horn 2005. Cf. Karl Polanyi’s concept of the storage economy and ‘Staple Finance vs. Market Finance’ in his pioneering work on the cultural anthropology of economics: Polanyi et al. 1957, esp. 243-270. 237 verging interest between private trade, governments and consumers.11 Granaries occupied a strongly contested field, divided between the state and private actors, military and humanitarian interests as well as fiscal and charitable policies. Illustration 2: Mauthalle, Nuremberg, Built by Hans Behaim the Elder as a Public Granary in 1498-1502. Photography: Andreas Praefcke. The Prussian ‘Granary State’ All these ruptures are visible in what is possibly the most daring and most highly publicised European endeavour at a comprehensive storage system: the Prussian state granaries of the 18th century. Contrary to what a host of accompanying tracts claimed, their origins lie not in the people’s welfare or economic policy. Instead they owe their existence to the effects of the ‘military revolution’. The need to support a large, well-disciplined and increasingly mobile army without damage to the growing fiscal state required an extended provisioning system.12 However, the enormous costs of their upkeep in peacetime quickly generated ideas about additional uses. 11 12 Rickman 1988, 164-173. Cf. Atorf 1999, 66-67. 238 Grain deficits were common in Prussia as in most of Europe. The effects of the Little Ice Age and rapid demographic growth resulted in large parts of the population going hungry or living close to subsistence level. Three major harvest failures in 1709, 1740 and 1771 as well as the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War led to all-out famines, with population losses of up to 10%. But even in normal years, grain prices fluctuated and rose steadily the longer the harvest had passed, indicating that few people could afford to stockpile provisions in autumn.13 Eminent cameralists such as Justi, Bergius or Sonnenfels argued that the finances tied up in state granaries could be put to use by employing them as price-balancing mechanisms. By releasing grain when the price was high, and buying when the price was low, they could support grain producers and city consumers in turn through a ‘just price’.14 Others petitioned for the granaries to artificially inflate prices, thereby supporting grain producers and preventing servants and labourers from becoming “willfull and unruly” in times of abundance.15 Many more lobbied for low prices in order to stimulate trade and industry and assist city artisans or even the poor.16 Some scholars pointed to the success of contemporary fire insurance and argued for an extension of granary schemes to cover the whole population, thereby exterminating the hated grain traders often denounced as ‘Corn-Jews’.17 The 1709 famine spurred some of these plans into action in Prussia, but when another harvest failed in 1721 most of these new granaries were found empty.18 Prussia’s granary schemes finally gathered momentum when Frederick II became king in 1740 during yet another catastrophically failed harvest. He immediately realised the granaries political potential and dramatically opened Berlin’s magazines to coincide with his accession ceremonies (Illustration 3). A fresh spell of new granaries followed, leaving Prussia with 32 major state magazines at the beginning of war in 1756. While they served the Prussian war effort well during the extended campaigns of the Seven Years’ War, they also helped to combat the sharp price hikes that followed the military clashes.19 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Von Münchhausen 1772, 118 and Abel 1972, 34-37. Cf. Bergius 1777 and Justi 1771, 4, 22 and 96; Sonnenfels 1777, 376-381. D. V., “Untersuchung“ 1752, 136. Justi 1771, 75-78, 102. D. V., “Untersuchung” 1752, 136 and Wehrs 1791, 142. Atorf 1999, 124. Atorf 1999, 182, 214. 239 Illustration 3: Johann David Schleuen, Berlin’s Grain Magazines are Opened During the Famine of 1740 on Occasion of the Oath of Allegiance to Frederick II In: Schultz 1988, 44. Their biggest challenge, though, was still to come. In 1770 a sharp winter with snow that lasted until June followed by catastrophic rainfall destroyed crops all over central Europe.20 What ensued has been branded by Borussophile historiography as an “immensely successful fight against famine”, “an example of superior social policy”21 that transformed Prussia into “an island of security”22, thereby following the assessment of Frederick II in his famous ‘political testament’: 20 21 22 A comprehensive study of this momentous disaster is still lacking. An overview can be found in: Abel 1972, 191-266. Atorf 1999, 385 closely following the assessment of Naudé 1905, 178. Hinrich 1933. 240 In the year 1770 frost destroyed all crops. Fresh suffering threatened the people [....]. The King, however, had great granaries in Silesia and other places. These wise measures protected his people from famine [...]. The agony experienced by the subjects of other states was due to the fact that no country save Prussia had [sufficient] grain magazines. Only here was one prepared for emergency and could resolve it by policies dictated by reason.23 Historical sources covering grain and food supply abound, as their supervision resided at the core of early modern government. In the case of Prussia, however, a critical rereading of the sources is complicated by substantial losses, the limited governmental perspective of surviving documents and the political spin the administration deliberately introduced to embellish their own efforts.24 This tendency is further aggravated by the fact that for the ordinary consumer the bakery, not the storehouse, constituted the point of contact with governmental food regimes. However, even the few surviving records show that at the start of 1770 the granaries lay half-empty. King Frederick’s repeated appeals to his administrators to buy grain during the bumper crop of the previous year had been futile. Most of them were military men who saw few merits in this laborious task during peacetime.25 They were supported by local landowners eager to avoid the strenuous transport to outlying depots. Cunning merchants even managed to convince the authorities to support the export of grain, as the recent war had supposedly shrunk the population and “led to a higher percentage of children who need less food”.26 As the state benefited from export taxes and was itself one of the largest producers of grain, permission was granted promptly. Accordingly, all through 1770 Prussia continued to export large quantities of grain. When the central administration finally realised the extent of the shortfall and closed all borders, the Frisian territories had already managed to sell the largest share of their reserves at good profit to the prosperous Dutch states rather than the state granaries.27 The King was soon petitioned for magazine 23 24 25 26 27 Volz and Oppeln-Bronikowski 1913, 63-64. As large parts of the Preussische Kriegsmagazinsverwaltungsakten have been lost, most modern studies had to fall back on Skalweit’s edition of documents, often, however, without reflecting on their tendentious and highly selective nature. A prominent example is Atorf’s dissertation (Atorf 1999) that credulously echoes Skalweit’s benign assessments. For a rare critical assessment of Frederick II poor policies see: Kluge 1987. Cf. Cabinet Orders, Berlin Dec-Jan 1769/79, in: Skalweit 1931, 258-259. Nor did the report from Silesia fail to mention potatoes and meliorations, two favourite projects of the Prussian sovereign: Skalweit 1931, 267. Correspondence of the General Directory with the Chamber of East Frisia, in: Skalweit 1931, 268-287. The reports illustrate the scope for strategic disinformation by local parties with trading interests. Harvest predictions only changed from “quite good” to a catastrophic “loss of 50%” when challenged by the centre. Similarly, Magdeburg’s petitions to continue free trade in order to acquire grain from abroad were soon suspected of being pretexts for internal grain speculation. Accordingly, the administration had to resort to sending out in- 241 supplies from all regions. Quite unusual for his time, Frederick II dealt with many of these supplications personally. His focus, however, was centred firmly on provisioning the army and the capital city. Rural petitioners were addressed in Frederick’s usual candid style: “I have nothing to give, go and buy on the market” or “What an evil letter! They are a restless and riotous people”, or “They must be mad, in Saxony grain stands at twice the price” or “The village is right on the border, they must have sold their grain to the Saxons, and now they dare expect it back from our magazine!”28 When the harvest catastrophically failed for a second and even a third time in 1771 and 1772, complaints reached the King of his famished subjects being reduced to eating unhealthy food substitutes for sustenance. Storage grain was accordingly provided for soldiers and their families, who constituted a large part of the population in Prussia.29 Supplies, however, largely failed to reach the poor, who were expected to pay ‘normal’ grain prices at a time when they had spent their assets, often including all their possessions and even their clothes.30 At the same time, many soldiers and well-to-do citizens were able to resell magazine grain to rich city consumers at substantial premiums.31 As the magazines emptied rapidly, the administration stepped up campaigns against scapegoats: “Corn-Jews” who supposedly hoarded grain, distillers, rich foreigners or the “lazy”, “idle” or “incompetent” tradesmen who failed to provide relief.32 In this situation the king chose to move his troops deep into neighbouring Poland under the pretext of erecting a safety cordon against epidemics raging there. This strategy proved successful in two ways. It provided forage for the large number of soldiers involved and yielded, through force, intimidation and requisitioning, fresh grain supplies for the King’s granaries. The move efficiently turned the granaries from storehouses into clearing-houses of Polish grain.33 While it exported the famine eastwards, it allowed the King to uphold 28 29 30 31 32 33 spection teams of their own recruited from the military: Skalweit 1931, 269, 278-279 and Cabinet Orders to the Ministers Hagen and Derschau, Sep. 26th, 1770, Skalweit 1931, 271. Skalweit 1931, 275, 307-308. Skalweit 1931, 109. While the intention to provide for the poor (“die Armuth”) was occasionally mentioned, specifications for handouts listed soldiers and their families only. See Skalweit 1931, 273. The administration certainly hoped that provisioning the military – often more than 30% of Prussia’s urban consumers – would reduce market pressure with benefits to other consumers. The inflexible demand for grain, however, resulted in sharp price hikes even during smaller shortfalls, quickly pricing the poor out of the market. Skalweit 1931, 312. Skalweit 1931, 281, 285-286, 291, 309 and Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, I. HA, Rep. 96B, Nr. 72 (1771), 441 and (1772), 395. Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, I. HA, Rep. 96B, Nr. 72 (1771), 146, 163, 261, 308, 324, 333, 342 and (1772), 61, 140-141. The famine eventually proved consequential for the ensuing First Partition of a weakened Poland in 1772. Frederick II’s eager enquiries about the magazine supplies of his rivals illuminate the extent to which he regarded 242 the well-publicised fiction of granaries as sources of food security, even though they served only a selected few, had been plagued by neglect, and encouraged complacency, profiteering and misappropriation. Illustration 4: The Great Granary in Berlin-Kreuzberg (1801-1805) Engraving by T. Barber. Landesarchiv Berlin / Photography Marburg. At the height of the crisis the price of grain almost tripled, a disaster for a population that regularly spent two-thirds of their income on food. It resulted in a serious rise in deaths from starvation, exhaustion and disease as well as a significantly reduced rate of marriages and offspring. Indeed, fear and desperation had become so widespread that even two average harvests in 1773 and 1774 failed to improve the situation. Many countrymen anxiously held onto their food, leading to a renewed wave of accusations against suspected “Jewish mischief”.34 34 granaries as part of warfare rather than provisioning: Volz 1913, 354, 400, 472, 584, 673. At a ministerial request for rural aid he replied: “My war magazines are not built with the intention to supply subjects with bread, fodder and seed [...] To feed the country as well [as well as my soldiers, D.C.] is simply impossible.” Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, I. HA, Rep. 96B, Nr. 72 (1771), 37. Skalweit 1931, 309, 651-653 and the reports about famine victims and population decline in Prussia in: Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, II. HA, Tit. CCLXV, Nr. 6, Vol. 1, 108-109 and I. HA, Rep. 96 B, Nr. 72 (1772) 15. Based on notoriously unreliable 243 The Prussian experience, however, was far from unique. In a second step I will therefore try to map four areas of conflict for granary-based food regimes: I. The Politics of Inequality As in the case of Prussia, granaries were often imagined and publicised as tools of redistribution. What they illustrate, in fact, is the high levels of inequality, the distorted distribution of risk, security and entitlements in a stratified society. Food shortages pitted rich against poor, the military against civilians, producers against consumers. They put country folk against town people, smaller cities against larger cities, and larger cities against capitals.35 Elsewhere, the local communities on Lake Constance and the Rhine struggled hard against the superior purchasing power of the Swiss and Dutch communes draining their food stocks. Similarly, the Leipzig authorities justly feared that the advent of the spring fair in 1771 with its influx of affluent traders would result in a famine amongst the town’s poorer inhabitants.36 When the Prussian administration tried to fill their storehouses, they too became subject to competition along those divisions. Even in famine times, Berlin’s distillers turned grain into spirits to cater to the wealthy. Prussian regions such as Silesia, Pomerania or Minden boycotted the centre’s ‘national’ agenda and stopped the delivery of granary grain, while rich neighbours and private traders continued to buy up supplies at prices the Prussian agents could no longer afford to pay.37 More often, however, the state reinforced and strengthened asymmetrical power relations: it prioritised the gentry, people close to the king, such as the Oder colonists, and above all the military (“Meine Truppen müssen leben” [“my troops must live”]). At the same time the rural population and the urban poor remained excluded from direct support.38 Civil granary distributions in Prussia, as well as elsewhere, remained firmly focused on the capital.39 When deciding on granary interventions in the periphery, the King and his administration dealt not with individuals but with communal representatives. Accordingly, granary handouts never discriminated between the needs of well-off artisans and working poor, large landlords or smallholders, thereby supporting 35 36 37 38 39 demographical material Prussia’s population losses in 1770-1772 have been estimated at 7%. Kluge 1987, 77. Examples of such conflicts persist even in the carefully selected edition of Skalweit 1931. See 286, 291, 322. Cf. Schmidt 1994, 252-272; Skalweit 1931, 284. Skalweit 1931, 285, 289-290, 310, 329. Skalweit 1931, 81, 294-296, 302, 312. Skalweit 1931, 271; Atorf 1999, 132. For non-Prussian examples see Will and Wong 1991, 511; Kaplan 1984 or Revel 1975. 244 and even deepening social divisions.40 Means-tested distribution schemes, as advocated by Enlightenment thinkers such as Justi or Georg Friedrich Wehrs, failed to materialise as did the contemporary obsession with a disinterested state, levelling the playing field or a “just” or even a “natural” price suitable for producers, consumers, rich and poor alike.41 Instead, magazine schemes enacted regimes of exclusion that mirrored rather than mellowed the inequalities of a stratified society. II. The Government of Fear It is little wonder that under these circumstances, panic and fear of inadequate individual food supplies could be triggered easily. Unlike other natural disasters, crop failures develop slowly, allowing plenty of room for speculation and rumours. Extended spells of unfavourable weather quickly fostered panic buying and hoarding. As a result, it was often the fear of shortages, not shortages themselves that led to rising prices and famine.42 Granaries performed poorly as instruments of price balancing or as backbones of food supply. What granaries did, however, was to act as confidence measures. They constituted “the best security against danger” and panic.43 Examples can be found as far back as Roman Antiquity. Emperor Augustus was known to have warded off imminent panic by publicly destroying granary grain, supposedly in order to make room for the imminent arrival of fresh stock. His celebrated ploy allegedly ended grain hoarding and opened up the cities’ frozen grain markets.44 A similar confidence trick is reported in the 1770s from Neuwied, when the strong rains “had led the common man to be afraid and fear a famine”. People reacted immediately by reporting inflated figures of their demand and lowered ones about their supplies to the local Duke. The Duke, however reacted by “making it known in his city to the sound of drums, that fresh supplies were under way, and that until they arrived every man was free to take whatever he needed from the public granary” – an offer that supposedly restored public confidence to such an extent that only a handful 40 41 42 43 44 Differences in the market share play an important role in a famine economy. Accordingly, in 1771 price hikes meant that large estates actually managed to increase their profits even though the production total had fallen. At the same time flocks of small-scale farmers were forced to ‘sell’ future harvests at cut prices to their well-off neighbours in order to feed their families, thereby perpetuating their disadvantages. The King, however, regarded the ‘Landmänner’ as a homogeneous group. Skalweit 1931, 302 (memorandum of the Mindener Kammer, 26.6.1772) and 307 on the refusal to deal with individuals. Cf. Wehrs 1791, 144; Bergius 1771, 22 and Justi 1771, 83, 104-105. Münchhausen 1772, 21, 41 and 167. See also Rau 1862, 291, 295; Justi 1771, 111 and more generally: Ferrières 2002. Münchhausen 1772, 170. Garnsey 1988, 223-224. 245 ever took up his offer. As the Duke’s publicist remarked proudly: “We have created grain, without producing it.”45 Of course, the use of the granary for political spin could turn in other directions as well. Emperor Augustus was also known to create artificial famines, only to relieve them by opening up his granaries in order to stage himself as a saviour of the Roman people.46 Similarly, many 18th-century scholars voiced their concerns about the high public profile of granaries as an encouragement to abuses. They warned that their prominent position in public policy could lead people to carelessly sell on their own provisions, expecting them to be replenished and alimented out of public stores. Large parts of the population also bought into official rhetoric that opposed good granaries to evil trade, eagerly supporting calls for the denunciation of supposed ‘Corn-Jews’.47 Granaries therefore amount to much more than physical sources of food. They constituted the nodes of a ‘security regime’ that governed food consumption not just in materialistic terms, but through public discourse, scientific rationalities, emotions and disciplinary measures. III. The Moral Economy of Hunger While these discourses undoubtedly helped to shape the perception of food security and risk, they did not go unchallenged. The sources list numerous forms of deviance, appropriation and resistance, famously described in E. P. Thompson’s seminal study on the ‘Moral Economy’.48 Granaries suffered from persistent thefts and misappropriations by their labourers. People used fake identities and documents to apply for higher rations. Inflated or twisted supplications to the granaries were common and, as the Prussian records show, often successful. Many town dwellers managed to turn granaries into a source of regular supplements rather than emergency relief.49 While such collaborative actions mark the fringes of food regimes, critics have also pointed to the fact that they served a small number of well-organised people who were able to enter into a process of negotiation.50 Indeed, for many of the disenfranchised poor, alternative sources of relief remained crucial. The churches, fraternities, guilds, neighbourhoods and extended families continued to be the key provider of aid and charity. Additional strategies focused on a rich tradition of substitute foods, sub-market economies, temporary migration 45 46 47 48 49 50 Anonymous 1787, 485-486, 496. Garnsey 1988, 220. Cf. Gailus 2001. Thompson 1971. Wehrs 1791, 138. Stevenson 1987, 218-238. 246 or even drug abuse – practices that have led Piero Camporesi to speak of a “culture of hunger” that effectively subverted official food regimes.51 IV. The logic of corruption In addition to the play of security discourses and the practices of resilience, granaries faced significant structural problems. Management issues posed serious challenges: While the public held the sovereign accountable for providing secure food access, the day-to-day administration of the granaries was organised by local authorities, who were well aware of this distinction.52 Even a mid-sized granary such as the one in Rohrschach had a staff of 98 people: a director, cashiers, clerks, sworn surveyors, carriers and drivers, many with work that left them ample room for personal gain.53 The competing and often ambivalent targets of granaries – balancing prices, providing relief, securing military operations – gave administrators further leeway to pursue their own interests. Granaries were simultaneously expected to keep grain prices high to support farming and to keep them low to support city labourers. They were charged with regulating market prices, without, however, damaging the grain trade that swelled the state’s tax coffers. They were asked to keep stocks for times of dearth, while being expected to sell their stocks to pay for their own upkeep.54 Such inconsistencies opened granaries up to corruption and favouritism. Accordingly, complaints about skewed measurements, biased price fixings, bribery, and sleaze abound.55 The scale of corruption resulted not least from the enormous sums involved. While grain might not have carried the same stigma as money, it was certainly worth as much. Prussia spent huge sums of its tax income on granaries. However, the total value of food consumed by its population vastly exceeded the early modern state’s financial capabilities. China – a veritable ‘granary state’ – devoted 25% of its total tax revenue to pay for granaries, an enormous amount that nevertheless bought less than 3% of annual consumption.56 Under such circumstances comprehensive control of food markets remained out of the reach of the early modern fiscal state. The considerable sums involved, however, served to attract fraud and misappropriation. 51 52 53 54 55 56 Camporesi 1989. Cf. Shiue’s discussion of Chinese granary (mis-)management which raises more general points on storage administration, asymmetrical information flows and competing targets: Shiue 2004. For the ‘loyal non-cooperation’ strategy of local elites, see: Skalweit 1931, 284. Rau 1862, 288. For examples of conflicting and often mutually exclusive targets, see Wagemann 1802, 266, 270 and Schreber 1772. Cf. Wagemann 1802, 272; Bergius 1771, 28-30; Wehrs 1791, 143; Skalweit 1931, 68. Shiue 2004, 105. 247 Furthermore, the state’s actions generated a string of unintended consequences. Paradoxically, more security measures can encourage more risky behaviour.57 The protection offered by public granaries was prone to result in the reduction of private stocks, the delay of agricultural investment and the discouragement of trade, effectively increasing rather than decreasing the need for public grain supplements. Liberal donations of subsidised granary grain only tended to be bought up by affluent traders and resold elsewhere at higher market prices. Carefully controlled handouts, however, cut into the margins of local merchants, thereby damaging rather than supplementing essential markets, resulting in even greater shortfalls. Granaries could even create artificial famines by deterring the import of grain with their submarket price fixings or by driving up prices through purchases in a volatile market with an inflexible demand. As Reimarus briskly put it in 1770: Granaries “never produced security, disturb the trade, and do more harm than good.” 58 Considering the potential for political conflict, the likelihood of corruption, the consistent spending necessary for their upkeep and their detrimental sideeffects, the granaries’ limited impact is hardly surprising. In fact, there are numerous reports of granaries that had been initiated at the height of famine but at the onset of the next crisis were found to have been abandoned or even “disappeared”.59 While public granaries undoubtedly benefited prioritised parts of the population and played an important declamatory role in the symbolical construction of security and good government, they failed as agents of food security in the modern sense. Food Security? There are obvious flaws in the technology-centred narrative of ‘the great escape’ from hunger. Food availability does not secure food access. Even in early modern Europe, starvation is regularly the result of “people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat” – to quote Amartya Sen again.60 Participation, inclusion and ‘entitlements’ to food are what the malnourished were missing, not food per se. The examples discussed here strongly suggest that the eventual reduction in famines was due less to agrarian ‘revolutions’, improved and bigger storage, railways or market 57 58 59 60 Cube 1990. Reimarus 1772, 1070. For examples of granaries deterring trade and creating even greater shortfalls, see Skalweit 1931, 293, 305. For Justi’s verdict that granaries constituted “Säugammen der Faulheit”, fostering idleness, see: Justi 1771, 75 and Jacobi 1773, 1517. Rau 1862, 293; Atorf 1999, 80, 124; Monahan 1993, 35. Rome, with its long-lived ‘Annona’ system of price control and public storage, was certainly exceptional in its scope though less in its ineffectiveness. See Reinhardt 1991. Sen 1981, 1. 248 integration, than rather to changes in participation and strengthened entitlements to food – a result that raises questions about the traditional periodisation focusing on food availability and technological change. It has become obvious, in fact, that public granaries are more than just a storage technique. They occupy a central position in a security regime that aimed at governing public discourse, emotions and discipline. In a marked departure from earlier approaches, the security it was hoped to foster was conceptualised as universal.61 Its advocates saw the granary as a crucial technology of risk that helped societies “sich wegen der Zukunft in Sicherheit zu setzen” (secure themselves for the future). As a concept, this is strikingly reminiscent of Anthony Giddens’ ‘colonising the future’ – not least because putting it into practice was fraught with uncertainty, exclusion, and the creation of new risks.62 Embracing the ‘food security’ approach can therefore prove instrumental in identifying hidden zones of conflict, reassessing state-focused approaches, encouraging a critical rereading of partial source material and discovering additional agents of security that are easily masked by modernisation narratives. However, it has also become evident that the ‘food security’ concept employs ‘security’ in the far too limited sense of ‘safety from harm owing to protection from or the absence of danger’. While an institution such as the granary might have failed to provide safety from hunger, it was certainly instrumental in encouraging a feeling of security that – far from being a mere “security theatre” (B. Schneier) – could itself become an effective deterrent. ‘Security’ in this sense is a social construction that could manifest itself in public discourse and practices as well as in buildings. The creation of a granary constituted a symbolic act that visualised political claims and secured food policy against competing institutions. It constituted a policy by marking its patrons as security conveyors and its customers as security takers, while simultaneously illustrating social distinction via the constant performance of inclusion or exclusion. Even though it did not deliver physical access to food, it was thus intimately tied to the ruler’s claim to power and constituted an important part of pre-modern security regimes. In the words of the Duke of Neuwied: It created security without producing it. 61 62 Rüther, “Sicherheit im Mittelalter” [forthcoming]. Jacobi 1773, 1517 and Giddens 1991, 117, 133. 249 References Printed Sources Anonymous. “Genuine Nachricht von der Beendigung der zweyjährigen allgemeinen Getraidetheurung in Deutschland und an vielen Orten erlittenen Hungersnoth, durch den Reichsschluß vom 7. Febr. 1772.” Neue Litteratur und Völkerkunde 1 no. 2 (1787): 480-497. BBC. “Overweight ‘top world’s hungry”. BBC News 15 August, 2006, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4793455.stm> (accessed June 10, 2010). Bergius, Johann Heinrich. “Abhandlung von Magazinanstalten.” In Von Getreydemagazinen, von Lebensmitteln und von dem Unterhalt des Volkes, edited by Anonymous. Frankfurt a. Main, 1771. D. V. “Untersuchung: Ob es möglich und vorteilhaft ist, daß ein Landesherr das Korn immer in erträglichem Preise erhalte, und wie derselbe beschaffen seyn müsse?” In Physikalische Belustigungen 12 (1752): 131-137. Dinglinger, Georg Friedrich. Die beste Art, Korn-Magazine und Frucht-Boden anzulegen: auf welchen das Getrayde niemahls, weder vom weissen noch schwarzen Wurm, angestecket werden kan: eine Preis-schrift. Hannover, 1768. Horn, Karen. “Staatliche Vorsorge. Deutschland auf der Erbse”, FAZ, May 5, 2005. Jacobi, Adam Friedrich Ernst. “Plan zu einem Societätsmagazin.” Hannoversches Magazin 11 (1773): 1515-1520. Justi, Johann Heinrich Gottlob von. “Herrn von Justis Abhandlung von dem Unterhalt des Volkes.” In Von Getreydemagazinen, von Lebensmitteln und von dem Unterhalt des Volkes, edited by Anon. Frankfurt a. Main, 1771: 4-30, 67-112. Münchhausen, Otto von. Der freye Kornhandel als das beste Mittel um Mangel und Theurung zu verhüten; zur Warnung auf künftige Zeiten aus der Erfahrung und aus neuen Gründen erwiesen. Hannover, 1772. Reimarus, Johann Albert. “Preisschrift über die, von der K. Societät der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen aufgegebene Frage: In wie fern und unter welchen Umständen die Anlegung beträchtlicher öffentlicher Kornmagazine dem Kornhandel und dem Lande überhaupt nachtheilig oder nützlich oder gleichgültig sey? Wie diese Magazine mit den wenigsten Kosten anzulegen und zu erhalten, auch dergestalt zu verwalten seyn, daß dem Lande daraus der meiste Nutzen zuwachse? Welche Folgen aus den öffentlichen Kornmagazinen in den Ländern, wo dergleichen befindlich sind, entstanden? und welche Folgen deren Mangel veranlasset habe?” Hannoversches Magazin 10 (1772): 1057-1070 and 1073-1082. Rau, Karl Heinrich. Lehrbuch der politischen Ökonomie, vol 2. Heidelberg: Winter, 1862. Schreber, Daniel Gottfried. Ein Vorschlag zu Anlegung eines öffentlichen Getreydemagazins, zu Jedermanns Vortheil und Niemandes Nachtheil. Leipzig, 1772. Sonnenfels, Joseph von. Politische Abhandlungen. Wien, 1777. Wagemann, A.H. “Land Kornmagazin in der Hessischen Grafschaft Schaumburg.” Göttingisches Magazin für Industrie und Armenpflege 5 (1802): 265-273. Wehrs, Georg Friedrich. Ökonomische Aufsätze. Schwerin/Wismar, 1791. 250 References Abel, Wilhelm. Massenarmut und Hungerkrisen im vorindustriellen Europa. Hamburg/Berlin: Parey, 1972. Arnold, David. Famine. Social Crisis and Historical Change. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Atorf, Lars. Der König und das Korn. Die Getreidehandelspolitik als Fundament des brandenburgisch-preußischen Aufstiegs zur europäischen Großmacht. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999. Camporesi, Piero. Bread of Dreams. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University Press, 1989. Cube, Felix von. Gefährliche Sicherheit. Die Verhaltensbiologie des Risikos. München: Pieper, 1990. Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. London and New York: Verso, 2002. Ferrières, Madeleine. Sacred Cow, Mad Cow. A History of Food Fears. New York: Columbia Press, 2002. Gailus, Manfred. “Die Erfindung des ‘Korn-Juden’. Zur Erfindung eines antijüdischen Feindbildes des 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts.” Historische Zeitschrift 272 (2001): 597-622. Garnsey, Peter. Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World. Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Hall, D.O. Food Security: What have the Sciences to offer? A Study for the ISCU. Paris: ICSU, 1998. Hinrichs, Carl. Review of “Die Getreidehandelspolitik und Kriegsmagazinverwaltung Preußens 1756-1806. Darstellung mit Aktenbeilagen und Preisstatistik” by August Skalweit. Historische Zeitschrift 148, no. 2 (1933): 358-360. Kaplan, Steven. Provisioning Paris. Merchants and Millers in the Grain and Flour Trade During the 18th Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1984. 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Ann Arbor, MI: Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1991. 252 Insurances as Part of Human Security, their Timescapes, and Spatiality Cornel Zwierlein Abstract: »Versicherungen als Element von Human Security, ihre Zeitregime und ihr Raumbezug«. In the present discussion on ‘Human Security’, Insurances have been only lately involved. The contribution starts with the assumption that Insurances are historically an especially fruitful object of research for the general question of the history of security regimes. It shows that, contrary to some suggestions held in risk sociology, early Mediterranean maritime insurances are to be judged rather as something completely different than the modern insurances from the 17th century onwards managed by merchants’ companies and states. The latter belonged to a secular process of constructing a ‘normal secure society’ during enlightenment. The relationship between Timescapes, Spatiality and Insurances is analyzed: are Insurances per se an instrument of colonizing ‘the future’ because they are instrumental in calculating and constructing clearly defined ‘risks’? or is that future orientation just one element, but is perhaps the wider socio-political context with its prevailing timescapes in which the insurance operations were embedded a changing one from pre- to postmodernity? Asking those questions the article contributes to an approach of using ‘human security’ as a heuristical device to explore the history of security production. Keywords: Insurances, Insurance history, fire insurance, risk, conceptions of time, spatiality, timescapes, colonial perceptions, normal secure society, Sun Fire Office, microfinance. Insurances do not play a great role in the standard discussion of ‘Human Security’: Even though the core element of the concept is the dismissal of a statecentered perspective on security politics, for a great deal the problems treated under that notion are situated in quite classical fields of political thinking and international relations: consequences of asymmetric wars, responsibility to protect, Crime and Violence.1 Still, we always think of the providers of Human Security rather as actors in the larger sphere of politics (UN, states, state affine NGOs). Only with the general idea of microfinance, starting with the microcredit system linked habitually with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the sphere of private economics 1 Address all communications to: Cornel Zwierlein, Faculty of History, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. I thank Rüdiger Graf for helpful critics on that paper. E.g. Hampson and Penny 2008, 539-557, stress the proximity of human security and the discourse of human rights; Verlage 2009; UNHSP 2007. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 253-274 was included to a certain degree into the realm of developmental security agency. Since about 10 years, the notion and practice of ‘micro-insurance’ is making its way in developmental politics: health and food security should be provided to a certain degree by insurance mechanisms also for the poor which are normally not to be addressed by profit seeking insurance companies. Even micro-insurances (crop and drought insurance) against outcomes of climate instabilities are discussed with special catastrophe insurance schemes.2 Because instruments of micro-finance do address specially the poor, and so ‘everyone’, not only the rich or large collectives, they would fit well into the larger framework of the Human Security approach. But not including insurances into the broader human security framework seems rather an error of the conceptual framing than a logical consequence of the notion: that is illustrated by the fact that nearly all data about global natural catastrophe statistics is borrowed by the UN and other institutions from the big Reinsurers MunichRe and SwissRe.3 The most sensible observer of natural disasters is the insurance market. So, what seems to be a rather marginal element of contemporary security politics is in fact central if we follow the direction of the notion of Human Security by which we have to abandon for a good deal the classical distinction between internal and external affairs, between the different spheres like politics and economics to get an encompassing view of how human security could be provided. At this point, insurances seem to be a very good object of investigation into the history of security regimes, especially if we ask for the relationship between insuring practices or, more comprehensively, security regimes and the division of history and the present in epochs with different characters. I. Security Regimes and Modernity As said in the introductory essay to this special issue, the widening of the narrow political and state security into Human Security after the end of the Cold War is sometimes seen as a part of a return to a pre-Westphalian state of affairs or as a ‘new medievalism’, a coexistence of governmental, sub- and nongovernmental actors and hybrid regional-politically integrated systems instead of the clear definition of an international system where the only actors are sovereign states and no sub-governmental institutions, organizations or individuals.4 The metaphor of ‘new medievalism’ implies a certain neo-cyclical view of history: classical modernity becomes sandwiched between premodernity and postmodernity which are structurally similar. That would also imply 2 3 4 Cf. Hochrainer et al. 2009. Cf. UNHSP 2007. For some uses of the metaphor of ‚new medievalism‘ cf. Bull 1977, 240-271; Anderson 1996; Anderson and Goodman 1995; Marquand 1997, 110-137; Mathews 1997; Arend 1999, 165-188; Gamble 2009; Khanna 2008 254 that the widening of the notion of human security today would be similar to the very wide notion of security politics during enlightenment.5 Emma Rothschild, a distinguished historian of political theory6, finds similarly the liberalism and cosmopolitanism of rights directed towards the individual of the late Enlightenment and revolutionary wars of circa 1770 to 1820 to be the template of current developments.7 Even if the first attempts of investigations into the history of ‘human security’ by political scientists start with the idea of a certain recurrence in history (see below), they tend to tell a linear history of the notion from antiquity to the present.8 Like the historical narrative of human security discourse, risk sociology as the field of social studies mostly concerned with the insurance principle has established its historical narrative also in a three-fold structure which at first seems to follow a linear, not a neo-cyclical structure:9 - Premodernity: god-given threats, closed future - First / High Modernity: calculability of risks, open future - Second / Late Modernity: manufactured uncertainties, unknown unknowns, extended present Ulrich Beck, Helga Nowotny, Gerda Reith, Barbara Adams and others suggest that three-step consecution of time, of risk, of security production. Beck holds that the insurability of hazards by private insurance companies is the best indicator of the borderline between ‘first modernity’ with its normal industrial society and ‘second modernity’ with its ‘risk society’ where we are constantly undertaking risks that are not manageable and where the state has always to play the role of the insurer of last resort.10 But that argument, which implies a whole historical narrative of the distinction between the last two epochs, is quite loosely elaborated and it is not well combined with a clear vision of how insurances emerged as a new instrument of security production in earlier times, how they were related to the division of public and private in the long history of the separation between those fields in different societies. The distinction between first / second modernity is not at all aligned with a deeper conception of the earlier developments. The argument seems even to start with the presupposition that the normal would be a total cover of given risks by private insurances – but in the long history since the 14th century the contrary has been 5 6 7 8 9 10 Something similar is suggesting Lüdtke 2006. She came perhaps very early in contact with the new concept of security through her husband, the Peace Nobel Prize Winner Amartya Sen, who became famous for his work on food security. Rothschild 1995. MacFarlane and Khong 2006. Beck 2007, 62-64, 234-251; Ewald 1993, 541-542. This is the thesis of Ulrich Beck (Beck 1993; repeated in: Beck 2007, 234-251.); this idea has been criticized with good arguments by Ericson and Doyle 2004. 255 always the normal and so many hybridizations between state and private issues were the normal – not at least because the differentiation itself between ‘private’ and ‘public’ was a long enduring process. If we have those two historical narratives in security politics and political sciences and in risk sociology in mind, the question how time regimes and security regimes can be related one to each other can be raised with regards to the aforementioned instrument of security production, insurances. We will ask if and how we can differentiate between non-modern and modern forms of insurances and how those differences relate to timescapes and conceptions of spatiality. Insurance companies and state-based insurance institutions are, I would argue, a specific modern tool to produce security. Even if the premium insurance contract originates already in late medieval Italy and if we can individuate the medieval corporations and guilds as a second early root of insurance practices, nevertheless it is only at the very borders of modernity around 1680 that the insurance principle is fostered by specialized merchants’ companies in England and by the cameralist state in Germany.11 It is not the place here to discuss the myriads of definitions of modernity/modernities.12 With respect to our purposes one can identify anyway the moment of diffusion of the prime insurance practice into society beyond the traditional realm of maritime merchants as a marker of specific modern security regimes whether one focuses on the first emergence of that pattern in Europe around 1680 or on the moments of diffusion into other societies in a process of globalization in the 19th century.13 Before that shift to modernity in the realm of insurance history, it is even heuristically appropriate to understand late medieval insurances as something ‘completely different’, as just an accounting trick created in response to the system of double entry bookkeeping.14 The time aspect of the insurance contract does not differ from the time aspect of the other transactions noted in the account books of double-entry book-keeping. Every transaction noted in the books has a time index: the expenditures happen at one time – normally earlier 11 12 13 14 Cf. Zwierlein 2010. Still an actually leading concept are the ‘multiple modernities’ stressing the multiple own ways of different cultures into different modernities while denying the diffusion of an overall and always equal form of Western Modernity: Eisenstadt 2000. Nonetheless, Eisenstadt uses implicitely a double notion of modernity, one stable that defines modernity as an overall measure valid for all societies if one wants to call a society ‘modern’, one fluid and plural for the diversity of possible phenotypes of modernity. There are still new theories of ‘the modernity’, corresponding to the former part of Eisenstadt’s theory, e.g. Wagner 2008, who argues that ‘modernity’ has a unifying core denotation, the “commitment to autonomy”. The different classical sociological approaches are analyzed by Martuccelli 1999. For early Insurances in England cf. Dickson 1960, 1-16.; Raynes 1964, 70-83.; Cockerell and Green 1976, 26-28; for the early development in Germany cf. Zwierlein 2010, chap. A.III, D.I.2. and Zwierlein 2009, 235-260. Cf. for that argument Zwierlein 2011. 256 – and the earnings happen at another time – normally later. It is true that the content of the insurance contract is special because it focuses on the possible occurrence or non-occurrence of a future event, while the content of a transport contract also aims at a future event, but just at one to be effected. Nevertheless, that difference is minimal and does not legitimize to understand medieval insurances as ‘colonizers of future’ in a definitely modern sense. If we contextualize the insurance polices and the little insurance entries in the merchants’ ledgers with the rest of their world of communication as we can reconstruct it from the rest of commercial communication still extant in the archives, we should imagine the late medieval Mediterranean merchant encapsulated in a dense web of incoming and outgoing letters carried by relay couriers. The hubs of the Mediterranean communication and trading network from about 1380 to 1500 were Florence, Pisa, Genova, Venice, Rome, Naples in Italy, the islands of Majorca and Ibiza, Valencia, Barcelona, in Spain, Perpignan, Avignon, Paris, Marseille, Montpelier in France and Bruges in the Netherlands; the latter figured as the only Mediterranean foothold in the northern maritime trading centers. Therefore, the 153000 letters in the Datini archive for a mere twenty years of communication of one single merchant family, the Datini, show that the merchants sent and received letters daily and hourly.15 The mental world of the late medieval and Renaissance merchant is, certainly, temporalized in the new Le Goffian sense of the merchant’s time, orientated towards the hours of the city clocks16, but it is also a new orientation of a networked space, a space clustered with some 20 important knots; it is space that divides the knots from each other and it is the crossing of space that brings with it the rischio expressed in the insurance polices. The main emotional focus inscribed into the new insurance contract was the fear concentrated on that insecure space, it was rather not something with an emphatic orientation on the future in the sense of Koselleck’s ‘open future’. That was only the case when the insurance principle became being reflected in an abstract way beyond the narrow circles of maritime merchants and lawyers. The principle became incorporated into institutions – state departments or specialized commercial companies – and by that it was widened and abstracted. Even if our sources on the first broader insurance schemes of the 17th century are always very scattered, they show that in both lands where insuring became already at that date a major force, in England as well as in Germany, there was an idea of progress and ‘improvement’ behind it: The first published insurance scheme in England from 1679 by Augustine Newbold was entitled ‘Londons Improvement’ and rejoined by that the early modern discourse on improving agrarian and economic situations, the precursor of full modern progressive ideology. Similarly we have some evidence that Nicholas Barbon, the 15 16 Cf. Melis 1973, 389-424. Cf. Rossum 1992. 257 founder of the first Fire Office in 1681, belonged to the very rare pre-18thcentury economic thinkers who believed in economic growth and progress.17 Leibniz who, in Germany, first, in 1680, transferred the thinking on insurances in a wider horizon in an important advising letter to the emperor Leopold envisioning a fire insurance for the whole Holy Roman Empire, also understood insurances as an instrument of economic growth or at least of production of security and of stabilization of the balance of happiness of a given society.18 So, only in those late 17th-century contexts of early enlightened progressive state and economic thinking, we find insurances embedded in a vision of an open future; they respond now to problems of a world which is projecting itself in an imagined and pre-formed futurescape trying to make things (society, economy) greater and larger. In contrast, here before the single contracts were rather an accounting technique in a world where economic exchange was not embedded in a perception of possible growth of the whole, where it was rather the spatial dimension of the open sea that attracted the fears of merchants, of insured and insurers. If we concentrate in the following on fire insurances, we do that because the first and most important type of ‘modern’ insurances in the sense outlined above has always been, until the end of the 19th century, the fire insurance sector. II. The Construction of the ‘Normal Secure Society’ in the Enlightenment It is indeed only with the age of enlightenment that an ideal of a completely secure society is emerging. The ‘normal secure society’ is a product and a construction of enlightened thinking and administration. Only now the hitherto every-day threats and natural hazards were seen and experienced as violations of the expected normal: the statuses of normality and exception were reversed. It is the eudemonistic foundation of enlightened visions of state and society which led unto that end, and insurances were one of the most important elements of a normal, secure, happy society: Let’s hear one of the 18th century cameralists who promoted in 1756 the inauguration of territorial fire insurances as a part of ‘big politics’: The state is a society where many have assembled to maintain and promote their common good. Consequently all its members must participate according 17 18 Ullmer 2007; and specially Finkelstein 2000, 95-97, who asks whether the progressive thinking of Barbon is inspired by his heterodox millenarist descendence (his father was probably a preacher of the Fifth Monarchy Men, perhaps he read Giordano Bruno). For an actual re-contextualization of the Fire Office and Barbons activities cf. Zwierlein 2010, chap. D.I.1.b. Leibniz 1986, 421-432; Zwierlein 2010, chap. D.I.2.b.; and cf. Zwierlein 2008. 258 to their measure in the common happiness which is her aim […] A prince is obligated according to the main duties of his vocation to make the common happiness the main aim of his care and preoccupation and to maintain that happiness with the aid of the nearest, easiest and surest instruments. […] Furtheron, because all members of the state are obligated to maintain the common happiness by the virtue of their social life, according to their christians’ and citizens’ obligations, they are also obligated that one carries the burden of the other – especially there, where those burdens may cause the ruin of some members or of the state as a whole or at least in some of its main parts.19 Justi, who is well known as the perhaps most straightforward eudemonistic cameralist20, treats the topic of insurances in his ‘State economy [Staatswirthschaft]’ under the main rubric ‘About the prince’s methods and measures to maintain and increase the wealth of the state promoting by that way the happiness of the subjects”.21 Besides the fact that the orientation at happiness was generally the all overarching topic of cameralist thinking in the 1750ies, for the insurance theorists it was intrinsically important because insurances were thought of as ‘institutions against accidents [Anstalten wider die Unglücksfälle]’22 – accidents, Unglücke, like blazes and conflagrations, were just the reverse of Glück, the happiness at which the state aimed. At this point, the old notion of the casus fortuiti was still shining through all its metamorphoses, from the narrow sense in the Roman law of impairment of performance to its application to a realm beyond the law of obligations: the law of insurance in the maritime trade.23 Unglücke like floods, conflagrations, epidemics were a minus in the balance of happiness and had to be prevented. More general remarks on the place of insurances in a wider model of society and state are only to be found in later treatises. Ferdinand Friedrich Pfeiffer, a school friend of Friedrich Schiller an otherwise not important Wurttemberg public servant (teacher, than secretary of the chamber), started his treatise on insurances in a half neo-Aristotelian, half Rousseauian way from the very origins of human society, the association of many for common purposes following the destiny of man (instinct of self-preservation, necessity to combine forces to enable human progress). If the security of a nation is threatened from one side, the whole society is obliged to remove the danger if possible or at least to share the inevitable misfortune that hit every single man because from now on no one lives for him19 20 21 22 23 Anonymous, Vorschlag 1756, 675, 702. Cf. Engelhardt 1981; Adam 2006. Justi 1758, 284-289. That is a common rubric under which insurances are treated in more general academic introduction books into cameralism: Pfeiffer 1779, chap. 3 ‚Wider die Unglücksfälle, sind vernünftige Maßregeln zu nehmen‘, 332-340; Pfeiffer 1783, chap. 32 ‚Von den Verwahrungsmitteln wider die Unglücksfälle‘, 567-680; similar Jung 1788, 4. Hauptstück ‚Unsicherheit des Eigenthums durch Unglücksfälle‘, 360-390. Cf. FN 18. 259 self. Without doubt the base of all institutions to insure the property and in a certain way also the income/profit [Ertrag] lies in the nature of the social contract because they are founding a greater security of life by ensuring livelihood.24 Pfeiffer asserts also with proud that only nowadays in enlightened times one does not aspire [sc. to stabilize] the inner security [of a state] by the external security but vice versa the external by the inner because it has been realized that those states where the best possible police institutions were to be found usually had also the most potential instruments to procure security from external threats and to guarantee its duration.25 So, according to Pfeiffer, state-biased insurance institutions like the fire insurances belong to an enlightenment governmentality which reverses the primate of foreign affairs into a primate of domestic policy. Pfeiffer at this point is not citing Rousseau’s Du contrat social but Emile: Natural man is everything for himself. He is the numerical unit, the absolute whole, accountable only to himself or to his own kind. Civil man is only a fractional unit dependent on the denominator, whose value is in his relationship with the whole, that is, the social body. Good social institutions are those that know best how to denature man, to take away his absolute existence in order to give him a relative one, and to transport the “me” into a common unity so that each individual no longer regards himself as one but as a part of the unity and is sensitive only to the whole.26 The difference between natural man and citizen enrooted in the social contract is expressed here by Rousseau in a mathematical manner, as it is often the case in his political theory. Pfeiffer is citing this ‘mathematical’ version of the social contract in relationship to the insurance institutions because in those institutions, the ‘conversion’ of subjects, buildings, cities into numbers was most evident. The numbers and sums of insured property prevailed in the perception of the world as capital. The construction of a ‘secure normal society’ went hand in hand with a conversion of society into numbers.27 In nearly all texts published from the 1750ies onwards the big promise which enlightened administrators found in the insurances lay in their potential to increase ‘credit’. In one of his contributions to insurance theory, Justi arranged the passage on insurances explicitely under the rubric ‘Of the country’s credit’: as one of the most important instruments to promote ‘circulation’ – one of the main aims of enlightened economic vision28 – the country’s credit had to be as perfect as possible. He divides into 1) the prince’s credit, 2) the public credit of the country which means a) the credit of the whole country with other nations, or b) the 24 25 26 27 28 Pfeiffer 1780, 2. Pfeiffer 1780, 3. Rousseau 1969, 249, cited by Pfeiffer 1780, 2. Cf. for the prehistory of such processes Crosby 1997. Cf. Schmidt and Sandl 2002. 260 credit of the estates and their exchequers, or c) the credit of a big common commercial society which represents the whole nation, 3) the particular credit in the country which for Justi seems to mean the average easiness for particular people to get a private loan.29 Natural hazards diminish the wealth and credit of particulars. But insurances do not only help to balance the deficit at plus minus 0, the dream of enlightened thinkers was that they could double the particular credit in a certain way, because insured houses were much more mortgageable and would enable hereby a greater circulation of capital. Here reflections typically start with the topos that uninsured houses are to be perceived as future piles of ashes, whereas insured houses are like a second ‘virtual’ house, the rebuilt house in the future, added to the capital of the owner. Or in nowadays economic language: Insured houses enable an intertemporal transfer of propriety and were counted among admitted assets.30 It is a truth affirmed by experience that the security with which we can enjoy a thing much increases its value and vice versa that the value of a thing decreases to the same degree as we are exposed to greater and manifold threats in respect to that thing […]. So it is natural that also buildings have to receive a much higher value if they are not exposed to fire hazard or, which is the same, if in the case that they perish in a conflagration an indemnity will be paid. […] So, many well off people will decide much easier to build or buy a house if they are sure that their invested capital does not perish through a conflagration. As the value of the buildings increases, also the fortune of every proprietor increases and in consequence the fortune of the whole state, of which the buildings form an important part. With the fortune there also progressively increases a country’s credit.31 So, enlightened thinking and practice of insuring firstly founded the normal secure society which was also a society of wealth, of growth and a society of numbers. 29 30 31 Justi 1758, 276. Someone who insures his house has „also in der That noch ein Haus in der Casse, oder sein ietziges Haus sicherer, und dieses wird dadurch ein solideres Stück seines Vermögens, dieses aber dem Werthe nach eben darum erhöhet.“ Uninsured houses are to be seen „als einen Brandhaufen im voraus“. On insured houses one can borrow money with greater security, so an insurance is an instrument to increase the wealth of a city (Georg Heinrich Zincke: Vorrede zum Siebenden Bande der Sammlungen. Von den nöthigen Policey-Anstalten in Städten, wegen derer Folgen und Wirckungen der Unglücks-Fälle, die man nicht verhüten können; insonderheit aber denen Feuer- und Brand-Cassen, in: Leipziger Sammlungen 1751, III-LIV, XXVI. The topos of the uninsured houses as possible or future piles of ashes also Anonymous, Gedanken 1751, 294; Anonymous, Vorschlag 1756, 675; Moser 1754, 3; Schaeffer 1791, 1v; Waser 1778, 5. Gäng 1792, 20. 261 III. Timescapes and Spatialities of Insuring in High-Modern Times Contemporary risk sociology understands Insuring always as a man’s tool to ‘colonize the future’ using the notion of Torsten Hägerstrand rendered famous by the systematization of Anthony Giddens:32 Insurance is a child of modernity because by calculating probabilities of hazards, threats hitherto experienced helplessly as Acts of God are converted into clearly delineable parts of a future which can be planified. The calculable and colonized ‘future’ is isomorphic with the present, a present just not yet here. Guided by those ideas, insurance history was always combined with the history of sciences and the history of probability, a theme rendered very wellknown by the historians who had studied that what they had called the 18th century ‘probabilistic revolution’. But probabilistic mathematical theory did play a role in insurance practice only in the realm of Life Insurance and only very lately at the end of 18th century in Britain. The most important branch of the fire insurance operated nearly until the 20th century without any application of probabilistic theory. So, how much ‘taming of future’ is visible in the practice of insuring in classical modernity? Let’s look at the work of 19th century insurance agents of the then world’s oldest and biggest fire insurance company, the Sun Fire Office, founded in 1720: from 1835 on and strongly after 1850 that insurance company as other British companies spread over the world in a breath-taking quick process of globalizing business. Indeed the company’s agents did collect local fire data and extrapolated from past fire distribution into the future, but always very roughly, never using probabilistic theory. Fixing the primes was a process of trial and error or rather of imitation and falsification following the first insurances installed on the site and then trying out what rates would function durably. We have a very precious genre of sources in the archives of the Sun Fire Office besides business balances, management minutes and some correspondances to study the globalization of business, the so-called ‘memorandum books’. Those about 300 volumes, each with some 200 to 400 pages consist of detailed reports on foreign agencies, describing inter alia the extent of local fire insurance, fire brigade provision and recent notable fires. Usually the volumes were compiled on the inspection of an agency by visiting members of the Foreign Department (often by Francis Boyer Relton, Foreign Superintendent from 1868 and George Saward Manvell, Clerk in the Foreign Department from 1864). Along with hand-written analysises by the men at place and by the members of the Foreign department in London, the volumes often contain 32 Hägerstrand 1988; Giddens 1991, 109-143; Reith 2004. 262 sketch plans, photographs, newspaper clippings,33 printed circulars and statistics. Those volumes functioned as a sort of steadily growing special encyclopedia and in-house knowledge ressource of the London headquarter. It was strategic orientative knowledge about the hundreds of places on the globe where the insurance was active, a certain kind of a global economic memory.34 They already were used by Dickson in his monograph on the Sun Insurance35 but they still contain a huge bulk of unused material. The agency made them accessible to the public not before 1994 when they were handed out to the Guildhall Library London.36 What forms of perception, of timescapes and spatiality do we find expressed in the writings and analyses of 19th century insurance agents? For the agent Woods who analyzed where in Istanbul the Company should engage, only the 6th district, being the area of the city elected for modernization, seemed to be a secure starting point for insurance business. Woods provided himself with a German map of the 6th district of 1861 (with French inscriptions). Already in the original print, ‘Muslim’ and ‘Christian’ blocks of streets were divided visually (grey vs. pink areas) according to the habitual division which reigned in the city.37 Woods now walked through the whole district, analyzed all the streets and marked in red the blocks where the building stock was in his opinion good enough to be insurable: in any case this only applied to Christian blocks according to Woods.38 In Pera and in Galata – in the latter quarter, nearly all houses were built of stone – he applied yet another criteria of discrimination: I have rejected these portions of Galata & Pera where there is either a great mass of very inferior wooden buildings or where the Houses, stone or woo33 34 35 36 37 38 Unfortunately, the clippings not always reveal all source information (name of the newspaper, date, page). As to my knowledge, at least for British and German insurances and with the exception perhaps of the Phoenix material in the Cambridge University library, there exists no other comparable big corpus giving insight into the logistic and cultural orientation of a globalizing insurance company in 19th century. Today we can find some similarly constituted archives: The Natural risk department of the MunichRe, Germany, for example disposes of a suspension file archive on global regions from the 1950ies onwards which parallels the 19th century precursor, but certainly – as belonging to a Reinsurer – it does not contain information about agencies. Dickson 1960, 162-233. Guildhall Library London [hereafter GLL] Ms 31522 vol. 257 to 266. „The colors Brown & Pink characterize respectively the Turkish & Christian quarters as nearly as possible, but as the map was made several years ago, some portions of the brown might now be colored pink.” (GLL Ms. 31522 vol. 258, 72). The map in GLL Ms. 31522 vol. 257, Appendix: ‘Plan der zum 6.ten Communalbezirk vereinigten Vorstädte Galata, Pera und Pancaldi von Constantinopel […] ergänzt […] bis ins Jahr 1861 durch C. Stolpe [...] / Plan des Faubourgs de Constantinople Galata, Pera et Pancaldi [...]’. A grey reproduction is to be found under <http://www.sfb-frueheneuzeit.unimuenchen.de/mitteilungen/M1-2009/zwierlein.pdf, 25> (accessed August 7, 2010). 263 den, are devoted to drunkeness or debauchery – for the former reason I have omitted to color nearly the whole of the district which lies on the north side of the Grande Rue de Pera for the latter reason, I have omitted several blocks which are entirely given up to people of bad character.39 The heuristics of insurability thus spatially extracts the supposedly secure christian-european, stone-built and morally civilized ‘modernity’ out of the aggregate of the closely contiguous plurality of ‘nationalities’ and cultures. In 1865, a huge fire destroyed large parts of the Muslim quarter of Istanbul (Stamboul) and seemed to confirm the prejudices of the insurance company. But only five years later another big fire destroyed exactly the quarters of the European 6th district in Galata and Pera where the company had engaged largely: all the prudent labours of agent Woods to cut out the pretended secure space revealed fruitless. A similar but inverse story happened in Bombay; again, the Sun Fire Office gave directives oriented on limitations of cultural space: […] but it is considered a point of great importance, to limit our Insurances strictly to those for European Firms & of the best Class of Buildings only. Our rule of business must, for the present at least, altogether exclude insurances for native Firms & be confined as to locality to the European part of the Port & Colaba on the same terms as the Imperial – say 18 annas pr C for the former & 14 annas pr C for the latter.40 The firm aimed strongly at a precise definition of the space where insurances were to be taken and where not following a very strong orientalist dichotomy between ‘native’ and ‘European’: First, as to the definition of the term ‘Native Town’, we think that this term should be applied only to that part of the island inhabited exclusively by natives and which you will find marked ‘Native Town’ in the small map accompanying the Times of India Calendar forwarded to you by last mail. We do not as a rule, recommend the acceptance of such risks, but your Managers might have us a discretionary power in the matter, in that case we should use the greatest caution, and with regard to the rates we submit that they should be the same as those charged by the Alliance & Phoenix, in preference to that given by the North British.41 But after some years of engagement in India, the Sun realized that things were very different on that subcontinent in comparison with all their experiences. The insurance company tried again to get a very precise definition of the ‘good European’ space to insure and of the ‘bad native’ space to be avoided. They drew up maps indicating thoroughly the limits between both spaces, in 1893 even the general assembly of all Insurance company agents acting in 39 40 41 GLL Ms. 31522 vol. 258, 72. Sun Fire Office London an die Agenten Leckie & Co., Bombay, 12.8.1852: GLL Ms. 18249, vol. 13, f. 14v. Ibid., 258. 264 Bombay (Bombay Association of Fire Insurance Agents) came up with a formal consensus about those limitis between native and european distributing a map only of those limits among all agents. The companies were suspicious against the native way of building: all houses were built “with a very heavy proportion of wood-work, in a large number of cases the frame work, the floors and roofs are finished before a wall is commenced either external or internal”. Map of Bombay from the /Times of India/ 1866 (GLL Ms. 31522 vol. 152, p. 127). 265 1893 Consensus of all Insurance agencies on the borders of the insurable ‘European town’ in Bombay (GLL Ms. 31522, vol. 152, p. 127; vol. 156, p. 324). But after some twenty years of business in India with permanently low losses they were surprised “how few fires there are either in the Fort or thickly populated native town, and still more surprising when a fire does occur, how very rarely it is known to spread to the adjoining houses”.42 An author in the Bombay Gazette uttered his astonishment still in 1883: We have never been, in a large city, so exempt from serious fires as Bombay. In one year a greater destruction of property from this cause takes place in New York than we have known in 35 years in Bombay. We confess that we are unable to explain the comparative immunity of Bombay in this particular. The agents noted that the “natives, who, encouraged by the immunity from Fire which Bombay has so long enjoyed, prefer to take their chance rather than pay the heavy rates asked for.”43 There were many cumulative reasons for the missing of major conflagrations in the three important British-Indian cities Bombay, Calcutta and Madras: teak wood and the refractory chunam mortar is much less inflammable than 42 43 Extract from report by Messrs. Scott & McLelland [1872], GLL Ms. 31522, vol. 153, p. 112-113. Ibid. 266 normal European wood and mortar, the monsun occupying nearly half of the year is producing such a humid climate that the outbreak of fires is much less probable. If modern cities are cities free of the danger of big conflagrations, perhaps the traditional Indian cities were in a certain way since a long time ‘modern’ even if they seemed to a European visitor in many other respects completely unmodern – one empirical data to enforce Eisenstadts argument of the multiplicy of modernities.44 The two examples of late 19th century analyzing processes by insurance agents in the age of globalizing business do teach us some general lessons: We are in front of two disoriented seemingly empirical and rational ‘high-modern’ Western perceptions of different largely non-European cities – disoriented, because the spatial division between European and Muslim zones in Istanbul did not function as a valid marker of higher or lower risk: the risk was much to high in both areas; disoriented, because the similar spatial division between European and native zones in the Indian cities had not any sense being no real fire risk in both zones. The failure of those pre-formed schemes of perception shows that under conditions of globalization the previously seemingly universal distinction between ‘Tradition’ and ‘Modernity’ is reduced to a rather arbitrary labeling depending on the standpoint of the attributing person; what remains is pure diversity with no given epochal index.45 Analyzing the schemes of perception, we see that the guiding principle is rather not a general mood of future orientation, even if perhaps a general conviction of progress is behind the big movement of globalization. The agents did not use much time-related vocabulary when they analyzed a new site for an agency. On the contrary, a deeply spatialized vision of the cities in question and of ‘insurability’ was frequent, the zoning of risk followed that pre-given division of spaces. Surely, insuring was still a business selling the security of (a well defined part of) one own’s ‘future’.46 It was still a modern instrument in the sense we defined it in the first part in contrast to the late medieval notion of insuring. The orientation of preoccupation, care or even fear was not concentrated and even mingled with the open space of the sea and with the wandering of goods through that space as in the Mediterranean case, insuring was not just an accounting trick but a tool of ‘taming the future’ to vary the formulation of Ian Hacking. But the zoning of risk reintroduced a heavy mood of spatial orientation and segregation of the fears on which insurers and insured were concentrated. Insurance having become a sober routine, the agents did not show much 44 45 46 Eisenstadt 2007. Stichweh 2000, 207-219. To clarify this, we could distinguish here between a ‘future1’ and a ‘future2’, the former meaning the operational orientation of insurances on well-defined risks (the burning of houses), the latter meaning the broader social, political and economic timescape in which the insurance processes as a whole are embedded. 267 conviction to act as promoters of progress as it was the case with the enlightened pioneers establishing the first insurances in 18th century when they contextualized the functions of insurances in broader schemes of the progress of society, state and its economy. Insuring one’s property’s future was less linked with Insurance as an agent of the future orientation of states and societies themselves or that link was bracketed and neutralized in the daily practice. If spatial zoning was not functional in dividing West/Non-West and as such between ‘Modernity’ and ‘Tradition’, insurance and insurability itself failed to be a marker between ‘epochs’; so, the Overvaluing of Spatiality led to a certain presentisme (re-)conquering the practice of insuring. If in those examples the frontiers of insurability are crossfaded with the frontiers of Westerness in a deeply counterfactual way, that what is coined ‘uninsurable’ is not the unthinkable and uncalculable mega-catastrophe, it is just the non-western part of the world. Beck and others think that the measure of ‘insurability’ is also a tool of distinction between first and second modernity, between high and post-modernity, but we could not find that well documented in the material. Surely the argument was rather that dangers like a maximum credible accident in nuclear power plants or like effects of terrorism are never insured as risks, that those types of dangers transcend the frontiers of accountability, that with those ‘new’ technological dangers like the nuclear ones we are facing signs of a new age and a new epoch which are completely beyond the imagination of traditional normal modern institutions like insurance companies. But that thesis is not convincing probably on multiple levels. One argument for the contemporary situation is that the frontier of insurability has always been enlarged and extended and that, for example, even terrorism has been insurable to some extent.47 Another argument looking at the examples given from 19th century modernity would be that the frontier of insurability has been always traced by the insurance agencies along some preformed divisions like that between westerness and non-westerness without any strong empirical backing as has been shown. So, the uninsurable is not necessarily the unmarked space of the great unknown, and in an auto-reflexive way, ‘insurability’ is a marker of selected forms of cultural spaces and their frontiers. IV. Insuring at the Edges of Late Modernity Facing the global ‘new’ risks or uncertainties of climate change in a world divided into a changing ‘multiple West’, ‘developing’ countries, and future leading states, insurances are more and more at the center of interest and discussion as actors of global security production. The enlightenment had constructed the secure society as the normal ideal, as a promoter of wealth and 47 Ericson and Doyle 2004. 268 progress and, vice versa, states of unhappiness and misfortune as the exception. In late modernity the notion of ‘insurability’ has gained more and more importance as a contested marker of the boundaries between normal modernity and the unmodern; having had a closer look at that boundary we have seen that it was rather a purely self-referential boundary of ‘westerness’ without defining really the boundaries of empirical insurability. In the contemporary world, the concept of ‘insurability’ is used as a heuristic instrument transferred from insurance theory to the discussion on sustainability governance. It is argued that from the existing relation between technological innovation, risk definition by insurers and sustainable development, the expertise of insurance business in defining insurable risks can be used as an indicator in analyzing the ‘borderline’ between nation-states and private business as actors, but also the ‘borderline’ between sustainable and unsustainable technology, presuming that uninsurable technology is also unsustainable.48 Only actions of which the risk of environmental destruction is measurable and, in case of necessity, manageable or avoidable, can claim to be legitimate from a sustainability perspective. Similarly, an insurer would sign only risks which are measurable and, in case of necessity, payable without ruining the company. In other contexts, analysts of climate politics do ask for “Innovations in insurance” and they express that “New thinking will be needed to push back the boundaries of insurability”. Only if insurers will create new products, the state as insurer of last resort will be discharged. Only new products of microinsurance can help to penetrate the developing world and to increase the overall degree of ‘human security’.49 So, in a certain way, insurances are objects of hope; even sociologists like Anthony Giddens who subscribe like Beck to the vision of a late or post-modernity as a new and different age in contrast to the classic ‘modernity’, judge that by pushing back the boundaries of insurability, some ground will be gained for humanity. In a certain way one may judge that the fact that insurance and reinsurance giants are nowadays actors on a same level of importance for the management of global catastrophes as whole states. That shows that the enlightenment vision or utopia of a normal secure society is, to a certain extent, realized or is, at least, still present as a vision, perhaps an utopia, but at least as a directing idea. Asking for new insurance innovations for developing countries, like Giddens is doing, seems to be in a good continuity to that enlightenment vision. But studying the insurance practices of classical 19th century modernity with its strong emphasis on cultural spatiality and the multiplicity of forms and outcomes, it seems rather that the somewhat steady binarity and dichotomy of secure spaces 48 49 Stahel 2003; Dahlström et al. 2003. Giddens 2009, 172-174; cf. also Stern 2009, 88-89. 269 and unsecure spaces is continued or even re-enforced today.50 If we look at the notion of insurability depending rather on preformed schemes in the 19th century and if we have in mind how that expertise in delineating the borders of insurability was completely erroneous, one may wonder if one is well advised to use that ‘knowledge’ on so many levels: on the level of sociological theory to divide epochs; on the level of sustainable economics to define environmentally prudent actions; on the level of climate politics to enlarge the secure world. Classical modern insurance practices in the context of globalization seemed to have lost much of the mood of ‘colonizing the future’. May we close with the idea that the process of globalization itself was active in a certain detemporalization of insuring? Hartmut Rosa has written on the process of ‘deceleration’ (Entschleunigung) as the general outcome of globalization, Helga Nowotny has underlined that an ‘extended present’ is increasingly replacing the open future of classical modernity in the globalized world. Perhaps, the practice of modern insuring that was formerly linked with that open future as a particularly significant instrument of ‘taming’ and calculating that future would be more and more an action oriented dominantly in timescapes of presentness and would follow the fixation on ‘zoning’.51 Future-orientation would be shrunk down to presentedness? or to something like a ‘project time’ with a fixed future which would resemble more the closed future of premodernity than the open future of classical modernity.52 Thus, our investigation seems to consolidate the three-step form of time regimes and spatialities in the realm of insurance practice and theory. But, from a historical perspective of the comparison between different epochs, it also casts doubt on the validity and importance of ‘insurability’ as a mighty theoretical and practical tool of measurement in different contexts. In this way, the article should have contributed to the history of human security or the use of ‘human security’ as a heuristical device in historical research by concentration on the relations between timescapes and spatialities as correlates to regimes of security: analysing those elements and dimensions and their interrelations together may be a step to a more formalized practice of transepochal comparisons and a transepochally arguing history of human security that would not just be a research on the ‘prehistory’ of patterns of human security. 50 51 52 Slums are still burning down uninsured in the growing mega-cities with its ‘western’ centers well insured: Davis 2007, 129-136. Cf. for the practice of spatial zoning in the context of insuring also the contribution of Uwe Luebken in this volume; cf. also the yet unpublished Bochum Master thesis of Christoph Wehner on the practice of risk zoning in the context of insuring elements of nuclear power planes. That’s the argument or the pleading of Dupuy 2004, 175-197, following the ideas of Hans Jonas on future ethics. 270 References Printed Sources Anonymous. Gedanken von der Einrichtung und dem Nutzen der in den Fürstenthümern Calenberg, Göttingen und Grubenhagen zu errichtenden BrandAssecurationssocietät, nebst der Untersuchung einiger dagegen etwa zu machenden Einwürfe, in: Hannoverische Gelehrte Anzeigen 1751, 9. Stück, 293-301. Anonymous. Vorschlag, wie die Versicherung der Gebäude zu Ersezung des Feuerschadens auf eine leichte Art einzurichten. In: Physikalisch-Oekonomische Realzeitung, oder gemeinnüzliche Wochenschrift 1756, 17.-19. Stück, 673-684, 701716. Gäng, Philip. 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Jahrhunderts und die Umweltgeschichte.” In Natur als Grenzerfahrung: Europäische Perspektiven der Mensch-Natur-Beziehung in Mittelalter und Neuzeit: Ressourcennutzung, Entdeckungen, Naturkatastrophen, edited by Lars Kreye, Carsten Stühring and Tanja Zwingelberg, 235-60. Göttingen: Univ.-Verl. Göttingen, 2009. Zwierlein, Cornel. Der gezähmte Prometheus. Zum Verhältnis von Sicherheit und Moderne am Beispiel von Brandgefahr und Feuerversicherung, 1680-1850.: Manuscript of Habilitation, Ruhr-University-Bochum. Bochum, 2010. 274 Governing Floods and Riots: Insurance, Risk, and Racism in the Postwar United States Uwe Lübken Abstract: »Zur ‘Beherrschung’ von Überschwemmungen und ‘Riots’: Versicherung, Risiko und Rassismus in den USA«. In the late 1960s, the United States Federal Government resorted to publically funded insurance systems to deal with two quite different problems: floods and riots. Both programs were administered by the same agency, both relied heavily on the spatial mapping of risk, and both were haunted by problems of moral hazard. Curiously, and most importantly, however, riots as well as floods were viewed as “environmental hazards” by the insurance industry and the government agencies involved. The underlying assumption was that social problems could be treated as quasinatural hazards, i.e. as a homogeneous and unpredictable force that could be contained by actuarial means. Yet uprisings, civil commotions, and riots are not “acts of god” that are located outside of society (and neither are floods). This article discloses the origins of both programs, it describes their communalities and differences, and it reveals the views of those who were subject to racist steering practices. Keywords: Insurance, Risk, floods, riots, Redlining; racism, USA. Mr. Jones. Our companies could not insure the same properties under the same underwriting conditions and at the same rates. Now, if it’s insurable property and there are no environmental conditions, it would be insured under the FAIR plan. Ms. Gear. What does ‘environmental condition’ mean? […] I’ve heard that so much. You know, what is ‘environmental condition’? What do you classify as ‘environmental condition’? Maybe then I could give you a reply, because I need to know what that is. 1 On February 28, 1980, the Subcommittee on Insurance of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, gathered to review “the progress of the flood, crime, and riot reinsurance program and to consider new authorization”. During congressional hearings a year before, questions had been raised as to the continued need for these programs and about whether they 1 Address all communications to: Uwe Lübken, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Leopoldstrasse 11a, 80802 München, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. U.S. Senate “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 324. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 275-288 “were operating in full accordance with congressional intent”.2 Invited to give statements before the committee and to submit reports were, amongst others, State insurance commissioners, representatives of the insurance industry, the Administrator of the Federal Insurance Administration, and “other knowledgeable persons concerned about hazard litigation, protection of the environment, and revitalization of the Nation’s neighborhoods”.3 What at first glance appears to have been (and most likely was) a long and exhausting congressional hearing unworthy of further scholarly research, raises a couple of interesting questions if we take a closer look. Why, one might ask, were such highly diverse topics such as floods and riots dealt with in the same hearing in the first place? Secondly, why was insurance the chosen means to cope with these problems? Finally, if insurance was the preferred tool to solve these problems, why was the Federal government involved at all and why wasn’t the whole matter left to the private insurance industry, as was the case with the actuarial management of so many other hazards such as theft, fire, car accidents, or death? Ultimately, the question is why the United States government decided to use publically funded insurance systems to deal with both social and natural problems. The Problem: Floods In the United States, as in almost every other industrialized country, flooding became more and more of a problem over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With the increasing utilization of the floodplains for agricultural, urban, infrastructural and industrial purposes, riverine and coastal settlements grew ever more vulnerable to high water levels of rivers and oceans. Several devastating river floods in the first three decades of the twentieth century along the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and in New England had clearly disclosed this vulnerability. The main response to this challenge, however, had remained the same ever since the Army Corps of Engineers had firmly established its so-called “levee-only doctrine” in the late nineteenth century: physical protection from flooding by dams, levees, and, later on, also reservoirs. With total flood damages steadily rising despite these earthen and concrete devices,4 it became increasingly clear, however, that structural measures were insufficient to relieve the financial burden of the state and the suffering of the people.5 Disaster relief – a Federal task since 1950 – only added to 2 3 4 5 U.S. Senate “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 1. U.S. Senate “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980. See Pielke et al. 2002, 56. “Insurance and other Programs for Financial Assistance to Flood Victims”, A Report from the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the President, as required by the Southeast Hurricane Disaster Relief Act of 1965, 8 August 1966, 40, United 276 the costs of flooding and, in addition, diminished the awareness of personal risk: “Whenever a major disaster strikes anywhere in the United States today,” the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) noted in 1966, “substantial public help and relief are available.”6 Together, these developments were not sustainable and called for new approaches to the flood problem. For several reasons, insurance seemed to be an ideal solution for this problem. Not only did it offer financial help to flood victims after a disaster (provided they had signed a policy), it also transferred risk and financial liability from the state (in the form of a moral or legal obligation to provide relief payments) to those potentially affected by floods. Furthermore, insurance schemes applied different premium rates to different regions of risk and thus encouraged a prudent utilization of the floodplain. The only problem was: flood insurance was not provided by the insurance industry. Unlike other hazards, extreme natural events such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are in most cases confined to a more or less demarcated geographical space which limits the number of potential customers who demand protection by insurance. It would be next to impossible, for example, to sell avalanche insurance to people in the Baltic region or, for that matter, insurance against tidal inundations to someone living in Switzerland. As a consequence, insurance companies specializing in natural hazards attract a large number of “bad risks”, which makes these companies extremely vulnerable to extreme events because too many insured persons might be affected at the same time. But it is not only the distribution of natural risks over space that creates problems for insurers; their distribution over time can be equally problematic because of the “highly unfavourable, if only temporary, ratio of claims to premiums” immediately after a devastating event.7 In California, for example, earthquake premiums in 1994, the year of the Northridge disaster, amounted to $500 million while $11.4 billion had to be paid out for property damages.8 Flood insurance suffers from the same structural problem.9 The demand for financial protection from floods is extremely volatile. As a rule, it rises tremendously after a major flood event while people lose interest in signing policies after a couple of years without floods. Thus, private flood insurance companies have been made bankrupt again and again by severe inundations. In one extreme case in 1899 even the office buildings of one insurance company were washed away by a flood in Cairo, Illinois.10 Even if a company survives, the 6 7 8 9 10 States National Archives, College Park, MD, Record Group 311, Entry 2, Box 44, 40. See also Rozario 1999, 70. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Insurance and other Programs” 1966, 54. See also Platt 1999. Smith 1996, 91. See also Lübken 2008. Smith 1996, 91. See Langbein 1953. Grutzner 1955. 277 “pattern of large claims following years with few losses makes premiumsetting difficult and the funding of claims unpredictable”.11 With the damage potential in the floodplains (both coastal and riverine) growing at tremendous rates after World War II, the burden on the federal budget was increasing correspondingly and new methods of dealing with this problem were sought. The Problem: Riots The lack of insurance coverage by private companies was also a key component of another, quite different post-war problem in the United States: the decline of American inner cities and the resulting uprising of impoverished people living in dilapidated housing conditions. After the end of World War II, millions of African-Americans left behind a legacy of poverty and racism in the South and migrated to the urban centers in the North, Northeast, Midwest and far West.12 This process was accompanied by “white flight” to the suburbs. The suburban population, which was and continues to be mostly Euro-American, jumped from roughly 35 to 75 million between 1950 and 1970.13 Suburbanization, officially supported by the Federal Government, allowed white Americans to leave “what deteriorated into inner-city reservations of racialized poverty”.14 Thus, these processes established a unique form of post-war urban segregation and fostered the equation of being black with being poor and with living in a pathological ghetto space. One important but often overlooked fact in the history of inner-city ghettoization in the post-war United States is the role that racial steering practices of lending institutions and insurance companies played. For decades, as Gregory D. Squires has pointed out, “U.S. central city residents, particularly in minority areas, have often been unable to obtain property insurance at affordable rates”.15 The National Inspection Company, for example, a consulting firm which catered mostly to insurers, bore witness in a 1958 report on Chicago to the “encroachment of Negroes” and held that the “Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Japanese and ‘Hillbillies’ have worked into some colored areas, particularly on the fringe of the cheaper or poorer districts and, in some cases, are in the same category with the lower-class Negroes”. As a consequence, the report, heavily resorting to racial and class stereotypes, demanded that any “liability in the areas described should be carefully scrutinized and in case of Negro dwellings, 11 12 13 14 15 Smith 1996, 91. Wilson 2005, 21. Avila 2004, 4. Avila 2004, 5. Squires 1979, 80-81. 278 usually only the better maintained, owner-occupied risks are considered acceptable for profitable underwriting.”16 The availability of property insurance, however, is a key component of the status of housing conditions and of a community’s overall situation. “Insurance is essential to revitalize our cities,” a 1968 report to President Lyndon B. Johnson stated. “It is a cornerstone of credit. Without insurance, banks and other financial institutions will not – and cannot make loans.” Thus, the renovation and improvement of property became more difficult and mortgages were hard to obtain. The report gloomily continued that new housing cannot be constructed, and existing housing cannot be repaired. New businesses cannot expand, or even survive. Without insurance, buildings are left to deteriorate; services, goods and jobs diminish. Efforts to rebuild our nation’s inner cities cannot move forward. Communities without insurance are communities without hope.17 The availability of reinsurance, on the other hand, “influences the capacity of the primary insurers to underwrite” and “permits underwriters to assume a larger volume of risk than would otherwise be possible.” Furthermore, “it enables the insured to accept a larger amount of exposure in a particular area or kind of area.”18 After the violent clashes between residents of urban ghettos and national security forces in the 1960s, a direct result not only of dilapidated housing and ridiculously high rents, but also of unmet demands by the Civil Rights Movement and the assassination of key figures within the movement, an already bad situation took a turn for the worse. The economic damages resulting from these riots were staggering. In Watts, Los Angeles, for example, the 1965 riots resulted in insured losses of $38 million; the 1967 Detroit riot caused $41.5 million and the 1967 Newark riot $11 million.19 These huge (insured) losses led many insurance companies to give up property insurance in these areas altogether. Flood and Riot Insurance Thus, at first glance, floods and riots seemed to create similar problems in the postwar United States: The amount of financial damages they caused was increasing tremendously and demanded special solutions; in both cases, the private insurance market failed to deliver the protection deemed necessary and, as a result, the Federal government took the initiative and created state-sponsored systems of risk management. 16 17 18 19 Quoted after Squires 1996. President’s Advisory Panel, “Meeting the Insurance Crisis of Our Cities” 1968, 1. Statement submitted by James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 283. “The Central City Insurance Crisis” 1971. 279 First attempts of the United States government to intervene in the flood insurance business date back to the early 1950s when record floods in Kansas and Missouri induced the Truman administration to take a more active course. In 1956, the Federal Flood Insurance Act was enacted, which envisioned a system in which the Federal government acted as a kind of reinsurer for flood insurance companies, but Congress refused to appropriate substantial amounts of money.20 Ten years later, however, Hurricane Betsy, which devastated large parts of New Orleans, triggered the Southeast Hurricane Disaster Relief Act which, besides authorizing relief payments to the flood victims, also mandated a feasibility report on a national flood insurance program. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Act was finally passed, which, at least theoretically, made flood insurance available to all potential flood victims.21 The 1968 Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Act, too, was more or less a direct result of a series of catastrophes.22 It originated in the urban riots of the 1960s and was enacted to keep essential property insurance available in urban areas where the insurance industry had grown fearful that the riot and civil commotion hazards made even reasonably well-maintained buildings uninsurable.”23 In 1968, the Hughes Report by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders warned that if nothing was done about this problem, it might grow worse and affect even more cities in the future.24 Thus, under the Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Act, federal riot reinsurance was made available to insurance companies in states that established a Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) worked in a similar way. Municipalities could participate in the NFIP (and hence their citizens could benefit from federally funded flood insurance) if, in turn, they agreed to establish zoning laws and building codes in order to guarantee a thoughtful utilization of the floodplain.25 The two programs were institutionally joined in their first year of existence when in 1968 the Federal Insurance Administration (FIA) was established within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on August 1, 1968, to administer federal flood, riot, and crime insurance programs. The 20 21 22 23 24 25 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Insurance and other Programs” 1966, 65; King 2005, 6-7. See U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Insurance and other Programs” 1966. Statement submitted by James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance”, 283. Statement by Gloria Jimenez, Administrator, FIA, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 21-22. Statement submitted by James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 283. Cf. Bernstein 1971. 280 FIA was later transferred to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) but has retained autonomous status under its new umbrella organization. Besides being administered by the same agency, the two programs also had a lot in common in a functional sense. Both were based on mapping regions of risk. This is, of course, a standard procedure for almost every branch of the insurance business, but the geographical containment of hazards acquires special importance where the spatial distance between (real or imagined) “good” and “bad” risks is often only a few feet up the hill to higher ground (as in the case of floodplains) or one or two blocks (as in the case of redlining practices). The NFIP mapped the flood risk by publishing Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM), while the riot reinsurance program had to identify hazardous urban areas.26 Furthermore, both programs were haunted by moral hazard and fraud. With the Federal government acting as an insurer of last resort and as such assuming the entire (floods) or at least large parts (riots) of the financial risk, there was a high incentive for property owners, the private insurance industry, and sometimes even city officials to actively create or redefine the very events they were supposed to be protected from, i.e. fires and floods. The riot reinsurance program, for example, triggered arson. In 1973, the Ohio FAIR Plan Underwriting Association ascribed eighty percent of its losses to arson or “suspicious circumstances”.27 Cleveland, Ohio, accounted for no less than 1,593 arson incidents in 1974 and 1,976 incidents in 1975. Paid claims by the fire insurance underwriters in that city from November 1970 through September 1973 amounted to $2,386,457.28 The American Insurance Association complained that the 1978 amendment to the Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Act (the so-called Holtzman amendment), which requested rate parity between conventional insurance policies and those created under the FAIR Plans, had made the latter “a dumping ground for high risks,” that “would provide a disincentive for sound housing management and would encourage arson.”29 With regard to the National Flood Insurance Program, the AIA warned that “the program will prove counterproductive because the premium subsidies and loss payments will actually encourage irresponsible construction and result in added loss of life and property.”30 Indeed, one of the most important problems 26 Monmonier 1997. See also Cornel Zwierlein’s article in this volume. Kerr, “Who Burned Cleveland” [forthcoming]. 28 Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 7, 1975, quoted after Kerr, “Who Burned Cleveland” [forthcoming]. 29 Testimony of George K. Bernstein on behalf of the American Insurance Association, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 269. See also Senate Committee, “Arson in America” 1979; General Accounting Office, “Arson for Profit” 1978. 30 Testimony of George K. Bernstein on behalf of the American Insurance Association, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 268. 27 281 of the NFIP were “Repetitive Loss Properties” (RLPs), i.e. properties that had been damaged twice or even more often. Contrary to the practices in the private insurance industry, the NFIP decided to continue insuring such bad risks. Consequently a huge percentage of all NFIP claims were made by property owners who had been affected by flooding before (more than 25 percent, for example, in 1998).31 Riots as “Environmental” Hazards The most striking similarity, however, is that floods as well as riots were treated as “environmental hazards” by the insurance industry and the government agencies involved. While this is not so surprising as far as floods are concerned (although the more recent literature on the history of natural hazards and catastrophes convincingly contests the view that such events are entirely “natural”), it is remarkable in a policy debate about riots.32 The February 1980 hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Insurance on the progress of the flood, crime, and riot reinsurance program is especially interesting insofar as it not only illustrates the insurance industry’s view on the “nature” of riots (as well as floods); it also displays the citizens’ criticism and resistance against this naturalization of social problems. The American insurance business had originally supported the 1968 Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Act. George K. Bernstein pointed out in 1968 that the organization he directed, the American Insurance Association, “was among the leading proponents of both the National Flood Insurance Program and the Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Program”.33 After nearly 12 years of operation, however, the industry’s perspective had changed. James E. Jones, Jr., the AIA’s government affairs representative, now called for a termination of the Federal program since it had outlived its existence. Jones acknowledged that the program had been successful in providing “coverage in urban centers for essential property insurance”.34 However, he also told Senator Stewart, who was presiding over the hearings, that “our companies believe that the potential for riots and exposure to riot losses have greatly diminished. Private reinsurance is, today, available. We urge you to finalize the liquidation of the Federal riot reinsurance program.”35 In a statement prepared for the January 31 32 33 34 35 Platt 1999, 73. See Oliver-Smith 1999; Mauch and Pfister 2009. Testimony of George K. Bernstein on Behalf of the American Insurance Association, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 265. James E. Jones, Jr., government affairs representative of the Alliance of American Insurers in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 277-278. U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 281. 282 1980 hearing, Jones explained that almost four million new and renewal policies had been issued by FAIR Plans over the last five years. Yet, a more substantial reason why the AIA demanded the termination of the program – besides the decreasing threat of riots and the growing availability of private property insurance in the inner cities – was very likely the fact that the losses encountered exceeded the premiums earned by more than $11 million. “When one considers that companies have also incurred substantial expenses to pay for state premium taxes, agents’ commissions, administrative costs, etc.,” Jones continued, “state FAIR plans have been an utter disaster for private insurers, and the losses generated by those plans have prevented the companies from expanding their voluntary operations.”36 “Back of the Bus” Insurance The image that representatives of the insurance industry painted of their role in the riot reinsurance program was one of generous companies who had more or less sacrificed themselves in order to offer financial protection to inner-city residents. Despite the fact that they encountered huge losses, the homeowner policies they offered under the FAIR umbrella were allegedly equal in both rate and content to conventional policies. This view, however, was challenged by those for whom the lack of inner-city insurance coverage was a first-hand experience and not just the result of a technical report. Juanita Gear, for example, who represented the South Austin Coalition Community Council, a Chicago neighborhood organization, questioned the equality of insurance coverage under the FAIR Plans and conventional policies respectively, and demonstrated that parity existed in theory only. In practice, FAIR Plans were either more expansive or they provided less protection than conventional policies.37 Gear pointed out that clients of FAIR Plan policies often paid two to five times more than those who were able to insure their property conventionally. Also, FAIR Plans in most cases did not include theft or liability coverage. And even after Congress had passed the Holtzman Act demanding rate parity, 11 of 36 37 Statement submitted by James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 285. Jones claimed that in Rhode Island, $147 of losses were paid to FAIR Plan policyholders for every $100 of premiums earned. See James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers, to Donald L. Stewart, Chairman, Senate Subcommittee on Insurance, 26 March 1980 in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 296. Statement of Juanita Gear before the Senate Subcommittee on Insurance, ibid., 300. Gear was also a member of the National People’s Action, a national coalition of grassroots organizations which had, “for a number of years, been involved in a variety of efforts, both legislatively and through direct negotiation with insurance companies, to increase the availability of essential property insurance in urban neighborhoods.” in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 296. 283 the 28 FAIR Plans did not comply with this mandate. Insurance companies did not hesitate, however, to broaden the categories of risk that could be insured under the new program so that the FAIR Plans, once designed for only those risks in specifically defined riot affected areas, are now the major insurer of good risks in neighborhoods that were not then and never have been subject to extreme environmental hazards. As a result, in 1980, more than 1,000,000 homeowners and businessmen were “relegated” to the state FAIR Plans. In Illinois alone, the number of FAIR insured homes and businesses rose from 44,600 in 1975 to over 76,000 in 1979.38 The most insulting aspect of the FAIR Plan system, however, was the spatial segregation it produced. An insurance map of Chicago, for example, showed a considerable overlapping of areas with high FAIR Plan coverage with predominantly African-American neighborhoods. “If you notice where the blackout is, the red, which we indicate as redlining,” Gear pointed out, “is the area which is predominantly black. OK? To the north, which is predominantly white […] the insurance companies write without any problem whatsoever.” When asked by Senator Stewart whether one could purchase homeowner’s insurance under the FAIR Plan in those areas, Juanita Gear replied: Yes, but why should you get FAIR plan homeowner’s [insurance] when you could have conventional insurance? Why are you segregating us differently from the conventional world? Why can’t you have complete conventional insurance if it’s available and there is nothing wrong with your policy?39 AIA director George K. Bernstein finally acknowledged the existence of differences between FAIR and conventional plans but tried to explain them with different loss situations. The separation of different regions of risk was a prerequisite for a successful operation of the FAIR program, he argued: “And that’s exactly what FAIR plans are for: to recognize the fact that in key urban areas you must make a separate market”.40 Gear did not oppose the creation of a separate market; she questioned, however, the criteria on the basis of which a specific property was categorized as a FAIR Plan property. For insurance companies, she held, the most important factor was not the individual risk of a building, but its location inside an allegedly hazardous area. “I know for a fact that insurance companies took zip codes – okay? and placed them on the FAIR plan because of geographical location or because of the age of the dwelling,” 38 39 40 U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 316. U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 301. U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 302. See also Bernstein’s Testimony on behalf of the American Insurance Association in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 268: “The [Riot Reinsurance] Act did not require that all risks be written voluntarily, but it provided that in return for federal riot reinsurance, private reinsurers would create a separate market in the form of FAIR Plans.” 284 Juanita Gear explained. 41 Nine out of ten of Chicago’s 76,000 FAIR Plan policyholders lived in the city’s South and Westside neighborhoods, she continued: the same neighborhoods that housed, “by no small coincidence,” almost 90 percent of the city’s minority population.42 Thus, by its segregative effects, the FAIR Plan reintroduced and legalized to a certain extent the decades-old and prohibited practice of redlining.43 Even worse, it had “a definite racial component”, and reminded many AfricanAmericans of the “separate but equal” doctrine which basically held that segregation was not discrimination as long as the facilities for different parts of the population were “equal”.44 “Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the serious implications of adopting so naïve a policy as ‘separate but equal’ insurance availability,” Gear reminded her audience during the hearing in 1980, “is to point out that residents of my neighborhood now commonly refer to the Illinois FAIR Plan as ‘back of the bus’ insurance.”45 Conclusion The somewhat strange parallels between flood and riot (re)insurance are based on the assumption that both are “catastrophal” risks, i.e. events with a low probability of occurrence but a very high damage potential.46 Unlike car accidents or theft, these risks are difficult if not impossible to contain by probabilistic methods and hence extremely hard to model and to translate into actuarial terms.47 One of the main problems in dealing with both floods and riots is that 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 302. Gear Statement, U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 316. “Insurance Redliners Fined $100,000”, Chicago Tribune, 3 June 1979: “The largest fines ever imposed by the Illinois Department of Insurance for redlining violations have been levied against the Insurance Company of Illinois (ICI), and its manager, W. W. Vincent and Co. Inc., the Tribune has learned. […] The action climaxes a seven-month investigation of W.W. Vincent and ICI which established what one source called ‘a clear pattern of geographic discrimination’ in the writing of homeowner insurance. Redlining is the commonly used phrase for the denial of homeowners’ insurance to people living in certain designated geographic areas, particularly those characterized as black, Hispanic, ‘changing’, or decaying. The practice has been prohibited by the Illinois Insurance Code since September, 1977”. Gear Statement, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 316-317. This view was confirmed by the infamous Supreme Court decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, and only overruled in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education. Gear Statement, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 317. This view was already expressed in the Advisory (Hughes) Report to President Johnson in 1968. See also Statement submitted by James E. Jones, Jr., Alliance of American Insurers, in U.S. Senate, “Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance” 1980, 283-284. See Lockett 1980; Greene 1976; Moss 2002. 285 years with huge (insured) losses are followed or preceded by years with hardly any damage at all. “Civil Disorder Losses”, for example, amounted to $38 million in 1965 and to $67 million in 1967, but to only one million dollars in 1966.48 Thus, in order to provide insurance coverage for those affected by these events, the Federal government in both cases stepped in as an insurer of last resort.49 Here, however, the commonalities end. Both programs rely heavily on the geographical mapping of risk but while this is a sound (and indeed indispensable) policy as far as flood insurance is concerned, it represents a racist strategy when applied to allegedly “riot-prone” areas. By characterizing whole blocks, neighborhoods, or even zip code areas as “hazardous”, rather than looking at individual buildings or businesses, the FAIR Plans and the companies involved fostered racial stereotypes and severely limited both the quality and quantity of insurance protection available in those inner-city areas. The underlying assumption was that social problems could be treated as quasi-natural hazards, i.e. as a homogeneous, yet unpredictable force that could (literally) be contained by actuarial ghettoization. From this perspective, every citizen who was living in one of these specified areas became a potential rioter. Uprisings, civil commotions, riots, etc., however, are not “acts of God” that are located outside of society (nor are floods, by the way50) and hence they require other solutions than racist steering practices. References Printed Sources General Accounting Office. Arson for Profit: More could be done to Reduce it. Washington, DC, 1978. Grutzner, C. “Flood Insurance: Pros and Cons.” New York Times, 28 August 1955. “Insurance Redliners Fined $100,000.” Chicago Tribune, 3 June 1979. President’s Advisory Panel on Insurance in Riot-Affected Areas, Meeting the Insurance Crisis of Our Cities. Washington, DC, 1968. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Arson in America. Washington, DC, 1979). United States Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Subcommittee on Insurance. Flood Insurance and Crime and Riot Reinsurance: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Insurance of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, February 28, 1980. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980. 48 See Lewis 1971, 29. See Moss 2002. 50 See Steinberg 2000. 49 286 United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Insurance and other Programs for Financial Assistance to Flood Victims. A Report from the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the President, as required by the Southeast Hurricane Disaster Relief Act of 1965. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966. References Avila, Eric. Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. Bernstein, George K. “Critical Evaluation of Fair Plans.” The Journal of Risk and Insurance 38, no. 2 (1971): 269-276. Greene, Mark R. “The Government as an Insurer.” The Journal of Risk and Insurance 43, no. 3 (1976): 393-407. Langbein, Walter B. “Flood Insurance.” Land Economics 29, no. 4 (1953): 323330. Lewis, John R. “A Critical Review of the Federal Riot Reinsurance System.” The Journal of Risk and Insurance Vol. 38, no. 1 (1971): 29-42. Lockett, J. E. “Catastrophes and Catastrophe Insurance.” Journal of the Institute of Actuaries Students’ Society 24 (1980): 91-134. Lübken, Uwe. “Die Natur der Gefahr. Zur Geschichte der Überschwemmungsversicherung in Deutschland und den USA.” Behemoth: A Journal on Civilisation 1 no. 3 (2008), Special Issue: Surviving Catastrophes, Anne Dölemeyer, ed., 4-20. Kerr, Daniel. “Who Burned Cleveland, Ohio? The Forgotten Fires of the 1970s.” [forthcoming] In Flammable Cities, edited by Greg Bankoff, Uwe Lübken, Jordan Sand. King, Rawle O. “Federal Flood Problem: The Repetitive Loss Problem.” In Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, June 30, 2005 <http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32972.pdf> (accessed June 21, 2010). Mauch, Christof, Christian Pfister eds. Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. Monmonier, Mark. Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Moss, David A. When All Else Fails: Government as the Ultimate Risk Manager. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Oliver-Smith, Anthony. “Peru’s Five-Hundred-Year Earthquake: Vulnerability in Historical Context.” In The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Anthony Oliver-Smith, Susanna Hoffman, 74-88. New York, London: Routledge, 1999. Pielke, Roger A. Jr., Mary W. Downton, and J. Z. Barnard Miller. Flood Damage in the United States, 1926-2000: A Reanalysis of National Weather Service Estimates. Boulder, CO: UCAR, 2002. Platt, Rutherford H. Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999. Platt, Rutherford H. “From Flood Control to Flood Insurance: Changing Approaches to Floods in the United States.” Environments 27, no. 1 (1999): 67-78. 287 Rozario, Kevin. The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Smith, Keith. Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disasters. London/New York: Routledge, 1996. Squires, Gregory D. “Policies of Prejudice: Risky Encounters with the Property Insurance Business.” Challenge 39, no. 4 (1996): 45-60. Squires, Gregory D., Ruthanne Dewolfe, and Alan S. Dewolfe. “Urban Decline or Disinvestment: Uneven Development, Redlining and the Role of the Insurance Industry.” Social Problems 27, no. 1 (1979): 79-95. Steinberg, Theodore. Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. “The Central City Insurance Crisis: Experience under the Urban Property Protection and Reinsurance Act of 1968.” The University of Chicago Law Review 38, no. 3 (1971): 665-685. Wilson, Frank Harold. “Recent Changes in the African American Population within the United States and the Question of the Color Line at the Beginning of the twenty-first Century.” Journal of African American Studies 9, no. 3 (2005): 1532. 288 From Nuclear to Human Security? Prerequisites and Motives for the German Chernobyl Commitment in Belarus Melanie Arndt Abstract: »Von nuklearer Sicherheit zu Human Security? Voraussetzungen und Motive des deutschen Tschernobylengagements in Belarus«. This paper analyses the involvement of West German initiatives in Belarus following the Chernobyl disaster, with special regard to the social construction of human security. It focuses on the prerequisites for this involvement and the New Social Movements of the 1960s and the 1970s, in particular the “new” peace and antinuclear power movement. Based on the change in the emotional regime in West Germany, where fear was increasingly being openly expressed, civil society groups committed themselves to mitigating the consequences of the disaster. The paper explores perceptions and the criteria of security/certainty and, more specifically, the criteria of insecurity/uncertainty by which those actors were governed in their involvement. Keywords: security, Chernobyl, civil society, fear, commitment, atom, nuclear energy, New Social Movements. “We need another profound transition in thinking – from nuclear to human security”, postulated the United Nation’s Human Development Report in 1994.1 Thus it marked the new challenges and perceptions which followed the clear-cut division of the world during the Cold War era. Even if we are far away from guaranteeing either nuclear or human security, the latter phase of the Cold War marked a crucial shift in the perception of security not only in the political realm, but also in civil society. The understanding of security moved away from a concept which was mainly military and directed at nation states to a concept which focuses on individual security and the “freedom from fear and want”2 as “legitimate concerns of ordinary people (…) in their daily lives”, as 1 2 Address all communications to: Melanie Arndt, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam, Am Neuen Markt 1, 14467 Potsdam, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. This paper is based on a presentation given at the conference “The Production of Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History” in Bochum, 10.4.2010, and Arndt 2010. I am very thankful for all the helpful comments given during the conference and the critical eyes of all the reviewers; special thanks to Rüdiger Graf and Cornel Zwierlein. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 22. “Freedom from fear and want” were already key aspects in Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s Atlantic Charter of 1941 and the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. Later on they were turned into major components of human security. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 24. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 289-308 the Human Development Report states.3 These concerns became especially virulent and influential after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 which became a metaphor for many of the challenging processes taking place at the end of the Cold War. As early as the 10th anniversary of the disaster, the oft-cited Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich declared that Chernobyl had already become “a metaphor, a symbol”.4 The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident has indeed become a manifold metaphor for many issues – whether directly related to the disaster or not. At the heart of these issues lies a deep uncertainty, undermining belief in technological progress, our ability to control risky technologies, and the relative security of everyday life. The “symbolic fallout”5 of the Chernobyl disaster, as anthropologist Sarah Phillips put it, comprises, among other things: “anthropological shock” (Beck), the nuclear age, industrial and environmental disasters, the end of the Soviet Union, radioactive contamination, incomprehensible (in the most literal sense) afflictions, new forms of adventure tourism, ambiguity, fear, disability, and disease. However, Chernobyl has been more than a “semantic catastrophe”, as a German nuclear physicist succinctly surmised.6 The disaster not only disclosed the limits of technical progress, but also the limits of the state’s power to protect its own citizens. As a “focusing event”7 Chernobyl changed prior conceptions of science, technology, security, and citizenship. The disaster8 accelerated the breakdown of state socialism9, which claimed to have taken on a wide range of social provision, which had previously been provided by families. However, Chernobyl did more than just question the authority of scientific expertise and the Cold War rhetoric of technological progress in socialist systems. This “politicization of knowing” also produced many laypersons, such as worried parents, and also experts who began to perceive themselves as citizens and as citizens with concerns about the environment: what the anthropologist Krista M. Harper called a “politicization of caring”.10 While the discussion about the dangers of nuclear energy in the Federal Republic of Germany had started long before the incident in the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, on the 26th of April 1986, the hitherto only hypothetical case of 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 United Nations Development Programme 1994, 22. Aleksievich 1998, 25. In the paper I use scientific transliteration from the Russian and Belarusian languages – with the exception of commonly used terms, such as “Chernobyl”. Phillips 2008, 159. Quoted in Lenk 1996, 363. Birkland 1996. Disaster is here to be understood in the sense of the sociologically dominated Disaster Studies as process and not merely event. Here I doubt the assertion of Herfried Münkler that the breakdown of the socialist regimes was a consequence of maximized security and the corresponding perceptions of the population. Münkler 2010. Harper 2001, 114. 290 the “maximum credible accident” actually occurred, the conciliatory “remaining risk” became an everyday danger and existential threat. Thinking in terms of categories of positive security was displaced by a negative understanding of security – the general certainty that the consequences of the disaster will last, and the radiation released will cause health threats and limits on quality of life without the possibility of having concrete certainty about these consequences in the near, as well as distant, future. This all-embracing uncertainty expressed itself not least in experiences of paralysis and fear.11 At the same time, Chernobyl marked a clearly perceptible turning point in the transnational commitment of civil society. Though it did not immediately follow the catastrophe, step by step, perestroika opened up methods and forms of involvement which had not existed in Cold War thinking, but which were at the same time an expression and result of those processes which had occurred since the 1970s in the environmental and peace movements. Alongside all the lugubrious metaphors, “Chernobyl” has therefore also become a symbol of a movement of solidarity reaching beyond Europe’s borders, a symbol of civil society involvement consisting of innumerable smaller and larger groups. Besides the US, Italy and Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany provided the largest part of private help for the afflicted of Belarus.12 Since the beginning of the 1990s, more than 1,000 larger and especially smaller organisations have been established in Germany, which are concerned with helping the victims of the Chernobyl disaster. They invited hundreds of thousands of children from radioactively contaminated areas to recuperate and/or get medical attention for some weeks or months in “safe” and “clean” environments. Even if the number of children invited has been declining, around 10,000 Belarusian children still spend their holidays in Germany every year.13 At the same time that the recuperation of children was taking place abroad, recreational centres in “clean” Belarusian areas arose, for example “Nadezhda” (Hope), which is directed by the German-Belarusian organisation of the same name. Additionally, the initiatives brought countless trailer-loads of donations – clothes, medicine, medical and technical equipment, toys and the like – to the most affected countries. Together with the recuperation of children, this has represented only the most visible part of the intensive cooperation between German and Belarusian civil-society organisations. Addition11 12 13 I prefer the use of “fear” and “anxiety” instead of the highly connotated term of “angst”. Furthermore, I share Joanna Bourke’s scepticism about the usefulness of the dominant distinction between “fear” (as referring to an immediate, objective threat) and “anxiety” (as referring to an anticipated, subjective threat) in historical research and thus will use the terms synonymously. Bourke argues: “The distinction between fear and anxiety too often rests on a distinction between the rational and the irrational. However, there is no strict division between reason and emotion.” Cf. Bourke 2003, 126. Sahm 2006, 108. Ibid. 291 ally, training courses were organised for Belarusian farmers, nurses and doctors. German citizens’ groups used German money to build entirely new settlements using alternative energy concepts for evacuees and resettlers from radioactively contaminated areas in Belarus. At the centre of this paper is the involvement of German14 Chernobyl initiatives in Belarus, which will be analysed with special regard to the social construction of (human) security. In particular, the prerequisites for this involvement – which are to be found in the New Social Movements of the 1960s and the 1970s and especially in the peace and anti-nuclear movement – shall be presented and historicised. A central issue is the question: by which perceptions and criteria of security/certainty and particularly insecurity/uncertainty were actors governed in their involvement? How did they apply the concept of human security to their actions without even referring to it by name? The paper starts with a short sketch of the ambiguous nuclear euphoria of the 1950s. The following section will be a brief outline of the anti-nuclear power plant movement (anti-NPP movement) and the “new” peace movement, to which the majority of the initiatives and actors attached themselves. The outline thereby emphasises the changing perceptions of fear and security as an impetus for civil societal involvement in the late Cold War phase. After a short survey of the scale and consequences of the incident at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, finally, the German commitment, its supporters, and the motives involved will be examined. I assume a very broad understanding of security as a (basic) need and emotion15, which will be unlocked by a broad semantic field of complementary counter- and extension terms (such as certainty, insecurity, uncertainty16, threat, risk, and danger). Fear as a consequence and, at the same time, expression of insecurity and uncertainty takes on a special position, because it can be neither regulated nor suppressed on the level of society. In the all-embracing situation of uncertainty and insecurity, fears not only become increasingly verbalized, but at the same time also an important engine for political involvement and civil society mobilization. Fear will be understood not as an anthropological 14 15 16 This paper concentrates on West German initiatives, but their East German counterparts are also part of the larger research project. Febvre 1990, 116. As Bauman correctly stated, the German concept of “Sicherheit” is “considerably more inclusive” than the English word “security”. It encompasses – at the very least – all the dimensions of “security”, “certainty” and “safety”. Since the “effects of weakened security, certainty and safety are remarkably similar” with “symptoms being virtually indistinguishable”, as Bauman also noted, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between these three dimensions and most authors actually tend to use them simultaneously. Nevertheless, I try to distinguish between these various dimensions (and their respective negations) by applying “certainty” in reference to positive assurance and confidence in a certain outcome and “security” in reference to policy-related issues, and the physical realm. “Safety” will be used in technical terms only. Cf. Bauman 1999, 17-18. 292 constant, but rather as a phenomenon becoming manifest and thus measurable in different historical and social constellations by its public expression.17 From Atomic Age to Atomic Angst? As infernal as the metaphors for the Chernobyl disaster turned out to be, just as many hopeful pictures were connected to the causa efficiens, the “atom”18, against the background of devastating World War II experiences and the frontlines of the Cold War in the 1950s.19 From today’s point of view, these extended well into the realm of fantasy and were tied to the enthusiasm for radioactivity of the 1920s. The peaceful use of nuclear power was promoted as an “integration ideology” in the 1950s.20 If nuclear power had served only for electricity production, the “myth of the ‘atomic age’” would never have arisen.21 It was precisely these utopian metaphors which fuelled the enthusiasm for radioactivity. At the same time they seemed to be a useful means of relativising the horrible memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and turning people’s attention to a literally – and, at this time, still positively – radiant future.22 Apart from some electricity producers, scientists, politicians and writers were also captivated by the all-embracing use of the atom in biology, medicine, agriculture, and even tourism. The capabilities of nuclear physics seemed to be almost unlimited: from the revolution in the chemical industry through radiochemistry via desalination of seawater and desert irrigation, culminating in the development of the Arctic. Small nuclear power reactors were planned for use not only in ships and submarines, but also in aeroplanes, trains, cars and air conditioners.23 Thus, such prospects were not limited to hotheads and it was not just a shallow, media-fuelled phenomenon without further repercussions, as Radkau proved.24 While in Germany the population at large, affected by the Hiroshima pictures, remained rather sceptical and fearful, there were many 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Cf. Zill 2007; Greiner 2009, 18. The oversimplifying term “atom” corresponds with the use in the period described and stands synonymously for the whole complex of its capabilities. For a discussion of the changing usage of the term see Jung 1994. Cf. for the importance of the World War II and Cold War experiences in this development: Nehring 2004. Rusinek 1993, 14; Radkau 1983, 78. Radkau 1983, 78. Cf. for the French case: Hecht 1998. Cf. Rusinek 1993, 14; Radkau 1983, 79-100; Engels 2006, 344-346; Tiggemann 2004, 5457; Müller 1990, 3-12. Recently Microsoft founder Bill Gates attracted attention with his plans for the resumption of mini-reactors. Cf. “Bill Gates will mit Mini-Meilern die Kernkraft revolutionieren”, Spiegel online, 23.3.2010. Radkau 1983, 87. 293 supporters, in particular amongst the intellectuals. In the course of this euphoria, alternatives to the use of nuclear power fell prey to repression.25 The political reality in the “long 1950s”26 regarding nuclear power was anything but free of fear: the threatening and aggressive competition between the nuclear states involving ever more precarious bomb tests induced a change in the assessment of nuclear energy in the hitherto passive West German population in 1956.27 The Atomic Ministry even spoke of a “psychosis of radiation fear (…) here and there”.28 Even if the diagnosis was exaggerated, people did indeed begin to articulate anxieties, which also opposed peaceful uses and which started to penetrate into everyday conversation. In the light of the emerging knowledge of the devastating consequences of American nuclear weapons tests at the Bikini atoll for uninvolved Japanese fishermen, fear of radioactive fallout became a topic beyond the “hot” war for the first time. According a survey in 1959, only a small proportion of the West German population (eight percent) supported the unrestrained use of nuclear power. 17 percent suspected that the development of its civil use would one day lead to atomic war.29 In the 1950s, instead of an undamped euphoria, there was rather atomic euphoria accompanied by a simultaneous public insight into the dangers connected with nuclear weapons.30 Worries about damage to health by released radionuclides were increasingly expressed – worries that could already have emerged after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but which only took shape ten years after. This perceived insecurity found its first institutionalized expression in the Pugwash conferences against nuclear weapon tests and the Göttingen Manifesto, where 18 German nuclear scientists warned about the “life-destructing effects” of nuclear weapons, against which there is no protection at all.31 While in 1968 the majority of the West German population still predominantly associated “atom” with the bomb and only in exceptional cases with nuclear power plants32, in the course of the 1970s the topic became strongly symbolically loaded and increasingly encompassed the civil use of nuclear energy. Consequently, the nuclear discourse took a central place in the emerging environmental debates at a time when “security” became one of the key notions in the domestic political discourse.33 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Radkau 1983, 78-89. Abelshauser 1987. On the change of the emotional regime in postwar West Germany see also: Biess 2009, 215-243. Radkau 1983, 98. Ibid. Radkau 1983, 92. Cf. for a comparison with Great Britain: Nehring 2004. Göttinger Manifest 1957. Cf. Radkau 1983, 435. Cf. Weisker 2005, 211; Nehring 2004, 154. 294 The development of the anti-nuclear power movement, one of the largest protest movements in the history of West Germany, had passed through four phases by the end of the 1970s.34 The early phase started with the building of the first research reactors in Karlsruhe and Jülich in 1957. This phase lasted until the end of the 1960s and was limited to the locality. It carried its protest out through official channels. Mayors and city or municipal councillors were the leading figures. Initially, they concentrated less on the specific dangers of radioactivity, and more on general transformations of the landscape and the local economic structure. With the opposition against the nuclear power plant in Würgassen at the end of the 1960s, the protest movement expanded beyond the regional level for the first time and referred increasingly directly to nuclear power. The threshold to extra-legal methods had not yet been passed in Würgassen. Only with the anti-nuclear power protest in Wyhl in 1975 did the movement transform into a mass movement and develop elements of campaign protest, which today belong to the standard repertoire.35 Wyhl became a “symbolic term”36 for the anti-NPP resistance movement. However, even here the motives for the protests initially did not directly correlate with the planned nuclear power plant, but were aimed above all against the creation of a “Ruhr region on the Upper Rhine”, which was associated with foreign infiltration, destruction of the agricultural landscape, and deterioration of the Kaiserstuhl wines by the wafts of mist produced by the plant’s cooling towers. In Wyhl the local resistance for the first time formed a series of influential alliances – with the political Left, the sciences (above all Freiburg University) and the so-called “atomic tourists”. Thus, it succeeded in attracting attention on a supra-regional level and in formulating new lines of argument against nuclear energy. Additionally, the movement increasingly addressed the problem of hazardous incidents – something which reactor safety experts had done long before, but which had not entered the public sphere. The escalation phase of the protests in 1976 and 1977 was particularly defined by violence. With the establishment of the Gorleben “nuclear disposal park”, the protest focused on the unsolved problem of atomic waste.37 During this phase, the nuclear power controversy developed into a central socio-political issue. Numerous publications appeared, more and more voices could be heard and fuelled a broad discourse of fear and individual concerns. A mere month before the reactor explosion in Chernobyl the anti-NPP movement experienced yet another climax in Wackersdorf on the Easter weekend of 1986.38 34 35 36 37 38 The following according to Radkau 1983, 434-455. For details see, for example, Engels 2006, 346-376; Engels 2003, 103-130; Engels 2002, 407-424. Weisker 2005, 210. For details concerning Gorleben and the disposal problems see: Tiggemann 2004. Cf. Kretschmer and Rucht 1987, 134-163. 295 The anti-NPP movement was formed in the context, which Frank Biess described as the “incubation time of a new subject culture” in the 1960s and 1970s, where a “new subjectivity defined by fear” and an increasingly “ubiquitous fear” spread.39 Thereby the “fearful self” of the 1970s reacted to the increasing number of real dangers in the age of economic recession, ecological degradation, and terrorism. At the same time, the “new subjectivity” only created those patterns of perception by which the meanings of these dangers could be made accessible for individuals. Central to this was the articulation of personal concern and emotionality in as authentic a manner as possible which – in contrast to the emotionally silent traditional culture – gave fear a tongue. Thus, the key concerns of the human security concept, individual “human life and dignity”40, came to the fore. Personal emotional concern and perceived insecurity could thereby become the trigger for political and societal involvement – also, and in particular, through anxiety.41 To be sure, this does not mean that every single West German citizen felt fear in the 1970s. As Biess showed, fear was rather just one dimension in the “subjective balance of emotions”, namely at the normative level of subject culture as well as at the level of everyday emotional practices. Precisely this increasing acceptance and ability to verbalize emotional concern were essential preconditions for the involvement with Chernobyl. Fear and the perception of insecurity were also central benchmarks of the “new” peace movement. They appeared almost as a direct response to the atomic (war) danger.42 The movement bundled a multitude of fears and fundamental threats: the fear of a third world war, the threat of environmental deterioration as well as fear of technology and the uncontrollable consequences of its use. The campaigners moved beyond pure protest and demanded an alternative way of life, which should possess more solidarity, be more peaceful, and be more ecologically appropriate. In this way the peace movement partially overlapped with the environmental or anti-NPP movement, a development which found its expression in their self-identification as the “Ökopax”43 movement. The “new” peace movement was – in opposition to the so-called “first” peace movement of the 1960s – ideologically heterogeneous; however, its protagonists mainly had Christian, pacifist, left-wing or alternative backgrounds. Because their principles were the far-reaching renunciation of force and the focus on symbolic actions, they gained credibility and reputation well 39 40 41 42 43 Cf. Biess 2008, 52. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 22. Cf. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 23. Cf. Schregel 2009, 508; more in detail on the peace movement: Wasmuth 1987, 109-133. “Öko” is an abbreviation of “Ökologie” (German: ecology), and “pax” (Latin) stands for “peace”. 296 into the conservative camp and could rest on a “thick cushion of sympathy” in almost all sectors of the population.44 An important prerequisite for the later involvement in Chernobyl was not only the increase in “atomic fear”, but also the decrease in “fear of the Russians”. As a basis for legitimizing the Western armament effort and also partly because of the discussion of alternative – and in many cases this also meant communist – concepts of life, its credibility in terms of national security became increasingly eroded and thus, little by little, tended to be excluded from the “repertoire of legitimate emotional expressions”.45 Particularly within the Ökopax movement, fear “as a politicized and politically accepted emotional condition” merely described an intermediate stage on the way to action. As a semantic counterpart of fear, campaigners did not elect the direct negation (“no fear”), but rather made use of allegorical antonyms such as “bravery” and “hope”, making involvement appear almost compulsory.46 The Occurrence of the “Remaining Risk”: the Chernobyl Disaster Even today not all technical, physical, biological, medical, and psychological consequences of the reactor explosion of the 26th of April 1986 are disclosed in detail; only conflicting and imprecise representations are available.47 What is certain is that a planned test triggered the explosion, radioactively contaminating large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, but also parts of the rest of Europe and far beyond its borders. Today’s Belarus which, in the public and scientific perception of Chernobyl, is still in Ukraine’s shadow, received approximately 70 percent of the total radioactive fallout. 23 percent of the Belarusian territory was contaminated with more than one Curie Caesium-137 per square kilometre.48 44 45 46 47 48 Brand et al. 1986, 263. Schregel 2009, 518. Schregel 2009, 515-518. As introduction see the special issue of the journal OSTEUROPA on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the disaster or the short introduction by Brüggemeier 2006; Brüggemeier 1998, 7, 33. Caesium-137 with a radioactive half-life of thirty years was the most widely distributed long-lived radioactive element after the incident. Maps and descriptions therefore usually refer to it, although it is only one among approximately 40 other radionuclides. The contamination per square kilometer is given either in the former unit, Curie (Ci), or in Becquerel (Bq). Both units indicate how much radiation is measured by Geiger counters in these areas. One Bq is equivalent to one nucleus decay per second. The value “over 1 Ci/km2 caesium-137” does not in itself indicate how much radiation is absorbed by the people living in these areas. As experts estimate, people living in an area contaminated with 1 to 5 Ci/km2 absorb an average of less than 1.0 millisieverts (mSV) per year. mSv and 297 Shortly after receiving the first announcements from Scandinavia, rumours also circulated in Germany about a Soviet nuclear incident with devastating consequences. While the federal government urged calm, the federal states assessed the dangers very differently, partly issuing panic recommendations. Open-air pools and swimming lakes were to be avoided, children were not to play outdoors, outdoor shoes were to be left at the front door, and also adults were not to expose themselves to rain without protection. With every new directive, insecurity, uncertainty, and disorientation increased. In addition to the difficulties of measuring radioactivity and its impact on human beings, radioactive pollution is highly variable and thus complicates risk assessment. Locally it can vary strongly even within a single settlement. It is out of question that life could continue in “the normal way” in the most affected regions, as the Belarusian president Aliaksandr Lukashėnka never tires of stressing.49 In Belarus, it is not only the case that settlement patterns have been changed by evacuation, relocation, and resettlement since Chernobyl – it is also perceptions of landscapes, nutritional practices, and cultural practices which have altered. Even more difficult to judge than the radioecological impacts are long-term medical consequences. Indeed, cancer – and here particularly the previously very rare forms of childhood thyroid cancer – as well as respiratory, eye, blood, heart and gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes, immune defects (“Chernobyl Aids”) and various forms of dystonia (a neurological movement disorder) and encephalopathy (a collective term for different brain disorders) increased considerably following the disaster. However, to draw a direct connection to the catastrophe is often problematic, because there are several other factors which might have triggered the disease. Furthermore, every human organism reacts differently to radiation. Expert statements concerning the additional cancer deaths resulting from the emanated radioactivity fluctuate between several hundreds and hundreds of thousands because of the different methodical approaches.50 These imprecise indications, together with the use of consistently differing numbers and references, form the sounding board of manifold uncertainties, fears, and also panic. 49 50 Sieverts (Sv) are the internationally recognized units used to measure the harmful effects of radiation on the human body (biologically effective dose). According to most sources, only when soil contamination is over 5 Ci/km2 are people likely to absorb more than 1 to 5 mSv per year. As a comparison: within the European Union, 1 mSv per year is the dose limit for people living near a nuclear power station. Cf. Internationale Kommunikationsplattform zu den Langzeit-Folgen des Tschernobyl Unglücks. <www.chernobyl.info.> (accessed August 5, 2010). Lukashėnka 2006. Cf. also Arndt 2006. Cf. Sahm 1999, 191-192. 298 From the Expression of Fear to Involvement “Fear always demands a counterdraft (Gegenentwurf)”, Bernd Greiner points out, because in the long run it is bearable neither for individuals nor for collectives.51 While individuals can sustain psychological damage, societies can meet the limits of political integration and cohesion if the state fails to fulfil its own unique task, namely to provide security and freedom from want, fear, and uncertainty.52 The involvement of German civil society initiatives in the mitigation of the consequences of Chernobyl in Belarus can be seen as one possible countercurrent. Thus, from the very beginning, German uncertainty stood in a mutual relationship with the fear on the Belarusian side. The emotional concern was linked to a moral commitment to getting involved. Here one ought to consider that benevolence as “individual pro-social action” contains an accentuated subjective component. It aims at helping people who, in the eyes of the benefactor, appear to be needy. Thus, the changeable horizon of values of those involved is critical.53 Instead of speaking of a dichotomy between pro-social motives of action such as solidarity, helping or orientation towards common welfare on the one hand, and concern about individual welfare, improving one’s self-esteem or self-realisation on the other hand, it is much more appropriate to look at benevolence not as a burden, but as a “potential gain” for the initiatives. Thus, pro-social behaviour and self-interest are not mutually exclusive.54 Because of diffusion via the mass media, the West was better informed about the possible consequences and dimensions of the incident, which also led much more quickly to a perception of insecurity amongst large parts of the population than in Soviet Belarus.55 There, the fear of those not directly affected took shape only bit by bit, as the statement by Henadz’ Hrushavys, the head of the Belarusian organisation “For the children of Chernobyl” confirms: Fear did not come immediately. It did not go with the peaceful atom in our consciousness. Our world view looked like this: the martial atom is a baleful mushroom in the sky such as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people who burn into ashes in one second; the peaceful atom in contrast was as harmless as a light bulb.56 If, in the very beginning, the involvement in Chernobyl was not a reaction to a “call for help” from Belarus, an explanation is needed for what it was, in fact, a reaction to. In the involvement with Chernobyl, one also finds such “positive 51 52 53 54 55 56 Greiner 2009, 21. Greiner 2009. Cf. Lingelbach 2009, 14. Lingelbach 2009, 20. For the perceived threat after Chernobyl in Western European countries see the survey based study of Tønnessen et al. 2002. Gruschewoi 2006, 7. 299 psychological gratification” as significant individual psychological motives, which Lingelbach elaborated for the West German market for charitable donations:57 commitment to others – be it by charitable donation or the temporary accommodation of a “Chernobyl child” – allows the acting out of paternalistically motivated feelings of pre-eminence. It is accompanied by the affirmation that one does not belong to those who are in need of help. Involvement can turn into an effective tool for coping with fears, if those involved put themselves empathically in the place of those in need and thus identify with the uncertainty and anxiety of the others (or at least their own perceptions of it). In turn, via this involvement, feelings of insecurity can be reduced. “Reconciliation with rolled-up sleeves” is what the journalist Johannes Voswinkel called the German involvement in Chernobyl.58 The inception of the involvement stood in close connection with the partial opening of the Soviet Union in the course of perestroika and the coming to terms with the crimes committed by Germans on Soviet territory under National Socialism. Official Soviet statistics number the deaths at more than 2.2 millions in Belarus alone.59 The Germans razed to the ground more than 209 Belarusian towns and 9,200 villages/settlements.60 In 1988 and 1989, the first Protestant pilgrimages into the still-existing BSSR took place to ask for “peace and reconciliation”.61 A large part of the German Chernobyl involvement originated in the Christian reconciliation work.62 By this route, the first links to the hitherto unknown country were made, where the memories of the atrocities of WWII are top issues even today and often mentioned in the same breath as the memory of Chernobyl. The vanguard of the Chernobyl initiatives could rely on substantial experience in reconciliation work, for example in Israel, Poland, or Norway. Here one can observe a far-reaching impact of the 1960s’ and 1970s’ culture of remembrance on the actors. The emotionalized, subjective discussion of the German past was amplified by the increasing media exposure of the issue.63 Attention to the sufferings of the Belarusian people brought most notably the broadly recognised 1985 movie produced by Mosfilm and Belarusfilm “Idi i smotri“ [“Go and look“], which was voted “movie of the month” by the “Jury of Protestant film work” in West Germany in 1987. Based on the work of the 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 Lingelbach 2009, 400-409. Voswinkel 2003. He referred to the mud brick building project of “Heim-statt Tschernobyl”. But other associations can also be subsumed under this motto, not least the volunteer service “Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste” (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace), which has been sending volunteers to Belarus since 1992. See also Gerlach 2000. Marples 2001, 150. Steinacker 2001, 24. For East German, non-Christian initiatives this aspect obviously did not play such an influential role. They built their commitment on contacts already established during GDR times, as the results of a survey show (archive of the author). Cf. Biess 2008, 60. 300 Belarusian writer and later Chernobyl activist Ales’ Adamovich, it tells, dramatically and through the eyes of the boy Florya, of the atrocities committed by the National Socialists in Belarus. The reservations of older Belarusians in particular with respect to the German donors is an expression of the multidimensional area of conflict “victim of National Socialism/winner/victim of the atomic disaster versus offender of National Socialism/defeated/helper after the atomic disaster”, whose further exploration and historicization through research looks as though it would be very rewarding. To look at it through the Cold War prism of friend and foe does not explain it entirely; rather it is necessary to break down the complex processes of victimization on the one hand and heroization on the other. Between Knowledge of the Affected and Expert Knowledge The discussion of the disaster’s consequences within the German initiatives, as well as their interplay with their Belarusian partners, was from the very beginning influenced by the tension between the subjective, mainly emotionally based knowledge of those affected (uncertainty and fear of disease and death), and the claimed factual objectivity of expert knowledge.64 Even if, far into the 1970s, the development of nuclear energy in the Federal Republic was presented as a non-political issue, as determined by factual rationality and expertise alone, it was extremely difficult to distinguish those who were experts and those who were not.65 Even if confidence in experts had decreased during the course of the development of the “New Social movements” in West Germany, in tandem with additional uncertainty, the “experts’” opinions gained in power immensely following Chernobyl. The demand for reliable, reassuring numbers in a time full of uncertainty and the increasing importance of human security seemed to be boundless. Statistics on disease, contamination, and deaths played, and still play, an important role in the arguments of both the helping and receiving initiatives. It is particularly remarkable with regard to disease and, especially in this case, cancer statistics. The search for criteria to classify the non-classifiable and simultaneously to legitimize the honorary involvement contributed to the amalgamation of highly complex factual arguments with value convictions.66 Experts, above all physicians and physicists, were granted considerable confidence in advance.67 Statistics became a resource in the competition for support in Germany, as well as for German assistance in Belarus. Sometimes it seemed that scientific arguments were of superficial importance 64 65 66 67 For expert culture see, for example, Kurz-Milcke and Gigerenzer 2004; Fisch and Rudloff 2004. Radkau 1983, 14, 85. Cf. Weisker 2004, 416. Cf. Weisker 2005, 203; Weisker 2004. 301 only and could become independent when scientific and humanitarian aspects were intermingled. The initiatives used the statistics in an appellative and mobilizing way to gain aid money, supporters or new activists, and to reassure themselves of the legitimacy of being involved. Cases of overstatement, inappropriate comparisons or the passing on of stereotypes also occurred.68 At the same time, the initiatives generated a new group of experts for themselves: the activists and those involved. According to them, they became the real Chernobyl experts, with their own eyes and ears.69 Discourses on health and increasing concern about physical and mental well-being played an important role in civil society mobilization in the environmental movement in the 1970s. A paradigmatic change in the area of conflict between environment and health took place. The definition of health became much more socio-ecologically induced and linked closely to normative concepts of security, well-being, quality of life, environmental awareness and sustainability. Cancer took the central place in these discourses. A discussion of the “disease of civilisation” occurred in literature, popular science, and science, and was often accompanied by an autobiographical component and an understanding of the environment as pathogenic. This development fostered a sensitization to invisible carcinogenic substances in the environment and in food. The subjective discussion concerning disease had a strong socio-critical component; it granted political criticism a new form of “existential exigency and emotionality”.70 The “Chernobyl Children” “When the children come to Germany, they bring along their own message. Their bodies and souls are the witnesses of the largest industrial disaster of history and the beginning of nuclear genocide, an unmistakable warning for all of us. Their message reads baldly and simply: I want to live.”71 With these metaphorical and empathic words the former first chairperson of the federal association “For the children of Chernobyl”, the former Protestant priest Burkhard Homeyer, described the foundation of the commitment of the largest German Chernobyl network. By far the largest part of the German Chernobyl initiatives, numerically speaking, has dedicated itself to the “Chernobyl chil68 69 70 71 Thus, one initiative answered on the question of what they are aiming for with their commitment: “To show the children that there is another life – without vodka, with regular work and so on.” Archive of the author. Homeyer 2006. Biess 2008, 63. Compare also his notions about the paradoxical consequences of the increasing medical check-ups, which eventually tend to cause more fear than they reduce. Biess 2008, 68. Homeyer 1995, 2-3. 302 dren”, as is also expressed in the names of the organisations involved. As in Belarus, a multitude of initiatives in Germany have chosen almost identical names. Even today, the organisation of the disputed recuperation holidays is the most common form of involvement.72 The amount given as charitable donations in the Federal Republic is, according to Lingelbach, generally at its largest when it is aimed at the helping of children. This is also true in the case of Chernobyl, if “donation” includes the involvement of volunteers. Children are seen as especially “worthy”, innocent, and vulnerable. They call up instincts of help and patronage. At the same time, they also produce a feeling of power and feasibility for those involved, which tends to be much more limited in the case of adults who are in need.73 In the external communication concerning the Chernobyl children, there are, on the one hand, optimistic, pro-life metaphors such as “bridge to peace”, while on the other hand there is also nihilistic, stigmatising rhetoric such as “children without future”, “the moribund” or “generation Chernobyl”. With regard to visual depiction, at times the boundaries of the “pornography of misery”74 were overstepped by exhibiting handicapped, deformed children, who were even naked in some cases, without any need of doing so.75 Even if there is a medical-educational motivation behind it, it does not explain why such pictures are used in non-medical works. The use of such pictures obviously serves to win attention, which, for the initiatives, is connected with the hope of inducing others to help. The classical principle of childcare as an investment for the future is in some initiatives also connected with political ambitions. With regard to the authoritarian regime in Belarus, hopes for democratization are particularly resonant for those involved. Many initiatives hope that the experience the children have gained with their West German host families will contribute to a democratization of the political situation in Belarus. To what extent former “Chernobyl children” have indeed internalized Western democratic values, whether they really are connected with their stay in Germany, whether those values have matured into action, and whether “Chernobyl youth” does indeed stand for a 72 73 74 75 The dispute about the usefulness and appropriateness of taking child-recuperation abroad was – and in some cases still is – divided into defined supporters and opponents. The supporters stress among other things the importance of the multifaceted (democratic) experience they gain abroad, while the opponents fear a “cultural shock” and emphasise the advantages of recreation in “clean” areas in Belarus. Cf. for example: Schuchardt and Kopelev 1996, 22-38. Lingelbach 2009, 398. Liebel and Wagner 1986, 18. See, for example, the illustration of a paper by Sebastian Pflugbeil with a picture by Igor Kostin. Pflugbeil 2006, 95. A latest example is the photo exhibition “Chernobyl – living with a tragedy”, photos by Rüdiger Lubricht and Gerd Ludwig, 18.9.-30.10.2009, Loftgalerie Berlin. 303 democratic public as some initiatives explicitly aspire to in their aims, still needs to be investigated. Summary There can be no understanding of the German Chernobyl commitment without taking into account the development of the New Social Movements in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly the anti-NPP movement and the “new” peace movement. The “new culture of expressive emotionality”76, which was closely intertwined with an increasing sense of ecological insecurity, had a decisive influence on the forms of action, self-interpretation, and the communication styles of the associations. East and West were thereby united in some respects: The commitment to the mitigation of the disaster’s consequences was not solely based on the perception of the direct consequences, which were in any case not entirely comprehensible, but were also based on a general feeling of insecurity, uncertainty and an increasing sensitization during the “environmental age”. As has been shown, the expression of fear – in particular fear of disease and loss of well-being − played a central role. Fear became capable of being verbalized and displayed, contrasting and intermingling with expert knowledge, and thus developing its potential for mobilization. The underlying shared assumption of the necessity of human security, taking individual anxieties and concerns seriously, thus enabled action and social practices beyond the framework of conventional understandings of security. Human security, with its proclaimed focus on the actions of non-state actors and the protection and empowerment of individuals77, impedes efforts to establish clear cut divisions between the different dimensions of security and actually tends to offer an opportunity to include all of them. Thus its meaning becomes even vaguer. This, however, might still be a fitting reflection of the complex processes taking place in the “environmental age”. At the same time, the change in the emotional regime also affected the remembrance culture, which gave a crucial, albeit indirect, stimulus to the commitment. The majority of the associations define themselves not only as initiators of reconciliation, but also – and often in the same breath – as reminders of the atomic disaster. They were successful in taking the threats of the use of nuclear energy far into the provinces. Furthermore, the transnational consequences of the disasters and the commitment automatically heightened awareness of Europe as a geographical space where ecological hazards do not stop, even when they run up against an iron curtain. Ecological security is not a 76 77 Biess 2008, 53. Cf. Commission on Human Security 2003, 6. 304 matter of nation states and cannot be dealt with using conventional concepts of security. The various forms of civil society commitment and the formation of transnational alliances at the level of civil society, partly even with state financial support, can be read as a new form of security and foreign affairs within a global civil society. In this global civil society the perspective of the mass media is dominant and the active commitment of non-governmental organisations weakens the competences of the state. The focus of this global civil society is human security, concentrating attention on the (security) needs of individuals instead of states, and closely linked to discourses on civil and human rights as well as international development. The social networks which were manifested following Chernobyl not only led to transnational interpersonal contacts, but also developed skills on all sides for coping with situations of uncertainty and thus strove for something which might be called human security. References Printed Sources “Bill Gates will mit Mini-Meilern die Kernkraft revolutionieren.” Spiegel online, 23.3.2010. <http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/0,1518,685289,00.html> (accessed August 5, 2010). Commission on Human Security. Human Security Now. Washington: Grundy & Northedge, 2003. Das Göttinger Manifest der 18 Atomwissenschaftler vom 12. 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Konzepte, Konflikte, Kompetenzen, edited by Franz-Josef Brüggemeier and Jens Ivo Engels ,202-221. Frankfurt am Main [et. al.]: Campus-Verl., 2005. Zill, Rüdiger. “Waves of Fear”, (Paper presented at the conference “Angst. Kon(junk)turen eines Gefühls”, Einstein Forum, February 2, 2007. <http://www.einsteinforum.de/fileadmin/einsteinforum/downloads/Winter06-07/ Zill_Angst.pdf> (accessed August 5, 2010). 308 Transatlantic Environmental Security in the 1970s? NATO’s “Third Dimension” as an Early Environmental and Human Security Approach Thorsten Schulz Abstract: »Transatlantische “Umweltsicherheit” in den 1970er Jahren? Die “Dritte Dimension” der NATO zwischen Umwelt- und menschlicher Sicherheit«. This paper deals with the early stages of NATO’s “Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society” (CCMS), established as environmental “Third Dimension” of the Alliance in 1969. It discusses “environmental security” as a prime CCMS motive, assuming that the early CCMS-pioneers already projected global environmental uncertainty factors as security threats to the Atlantic Alliance. NATO’s environmental concept already showed elements of environmental and human security being considered in the face of the environmental crisis. The interrelation between both is examined by means of a knowledge-based history approach on the example of the CCMS “Road Safety” project (1970-1974). In the course of the project, NATO’s environmental security assumptions turned into a technological leitmotif dealing with technically controllable environmental risks as well as basic human and individual needs for security in a technological society. Therefore, the CCMS provided technical solutions to environmental and security policy problems and, finally, did not develop any political patterns of acting as a risk orientated environmental alliance. Keywords: Environmental Security, Human Security, Transatlantic History, NATO, Environmental History, Environmental Conflict, Environmental Problems, Road Safety, Knowledge Development, Knowledge Society, Knowledge Transfer, Scientification, 1970s. In July 1969, Apollo 11 discovered another unexpected spacecraft during its spectacular moon landing mission: Planet Earth. The pictures from outer space showed mankind impressively that the blue planet was a unique and tremendous “spaceship”.1 But it was also a highly fragile planet, as scientists and doomsday prophets alike warned at the same time. Trained in the art of prediction, they opined grimly that a worldwide environmental crisis would lead to a global environmental breakdown within a few decades.2 Simultaneously, social movements such as the New Left challenged the political system as well as the 1 2 Address all communications to: Thorsten Schulz, Universität zu Köln, Historisches Seminar, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Köln, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. Höhler 2008, 65. Hünemörder 2004, 209-221. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 309-328 economic and social order of Western societies with their ecological rhetoric and critique of consumption.3 In this tense atmosphere of environmental insecurity, the newly elected American president Richard Nixon introduced the idea of a new transatlantic task to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On April 10, 1969, the foreign ministers of NATO celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance in Washington DC and Nixon used his home advantage in order to take his audience by surprise. In addition to its political and military tasks, he stated, the alliance was missing out on a “third dimension” – the social and natural human environment: The industrial nations share no challenge more urgent than that of bringing 20th century man and his environment to terms with one another – of making the world fit for man, and helping man learn how to remain in harmony with his rapidly changing world.4 In order to master this task, Nixon proposed the creation of a NATO “Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, which was eventually established in November 1969 and later became known as the CCMS. The following paper deals with the creation of the CCMS and examines whether its work contributed to the emergence of an environmental security regime.5 Moreover, it analyzes how human security tied in with environmental concerns. At the onset of the 1970s, “environmental protection” and “environmental policy” were almost synonymous items. “Environment” was equivalent to the livelihood of man and covered the natural as well as the social human sphere.6 Since this implied a strong anthropocentric component, the paper uses this contemporary meaning of “environment” in order to ensure that contemporary and today’s connotations are not being intertwined. According to Jakob von Uexküll, the natural and social interdependency of “environment” was interpreted as that surrounding influences are deeply relevant to the life and 3 4 5 6 Zelko 2006, 26-28. The White House (Office of the White House Press Secretary), “Address of the President at the Commemorative Session of the North Atlantic Council, April 10, 1969”, in Public Record Office, CAB 164-642, 4/130. It is part of a larger project on “Environmental Security in international European politics, 1969 to 1975”, which uses the examples of the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States as a point of reference in order to examine the development of early environmental security regimes within NATO, the European Union, the United Nations and the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The PhD is mentored by Professor Jost Dülffer at the University of Cologne and was supported by the German Historical Institutes in London (2007) and Washington, D.C. (2008). Since 2009, the author has been a PhD fellow of the Schmittmann-Wahlen Foundation, Cologne, supported by the Schmittmann-Wahlen Foundation and the University of Cologne (2010-2011). The dissertation will be published in 2011. Hartkopf and Bohne 1983, 2-4. 310 survival of a biotic community (Lebensgemeinschaft).7 Against this backdrop, the paper defines “environmental security” for a state as the absence of threats against the environmental preconditions essential to the well-being of its population and to the maintenance of its functional integrity.8 Researchers have often enquired about Nixon’s motives for putting the environment on NATO’s agenda.9 Today, a cluster of reasons appears to be comprehensible, ranging from the consolidation of the Atlantic Alliance or the reduction of domestic political pressure evolving from social unrest within Western societies to the need to establish an effective international environmental protection regime. The following paper, however, represents the first attempt to analyze environmental security as a prime CCMS motive, its central assumption being that the early conceptualization of the CCMS already included insecurity considerations such as the global deterioration of the natural environment. In contrast to those political scientists who assume that contemporary forms of environmental security only emerged with the end of the Cold War, I argue that they were already being developed at the onset of the 1970s.10 The second part of the paper focuses on the interrelation between environmental and human security within the NATO context. While examining the CCMS project on “Road Safety” (1970-1974) by means of a knowledge-based approach to environmental history, it pays particular attention to the production of “human security” and the realization of an early CCMS “environmental security” concept – the former being interpreted in terms of today’s United Nations concept which indicates a turn away from state-centered securitization towards new threats to “human security” such as crime, health, migration, poverty, unemployment etc. – and finally, environmental destruction.11 In 2003, the Commission on Human Security (CHS) acknowledged that “people’s security around the world is interlinked” and defined “human security” as an individual approach protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations, building on their strengths and aspirations [… by] creating systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood […] It complements state security by being people-centered and addressing insecurities that have not been considered as state security threats. By looking at ‘downside risks’, it broadens the human development focus beyond ‘growth with equity’.12 7 8 9 10 11 12 von Uexküll 1909, 5. Frédérick 1999. Blaney 1973, 236; Kyba 1974, 256; Train 1974, 167; Sudarskis 1976, 69; Bungarten 1977; Krusewitz 1985, 33-47; Ditt 2003; Hünemörder 2004, 141-147; Humblin 2010, 54. For example, Matthew 1999; Dyer 2001, 441; see also the contributions to the “17. Forum Globale Fragen” discussing the worldwide implications and risks of the global climate change: Auswärtiges Amt 2007. United Nations Development Programme 1994, 22-40. Commission on Human Security 2003. 311 On the face of it, “human security” appears too vague to be of analytic value. However, international organizations such as the United Nations pursued the concept further and states such as Canada or Japan fell into line with it, which reflects a recent shift in social moral concepts and a rethinking of today’s globally interconnected human security issues.13 I argue that the firstgeneration projects of the CCMS already produced some decisive aspects of human security. This paper examines the way in which this production of security knowledge interlinked human with environmental security. “… Are we prepared to see New York underwater?” – CCMS Pioneers and the Environmental Crisis The head of the West German CCMS delegation, the parliamentary secretary Ralf Dahrendorf, opened the first plenary session of the committee in December 1969 by stating that “the very fact that this Committee has been created shows that for us security depends as much on the vitality of our societies as it does on the strength of our armies.”14 Indeed, security was an intrinsic factor of CCMS considerations from the beginning, although NATO itself only used an extended security definition officially from 199115 and the first concrete CCMS study dealing with “Environment and Security in an International Context” did not appear until 1995.16 On closer examination, however, it becomes clear that the considerations of 1969 already foreshadowed the findings of the 1995 study. Since in 1969 the term “environment” was defined as social and natural human environment,17 the predicted global environmental crisis was perceived as an urgent threat to the vitality of Western societies. Or, as the NATO Information Service argued in 1970: The survival of human society as we know it – perhaps the survival of Man himself as a species – is threatened now by a new factor: the rapid deterioration of the globe itself as an ecological system […] The world-wide ecological crisis (for crisis it is) has […] the components of potential breakdown.18 This NATO perception of the global ecological crisis as an uncertainty factor for mankind stems from one of the spiritual fathers of the CCMS – Nixon’s 13 14 15 16 17 18 Daase 2009. “Statement by State Secretary Dahrendorf at the first Meeting of NATO Committee on Challenges of Modern Society on 8 December 1969 in Brussels”, in United States Government Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Papers of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Part I, Richard M. Nixon Administration, 1967-1972, Subject File, I:292. Ziegerer 1998, 33-35. Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society 1999. Concerning the contemporary perception of the environment as a social and natural issue, see also Uwe Lübken’s paper in this volume. Huntley 1972, 11-12. 312 presidential counselor on urban questions and head of the US Delegation at the CCMS Preparatory Committee, Daniel Patrick Moynihan – the “number one ‘Urbanologist’ … in the White House”.19 Moynihan was the driving force behind the CCMS, although his assessment of the CCMS’s role and importance differed markedly from Henry Kissinger’s approach to NATO’s third dimension.20 Kissinger perceived the environmental subject in the first place as a promising way to consolidate the transatlantic alliance.21 Therefore, beyond all intentions to protect the environment, the CCMS was indeed a primary vehicle to achieve a cohesive transatlantic policy. In the face of France’s withdrawal from NATO’s military structures in 1966 and the credibility dilemma of NATO’s leading member state USA,22 at least the political cohesion was meant to be strengthened by the agreeable “soft politics” of the environment, “adding internal strength to our external security”.23 Moynihan, in contrast, assessed NATO as the appropriate platform to fight the social and natural environmental problems of the industrialized nations.24 In terms of world policy, he perceived the environmental question as one of the most urgent international political issues, although he acknowledged internally that the environmental issue did not have enough integrative power to keep the Atlantic Alliance alive without any military-political functions.25 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Joseph Glazer, “An Urbanologist in the White House”, in Bundesarchiv Koblenz, B 1425009; “Daniel P. Moynihan, biographic Data”, in “Behandlung von Umweltproblemen durch die NATO”, September 1, 1969, in Bundesarchiv Koblenz, B 142-5009; Katzmann 1998, Appendix A: Biographical Facts Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 181-195. Russel E. Train (EPA) to Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State), “Future of the NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, November 21, 1973 (confidential), in National Archives and Records Administration. General Records of the Department of State, RG 59, Political and Defense Files, 150-66/67-2899. Kissinger 1968; Memorandum Kissinger to Nixon, “Clarence Streit Letter on Atlantic Union”, August 27, 1969, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings Box 2. Haftendorn 1994; Nixon 1968, 805; “Die Zukunft der NATO” 1969, 46; Brosio 1967, D23. Department of State, “Memorandum for Mr. Henry A. Kissinger. Your Meeting with NATO Secretary General Manlio Brosio, July 3, 1969 / Briefing Memorandum”, July 2, 1969 (secret), in National Archives and Records Administration. General Records of the Department of State, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, 150-64/65-3160. Moynihan to Nixon, “Memorandum for the President: NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, September 16, 1969 (confidential), in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings, Box 3; Memorandum Moynihan to Nixon, “Report on CCMS”, March 21, 1970, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: The National Security Council (NSC), Central Files, NSC-CenFiles-312. Memorandum Moynihan to Nixon, “Report on CCMS”, March 21, 1970, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: The National Security Council (NSC), Central Files, NSC-CenFiles-312. 313 With regard to the CCMS’s conception, papers of its Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) reveal that security aspects already played a prominent role in the creation of the new organization. In the PrepCom Moynihan defined as the challenges of modern society to protect individuals and society from the unheeded effects of technological change [, …] to minimize the harmful effects that arise from imperfect use of technological developments, to achieve a more effective use of technology and more human forms of complex systems to the end of extending welfare and freedom of individuals and strengthening the bases of world peace.26 He concluded that “the stability and well being of nations rests fundamentally on the success with which they face these challenges”.27 His statement formed the basis of the North Atlantic Council’s report on the proposed CCMS. For the first time, the Americans cited concrete examples of this new type of environmental insecurity factor. As Moynihan wrote to Nixon: We pointed out that at the expected rate of release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by fossil fuels, the temperature of the atmosphere could rise 7 degrees by the year 2000. [...] Carbon dioxide has the same effect of glass in a green house [and ...] this [...] could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. What then would become of London, Hamburg, Amsterdam, [and] New York?28 Essentially, he resumed some specific recommendations of the President’s Science Advisory Committee of 1965, which had informed President Johnson that “marked changes in climate, not controllable through local or even national efforts”29 could occur. In comparison, Moynihan created a more complex worst case scenario. The inversion of his arguments reveals that he expected social and political instability, deterioration of the quality of life and the environment and finally a threat to all world peace efforts. In terms of the domestic environmental policies of NATO’s members, this interdependence manifested a more complex dimension than conventional environmental efforts so far ever realized. The PrepCom assessed the environmental destruction as a global uncertainty factor concerning NATO’s integrity – a theory the Western diplomats were confronted with for the first time.30 26 27 28 29 30 “Report of the Chairman on the Discussion in the Preparatory CCMS on Subjects which the CCMS might consider”, September 16, 1969, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings, Box 3. Ibid. Moynihan to Nixon, “Memorandum for the President: NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, September 16, 1969 (confidential), in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings, Box 3. President’s Science Advisory Committee 1965, 9. Moynihan to Nixon, “Memorandum for the President: NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, September 16, 1969 (confidential), in National Archives and Records 314 Moreover, Moynihan already calculated costs resulting from environmental risks in comparison with the CCMS expenses. He summarized that the actions would cost a vast sum – but in the face of the environmental threat, capital spending appeared unavoidable: “If we conclude that the carbon dioxide projection is sound, are we prepared to see New York underwater?”31 With this in mind, Moynihan worked along the same lines as scientists on both sides of the Atlantic, such as for instance Paul Ehrlich who was criticized in the US as a doomsday prophet because he discussed the global greenhouse effect32 or Sir Frank Fraser Darling in the UK who explained the causal relationship between the environment, technology, and potential security threats to posterity.33 Darling argued that it was a dangerous misconception that only later generations would have to deal with environmental problems. As Moynihan consulted Darling’s results,34 his CCMS concept assessed the critical environmental situation in a symptomatic way. In October 1969, he told the North Atlantic Assembly that the threat of a “nuclear holocaust” had been regarded so far as the ultimate disaster to humanity. But now “it has come to be perceived that this would be only the most spectacular of the fates that might await us. […] An ecological crisis is surely upon us; and developing at quite extraordinary rates.”35 As CCMS pioneers like Moynihan considered Western society and mankind as such to be endangered by the global environmental deterioration, the CCMS of 1969 expressed a programmatic shift from state to societal-based security, as Christopher Daase explains.36 Therefore, the development of the CCMS shows vividly that society substituted the state as main security interest at the onset of the 1970s, gradually shifting in the dimension of space (from national to global level), danger (from threat to risk), point of reference (from state to society to the individual) and subject (military, economic, ecological and finally human security).37 Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings, Box 3. Ibid. 32 McCormick 1989, 69-73; Hünemörder 2004, 219-221. 33 “Not with a bang but a Gasp”, The New York Times, December 15, 1969; McCormick 1989, 129. 34 “Remarks by Daniel P. Moynihan on the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, Brussels, December 8, 1969, in United States Government Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Papers of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Part I, Richard M. Nixon Administration, 1967-1972, Subject File, I:292. 35 “The NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society. Address by Daniel P. Moynihan, North Atlantic Assembly”, Brussels, October 21, 1969, in United States Government Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Papers of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Part I, Richard M. Nixon Administration, 1967-1972, Subject File, I:292. 36 See Christopher Daase’s paper in this volume. 37 Daase 2009, 138-149. 31 315 For all these reasons, security was an intrinsic factor of CCMS considerations. NATO’s environmental concept already showed elements of environmental and human security being considered in the face of the environmental crisis. However, since we cannot take our present knowledge as a yardstick, it would be wrong to regard the CCMS concept as a matter of course. Images of destruction such as the “Deepwater Horizon” disaster or scientific reports on global warming were not established in the collective consciousness. Regarding the level of experience and science at the end of the 1960s, Moynihan did not present generally agreed facts – rather, he and other CCMS pioneers advanced a working hypothesis for NATO’s environmental initiative. What Moynihan and the North Atlantic Council did was not to create or complete an environmental security paradigm. It was a thought process which aimed at the combination and investigation of environmental and security factors under NATO conditions. CCMS projects were to show to what extent environment and security really were interconnected and to combine technical, ecological, and social factors with the political courses of NATO’s actions. In this respect, the Third Dimension was really a new political initiative which marked a period of transition in NATO’s political strategy from conventional concepts of “peace” and “security” to an early form of environmental security. “… Tens of thousands of scarce engineering man-hours” – Road Safety Knowledge and the Production of “Human Security” In 1970, eight CCMS projects started in a new type of pilot-copilot model on Disaster Relief (USA), Road Safety (USA), Air Pollution Control (USA), Open Water Pollution (Belgium), Inland Water Pollution (Canada), Work Satisfaction in a Technological Era (UK), Scientific Knowledge and Political Decision Making (FRG), and Regional Planning (France).38 The pilots expected an extensive transatlantic environmental technology transfer. Almost every operation aimed at the exchange and development of environmental technology. The United States in particular attracted large technological projects, which promised economic and national benefits closing the apparent mutual AmericanEuropean “technological gap” in the environmental field.39 Business journals 38 39 Pilot nations of the CCMS projects are listed in brackets. If interested, one “pilot” nation took up a certain environmental problem and led a corresponding research project. Thus, the pilot was responsible for its planning, financial expenditure, organization and results. Within the project, “copilot” nations were able to establish subprojects on more concrete problems. “Examples for U.S. in meeting the ‘Challenges of Modern Society’”, February 2, 1970, in United States Government Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Papers of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Part I, Richard M. Nixon Administration, 1967-1972, Subject File, I:292; 316 predicted expanding environmental technology markets while economists considered the environmental sector as the “next big industry”.40 Such technological innovation appeared only feasible in cooperation with national industries and companies. Thus, the CCMS projects gave American and European industry the opportunity to improve in the field of environmental engineering.41 As the example of the Road Safety project illustrates, industrial science and engineering facilities became heavily involved in the CCMS research and technology exchange. To analyze the scientific process of the CCMS and the production of security knowledge within its projects, this paper historicizes the sociological concept of “knowledge society” (Wissensgesellschaft).42 The concept assumes that knowledge-based actions such as information processing, expert systems, and symbolic analysis permeated societal processes and relegated traditional factors of reproduction to the background.43 The review of the Road Safety project pays special attention to the former aspect. According to the sociologist Nico Stehr, it was the growing significance of science after 1945 which enabled society to influence itself, its social institutions and its relations to the natural environment.44 With regard to environmental history, critics have complained that this view was too euphoric about scientification and neglected “nonscientific knowledge” and its “non-professional producers” such as the environmental movement.45 Nevertheless, since the CCMS projects were run exclusively by a group of scientists and experts, a historically reconsidered definition of Stehr’s thesis is worthwhile. In the context of the CCMS, “knowledgebased” chiefly signified engineering and the natural sciences. Overall, as I 40 41 42 43 44 45 Memorandum Dr. DuBridge to President Nixon, “The Technological Gap”, February 19, 1969, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: The National Security Council (NSC), Central Files, NSC-CenFiles-442; Memorandum Dr. DuBridge to President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, “Cooperation in Science and Technology with Europe”, February 20, 1969, in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: The National Security Council (NSC), Central Files, NSCCenFiles-442. “Gewinnchancen für eine bessere Umwelt”, Business Week, April 11, 1970; Quinn 1971, 120. Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Science and Technology Department (Ronald Arculus), “NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society: U.S. Study on Road Safety: Proposal on Air Bags (Passive Restraints Systems)”, April 23, 1970, in Public Record Office, CAB 164-643: 42; Moynihan to Bundeskanzleramtschef Horst Ehmke, June 10, 1970, in: United States Government Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Papers of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Part I, Richard M. Nixon Administration, 1967-1972, Subject File, I:292. Concerning the methodical advantages of the concept see Szöllösi-Janze 2004, 277, 310313. Wilke 1998, 161. Stehr 1994, 220. Uekötter 2006, 102, 104-107; Uekötter 2006, 145, 147-148; with regard to scientification in the environmental field – especially concerning the “amateurish knowledge” of the environmental movement – compare Radkau 2002, 309. 317 argue, the Road Safety project produced a CCMS-specific environmental techno-science knowledge which dealt with security risks in traffic and mobility and defined individual human security for driving and, thus, living conditions. The project on Road Safety46 was once again the brainchild of Patrick Moynihan. Throughout the 1960s, he pursued a new approach to the subject, stating that “traffic accidents constitute one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest, of the nation’s public health problems.”47 He criticized the American automobile industry and government for their reluctance towards an efficient road safety methodology. There was no relevant data available, nor had any scientific and technological projects been pushed ahead: The only moderately reliable statistic that exists is the number of persons killed […] It is hardly a complicated matter to conceive what basic national data ought to be collected: rates for deaths, injuries, and accidents; geographical and temporal distribution as such; types of vehicles involved; types of driver failure; types of vehicle failure; types of drivers involved; types of roadway and environmental failures […] To repeat: none of this data now exists, save the death rate.48 Moynihan advocated not only producing adequate cars but also developing traffic systems able to minimize potential accidents. In this respect, he raised the question of individual risk limitation and individual security in a technological society. With this in mind, he defined road safety, in the first place, as a scientific task and not only as a matter of bureaucracy. However, NATO’s road safety project went far beyond this projection. It aimed at the combination of automotive engineering, human and ecological factors as well as accident prevention and investigation to produce a “highly effective format … bringing all dimensions of the problem and their interrelationships into sharp focus.”49 In order to harmonize Western road safety standards, it intended that all interested states should be able to draw conclusions from a catalogue of technological insights.50 This matrix consisted of six subprojects on (1) emergency medical services, (2) road hazards, (3) increasing use of seatbelts, (4) alcohol and driving, (4) passive restraints, (5) accident investigation and most importantly, (6) the development of an Experimental Safety Vehicle.51 46 47 48 49 50 51 Accredited by the North Atlantic Council in February 1970; see NATO Doc. C-R(70)5, February 13, 1970. Moynihan 1966, 10, quoted according to 20. Moynihan 1966; italics used in the original text. “Road Safety. Summary of proposed pilot study” 1970, 19; quoted according to 22. United States Department of Transportation, “US Pilot Study on Road Safety for the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society. Proposed Agenda, Implementation and Working Plan”, February 6, 1970, in Public Record Office, FCO 55-451: 2. Huntley 1971, 23-26. 318 Mobility and traffic are important parts of the anthropogenic environment. Consequently, it was not as peculiar as it seems at first sight that the CCMS developed traffic guidance systems, airbags or safety cars. Contemporary figures showed that in the United States 55,000 road deaths and 3.5 million injured persons were estimated in 1968 alone.52 In 1965/66, the death toll from traffic accidents numbered 111,000 NATO-wide – almost as much as the losses suffered by the UN forces in the Korean War.53 In addition to driving safety, the subprojects covered important environmental matters such as the development of a pollution-free car and better emission measurement technology. In this way, Road Safety was directed at reduced CO2 emissions and less urban smog.54 The number of growing cooperation partners indicates that no major automotive nation wanted to miss the technology transfer within the project. The Europeans were particularly interested since the American National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 set new motor vehicle safety standards in the US.55 Car and motorbike manufacturers such as AMF, Ford, Fairchild Industries and General Motors (USA), Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, BMW and Porsche (FRG), British Leyland (UK), Fiat (Italy), Peugeot, Renault and Citroen (France), Nissan, Toyota and Honda (Japan) as well as Volvo and Saab (Sweden) worked in subprojects on safety measures, new kind of propulsion methods and Experimental Safety Vehicle prototypes (called ESV in the following). Road Safety turned out to be a big business investment: By 1974, the state and private capital investments for the ESV subproject itself amounted to 250 million US dollars.56 The same year the project presented 13 different ESV variants, designed corresponding to mass production standards and the purchase interests of prospective buyers.57 International conferences, trade fairs and car exhibitions such as the Frankfurt Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA) (1970), the ESV conferences in Paris (1970), Stuttgart (1971), Washington, DC (merged with the transport fair “TRANSPO ’72” (1972)) and Ann Harbor (1973) formed an extensive “space of automotive engineering knowledge”.58 Within this knowledge space, government officials, state facilities, non-governmental organizations and actors alike met and established a horizontal and vertical cooperation between national departments of transportation, federal agencies, car and insurance 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 “Road Safety. Summary of proposed pilot study” 1970, 19. Huntley 1971, 23. “NATO move to encourage pollution-free cars”, The London Times, October 20, 1970. US want air bag safety at 85₤ car”, The London Times, July 8, 1968; “American safety laws criticized”, The London Times, March 29, 1971. Blaney 1974, 236; Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society 1974, 5. Blaney 1974. The concept of “Wissensraum” (knowledge space) is interpreted according to Ash 2000, 235. 319 associations, independent and government-sponsored research institutes as well as research facilities of the world’s most important car manufacturers. Throughout the project, technical engineers of the car industry dominated the scenery and established an environmental knowledge concerning the style of the ESV. As a result, there was no competition between different scientific knowledge systems, but rather cooperation among the prevailing fields of the project. Up to 1977, the number of scientists, experts and government representatives integrated together in such CCMS projects increased to an annual average of more than 1,000 persons meeting at 30 conferences and workshops.59 Within the projects, scientists and engineers established subject-specific communities and networks extending beyond the operations, as three former CCMS experts explained: During the pilot study, the ‘community’ of experts communicate directly with each other, often by telephone. These connections […] often continue even after the conclusion of the pilot study. […] The interaction within the scientific ‘communities’ is the real medium of reciprocal transmission of technology […] and it is the CCMS’ greatest achievement and greatest success.60 Owing to these networks, the national boundaries set by the CCMS pilot model became blurred, and researchers and experts exchanged their views and results inside and outside “their” scientific community. In consequence, transnational collaborative company and research interconnections developed, for instance exchanging experiences on airbag or catalytic converter know-how.61 The Road Safety community obtained its knowledge mainly from experiments, for example crash tests and experimental emission measurements, as John A. Volpe explained: Auto design engineers […] have thrown themselves into the ESV task with unparalleled enthusiasm. Top company managements have unhesitatingly committed millions of dollars to the ESV program. They have allotted tens of thousands of scarce engineering man-hours to the project and have constructed and equipped extensive new test facilities. Governments have come to the support of these efforts by undertaking new research at government centers, as well as underwriting a great deal of private research.62 59 60 61 62 Özdas 1977, 20. Ward et al. 1980, 19; Paul von Ward was the US coordinator of the CCMS between 1977 and 1979; Glen Kendall und James Bresee collaborated on several CCMS US pilot projects. “US Car giants study anti-pollution system”, The London Times, December 8, 1971; Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Science and Technology Department (Ronald Arculus), “NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society: U.S. Study on Road Safety: Proposal on Air Bags (Passive Restraints Systems)”, April 23, 1970, in Public Record Office, CAB 164-643: 42. John A. Volpe (Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation) on the occasion of the third ESV conference and international transport fair “TRANSPO ’72” in Washington, DC, May 1972, in U.S. Department of Transportation 1972, 1-5. 320 The experiments of the “test facilities” formed the arsenal of information through which the CCMS experts legitimized “their” redefined environment before science, politics, and society.63 While “scientists” produced new knowledge, “experts” reproduced it as a feasible subject. At the ESV conferences and car exhibitions, automobile and traffic experts made their technical knowledge available to an expertise-demanding clientele in politics, bureaucracy, industry and the media.64 Because of their ability to transform the flood of information and data into scientific insights, products, and expertise, the automotive engineers and technical-administrative experts possessed a powerful knowledge of interpretation and orientation. Road Safety experts coined the image of the technological as the “environmentally suitable” know-how. As this kind of environmental techno-science knowledge evolved in the course of the projects, the CCMS’s idea of environmental protection shifted in line with market conditions towards a predominant technology-centered approach. For example, American, European, and Japanese engineers worked on the environmentally most suitable and most profitable propulsion method. They presented Catalytic converters and new types of propulsion such as turbine engines, electric and hybrid drives as well as a revised sterling engine.65 The project’s experts established the eco-friendly automobile as being market-conforming, announcing that “the ‘clean car’ of 1975 will also have to be a ‘safe car’”.66 Simultaneously, this CCMS techno-science redefined “environmental threats” as technologically controllable “environmental risks”. Specific mechanisms of risk limitation were anticipated in a kind of a “safeguarding technology complex”, closely corresponding to Ulrich Beck’s sociological concept of “risk society” (Risikogesellschaft).67 Although it is questioned by environmental historians for various reasons today,68 some of its sociological ideas are still worthwhile in a historicized way.69 According to Beck, environmental risks are basically invisible and based on causal interpretations. They are extremely dependent on experts’ knowledge as they are influenced by social processes of definition.70 In the case of the knowledge production within the CCMS projects, transatlantic researchers and experts dealt with regionally invisible envi63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 According to Gooding 1989, 16. In general: Szöllösi-Janze 2004, 282; in the context of the Road Safety project: Huntley 1972, 25-26. Huntley 1972, 25-26; Train 1974, 177. Huntley 1972, 28. Beck 1986; for the latest definition of risk society see Schubert and Klein 2006. Engels 2006, 32; Brüggemeier 2006, 56. From a historical perspective, it rather encourages questions about historical safety philosophies, as Joachim Radkau suggested: Radkau 1999; Radkau 1990, 345, 357; Radkau 1989, 130. Beck 1986, 29-30. 321 ronmental risks such as the greenhouse effect or acid rain.71 Besides these, visible risks such as road accidents appeared on the research agenda. Beck excluded “road accidents” from his analytical risk pattern, arguing that they are “attributable to the individual” and “chanced voluntarily”.72 However, the historical reality differed as the development of road safety represented a concrete attempt to control social risks of modern technology and society. Joachim Radkau correctly pointed out that the 20th century’s rise of mass motorization in particular accepted social and individual risks to a high degree.73 With this in mind, conventional automobiles and the extensive postwar highway networks – such as the one created by US town planners on the assumption of endless cheap fossil energy74 – appeared as uncertainty factors to an increasingly mobile automotive society. Against this backdrop, the Road Safety project created, in a bottom-up process, a post-modernist risk management of social and individual human mobility. Experts’ reports and feasibility studies demonstrated technological prospects in the control of potential human security threats such as the “road accident”. Therefore, the project exemplifies a process of professionalization, indicating that the 1970s’ production of human security was still centralized in the hands of a few experts who generated and consolidated new realities in everyday life.75 At the onset of the 1970s, this techno-science culture of environmental innovation participated in standardization and harmonization processes and thus influenced automobile design and culture. Whether it concerned airbags or seat belts, pedestrian protection devices or crash systems, catalytic converters or engine design – American and European car buyers of the 1970s and 1980s were confronted with a new kind of functionalist safety car design shaped by state legislation, scientific experts, consumer demands for safety and environmental features, and a new type of overall technological safety philosophy.76 Conclusion The analysis has shown that early CCMS pioneers such as Patrick Moynihan or Ralf Dahrendorf already anticipated present scientific and political environmental security discourses. Unlike other contemporary observers, they were in the position to formulate a first environmental security thesis for NATO’s 71 72 73 74 75 76 US Secretary of State to all NATO Capitals, “US Précis for NATO/CCMS Air Pollution Pilot Study”, December 5, 1969, in Public Record Office, CAB 164-642, 40P. Beck 1988, 266. Radkau 1989. McNeill 2005, 87. According to the “technological momentum” assumed by Hughes 1975, 358-384. Gartman 1994, 213-215. 322 environmental activities, which failed for two reasons: On the one hand, the prevailing mood within the Alliance towards the CCMS initiative was “responsive in principle but cautious in practice”.77 Important allies such as the United Kingdom were not enthusiastic about NATO’s new third dimension for financial reasons, because of duplication of work with other international environmental organizations and conceivable political implications such as the impression of a bloc-to-bloc politicization within the environmental field.78 Therefore, the CCMS focused its attention in a top-to-bottom process upon technological options rather than political grand designs. The nature of the Alliance was too restricted to provide political or scientific answers for global environmental problems.79 On the other hand, assertive large-scale projects like the Road Safety project established a prevailing techno-science culture of environmental innovation which left its mark on the CCMS’s objectives. The CCMS as such did not steer the “eco-technological policy line” all by itself. Rather, it was the knowledge production within the projects which developed an efficacious power of definition and promoted environmental technology only in a bottomup process. Whether it was oil tanker design, disaster relief, contingency plans or air pollution control: At the end of the day, this power was so decisive that “the heart of the NATO CCMS programme was […] to stimulate a significant exchange of technology amongst a major group of industrialized nations of the world”.80 Consequently, the CCMS projects of 1970 did not examine the global environmental security hypothesis projected in 1969. In a tacit understanding, all projects took a technological turn, leaving “environmental security” virtually aside. The Road Safety project demonstrates that the task of investigating environmental and security factors under NATO conditions very quickly turned into a technologically dominated leitmotif dealing with basic human and individual needs for security in a technological society. The activities established 77 78 79 80 Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Western Division to Cabinet Office, “NATO and Environmental Problems. Visit of the Secretary General on 26 June”, June 23, 1969 (confidential), in Public Record Office, CAB 164-642, 12M. Foreign and Commonwealth Office to Prime Minister’s Office, “Note for the Prime Minister on how Nato came to be involved in environmental problems – Nato and environmental problems”, August 5, 1969 (confidential), in Public Record Office, CAB 164-642: 25; Moynihan to Nixon, “Memorandum for the President: NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society”, September 16, 1969 (confidential), in National Archives and Records Administration. Nixon Presidential Material: President’s Office, President’s Office Files, Handwritings, Box 3. Antoine 1973, 1-6; Sudarskis 1976, 71 on “Limits of the CCMS”. Robert Brenner, scientific head of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at the fourth CCMS plenary session, Brussels, April 19-20, 1971, in: Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, “Summary Record of a meeting held at the NATO Headquarters, Brussels, on 19th and 20th April, 1971”, NATO Doc. AC/274-R/7, July 23, 1971, in Bundesarchiv Koblenz, B 106-25901. 323 international and transnational bodies which produced specifically safeguarding knowledge and expertise in their field of research. If “technology” is defined as manufacture and application for a specific purpose, the project aimed at individual human security. It linked road safety to the security of the individual by exploring the environment from a technical perspective. Basic human needs such as the freedom to move were redefined in terms of a general technological safety philosophy. As a first major international organization dealing with road safety and individual security, NATO anticipated present human security discourses such as the United Nations Habitat “Global Report on Human Settlements 2007” which explicitly defines road safety as a human security issue while bringing together security and safety in one urban policy concept.81 In the face of the CCMS pioneers’ ambitious vision, NATO’s environmental committee nevertheless produced a sobering outcome. Although its projects indicated for the first time the complexity of “environmental security” and “human security”, these two elements were not integrated into a political framework of action. Rather, the specialists of the CCMS provided technical solutions to environmental and security policy problems. Even if individual human security was considered, at no point did the CCMS projects develop an analytical pattern of environmental or human security combining technical, ecological, and social uncertainty factors and risks with political courses of action. Owing to this, NATO and its environmental projects did not develop any political structures or objectives of acting as a risk-orientated environmental alliance. Only at the end of the 1970s did NATO discuss that it had to bear in mind ecological, scientific-technological and social factors on a global and long-term basis.82 However, as the Cold War heated up again, NATO’s environmental dimension lost significance. Once more Western diplomats fought on familiar terrain and focused on military-political matters. It was not until the lifting of the Iron Curtain that NATO’s policy-makers retrieved the environmental security dimension assumed by their predecessors and revived, unknowingly, Moynihan’s idea of 1969 as an integral part of the Atlantic Alliance. 81 82 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) 2007. Cleveland 1978, 14. 324 References Printed Sources “American safety laws criticized.” The London Times, March 29, 1971. Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, ed. Environment and Security in an International Context, Final Report, Report No. 232, Bonn: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; Washington, D.C.: USA, Department of Defense, March 1999. Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, ed. Experimental Safety Vehicles Project, NATO/CCMS, Report No. 23. Washington, D.C.: USA, Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 1974. 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Radkau, Joachim. “Risk Perception as Stimulus in the History of Technology.” paper presented at Proceedings of the Workshop on Risk Perception as Initiator and Steering Instrument of Innovative R&D, Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, April 1-3, 1998, edited by Konstantin Foskolos, 7176. Villingen, Schweiz: Paul Scherrer Institut PSI, 1999. Radkau, Joachim. “Umweltprobleme als Schlüssel zur Periodisierung der Technikgeschichte.” Technikgeschichte 4, vol. 57 (1990): 345-361. Radkau, Joachim. Natur und Macht. Eine Weltgeschichte der Umwelt. München: C.H. Beck 2002. Radkau, Joachim. Review of Risikogesellschaft and Gegengifte by Ulrich Beck, 1999: Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts 4, vol. 4 (1989): 130-134. Schubert, Klaus, and Martina Klein. Das Politiklexikon. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 2006. Stehr, Nico. Arbeit, Eigentum und Wissen. Zur Theorie von Wissensgesellschaften. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1994. Sudarskis, Michel. “NATO and the Environment: A Challenge for a Challenger.” Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 2 (1976): 69-72. Szöllösi-Janze, Margit. “Wissensgesellschaft in Deutschland: Überlegungen zur Neubestimmung der deutschen Zeitgeschichte über Verwissenschaftlichungsprozesse”, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 30 (2004): 277-313. Train, Russell E. “A new Approach to International Environmental Cooperation: The NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society.” Kansas Law Review 2 (1974): 167-191. Uekötter, Frank. “Die Chemie, der Humus und das Wissen der Bauern. Das frühe 20. Jahrhundert als Sattelzeit der Umweltgeschichte der Landwirtschaft.” In Grüne Revolutionen. Agrarsysteme und Umwelt im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Andreas Dix and Ernst Langthaler, 102-128. Innsbruck: Studienverlag, 2006. Uekötter, Frank. “Did they know what they were doing? 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Bern: Schweizerische Friedenstiftung SFS, 1998. 328 Between National and Human Security: Energy Security in the United States and Western Europe in the 1970s Rüdiger Graf Abstract: »Zwischen Sicherheit und Human Security: Energiesicherheit in den USA und Westeuropa in den 1970er Jahren«. The article examines, on the one hand, the changes to the concept of energy security in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1970s, and on the other hand, the influence of these conceptual changes on the overall change to the perception and architecture of “security”. It argues that the concept of “energy security” lost its close connection to state and military security while being extended with respect to its spatial scope, reference object, issues, and classification of dangers. This extended the notion of energy security and, in turn, exerted a crucial influence on the overall extension of the security debates from state to human security via the Brandt, Palme and Brundtland Commissions, which tried to address global security issues. Thus, in the 1970s our current energy and security constellation emerged, partially superseding the logic of the Cold War. Keywords: energy, energy security, security, USA, 1970s, oil crisis, oil embargo, United Nations, Brandt Commission. 1. Human Security and Energy Security – Concepts and Historical Analysis Since the publication of the Human Development Report in 1994 the concept of human security has undergone an impressive career. Today, many texts celebrate the term as setting a new political agenda in the post-Cold War world, but almost as many bemoan its vagueness that allegedly precludes both thorough political analysis and concrete policy-making.1 Despite major disagreements over the contents and usability of the term, there is a consensus at least about a core meaning of human security. The term extends classical notions of security that dominated in the 20th century or even, as some argue, since the creation of the so called Westphalian System. These older conceptions of security considered the state to be the primary subject and object of security.2 In 1 2 Address all communications to: Rüdiger Graf, Faculty for History, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. For critical suggestions I thank Moritz Föllmer and Cornel Zwierlein. Hampson and Penny 2007; Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities 2004; Paris 2001; King and Murray 2001-2002. Ogata 2001. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 329-348 contrast or rather in addition to state security, human security focuses on individual human beings and attempts to guarantee and expand their vital freedoms, encompassing freedom from fear and freedom from want.3 Therefore, human security also concerns new types of threats that were not at the center of state security, such as economic risks or environmental hazards. Moreover, it expands the number of possible conveyors of security from states to international and non-governmental organizations. In general, ‘human security’ is mostly used in order to describe the security of the basic core of people’s livelihoods which may be threatened by civil wars, natural disasters, or failing states. Because of its empowering dimension, however, it is far from clear where the scope of human security ends. As Roland Paris enumerates, depending on the context, human security may refer to: (1) economic security (e.g. freedom from poverty); (2) food security (e.g. access to food); (3) health security (e.g. access to health care and protection from diseases); (4) environmental security (e.g. protection from such dangers as environmental pollution and depletion); (5) personal security (e.g. physical safety from such things as torture, war, criminal attacks, domestic violence, drug use, suicide, and even traffic accidents); (6) community security (e.g. survival of traditional cultures and ethnic groups as well as the physical security of these groups); and (7) political security (e.g. enjoyment of civil and political rights, and freedom from political oppression).4 Today, the extensive use of energy and especially the burning of fossil fuels are essential to several of the above-mentioned dimensions: Economic security depends on the access to sufficient energy resources and, above all, on the continuous flow of oil; food security has largely been achieved by the use of artificial fertilizers which are based on hydrocarbons; environmental security is threatened by the extensive burning of coal and oil, and even political and thus personal and community security are endangered by military conflicts which are fought over the access to natural resources. However, the concept of energy is conspicuously absent from both the 2003 Human Security Now Report and the 2004 Human Security Doctrine for Europe.5 The former only vaguely acknowledges the necessity of securing everybody’s access to sufficient natural resources and sees this access – particularly in the case of water – as a potential source of conflict. The latter even argues that, while older conceptions of security had focused on strategic assets such as oil, today human security concentrates on “five key threats to Europe: terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts, failing states, and organised crime”.6 En- 3 4 5 6 Commission on Human Security 2003. Paris 2001, 90. Commission on Human Security 2003; Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities 2004. Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities 2004, 8. 330 ergy and oil, however, do not seem to be related to Europe’s major security questions. Because of this discrepancy, I will examine the relationship between energy and security in Western Europe and the United States since the Second World War in greater detail. This analysis is complicated by the changes to “energy” and “security” on both a conceptual and a factual level in the period under scrutiny. On the one hand, the global economy of oil and energy and its conceptualization underwent fundamental changes in the second half of the twentieth century which accelerated significantly in the 1970s as a consequence of the oil embargo and the oil price increases. On the other hand, security regimes changed and, as Emma Rothschild or Christopher Daase have shown, the concept of security was extended from a narrow understanding of state to the broader idea of human security.7 In Christopher Daase’s analysis the widening took place in four different dimensions: with respect to the spatial scope, the reference object, the issue area, and the classification of dangers.8 Owing to these conceptual changes, my questions point in two directions: On the one hand, I will ask how energy supply and demand were situated within the context of the changing debates on security in Western Europe and the United States: When, how and why was energy supply perceived as a matter of state and military security? When was it related to broader concepts of security and when was it even considered to be an element of human security? On the other hand, I will ask if and how the rising importance and politicization of energy and especially oil in the 1970s influenced the conceptual change within the discourses about security: Did the emergence of “energy security” as a central political category influence more general conceptions of security and the discursive change from national to human security? While the first set of questions uses “national” and “human security” as analytical concepts in order to examine the changing perceptions of energy and energy security, the second set tries to elaborate the influence of changing energy regimes on the conceptual change from national to human security. The simultaneous use of terms as both analytical and source concepts poses severe problems for historical analysis. In attempting to write a theoretically informed contemporary history, however, it is hardly possible to avoid using terms of the neighboring disciplines while at the same time historicizing them. So far, historical theory has not addressed the problems arising from this constellation for contemporary history in a satisfying way. While this article is not the place to develop a theoretical account of how to deal with concepts from neighboring disciplines, it still tries to explore how it might be done. Moreover, it deals with a crucial period in the history of Western security systems in which détente led to an easing of East-West tensions while simulta7 8 Rothschild 2007, 2. See Christopher Daase’s paper in this volume. 331 neously new threats arose. With the emergence of energy security as a central concern of political decision-making on all levels, the logic of the Cold War that had prevailed since 1945 seemed to be in question and was even partially superseded. New lines of confrontation between the First and the Third World or rather the producers and consumers of raw materials emerged which, for many observers, foreshadowed a new world order. As both energy systems and security architectures were globalized, their transformation in the 1970s changed the perception of the world and one’s own position within it, anticipating the post-Cold War debates of the 1990s. Hence, focusing on “energy” and “security,” the 1970s appear as a crucial transformative period in the history of Western industrial countries, heralding the beginning of our time. 2. Energy – from National and Military to International and Economic Security In the First World War, oil emerged as the essential resource for the successful conduct of warfare. From then on national security, understood as military security of a nation state, depended on the availability of sufficient amounts of oil in order to fuel warships, planes, tanks, and other military vehicles.9 The importance of oil as a strategic resource became even more apparent in the Second World War when it propelled Germany’s Blitzkrieg, motivated the Japanese decision to attack the USA, and was decisively lacking after the failure of the German armies to capture the oil fields in the Caucasus.10 In the course and the aftermaths of the wars, and especially after the Second World War, the United States and its allies placed access to sufficient oil reserves at the center of their national interests.11 In the postwar world these oil reserves were increasingly found in the Middle East, which became a highly contested region. The importance of oil for the security strategies of the Western alliance became particularly clear every time its continuous flow was endangered, as for example after the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in 1951, in the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six Day War in 1967 or the oil crises in 1973/74 and 1978/79. Over the course of the three postwar decades from 1945 to the mid-1970s, the structures of the global economy of oil and, accordingly, the conditions of the relation between oil/energy and security changed fundamentally. This was, above all, owing to the sharp rise in demand in Western industrialized countries. The postwar economic boom required growing energy supplies which 9 10 11 Yergin 1991, 167-183. Yergin 1991, 303-388; Barnhart 1987, 215-234; Eichholtz 2006. Stoff 1980; Painter 1986; Kapstein 1990. But, as early as “the 1940s, Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes and other government officials recognized that oil was strategically important not only for the military, but the national economy as well.” (Beaubouef 2007, 3). 332 were increasingly met by oil, substituting coal as the primary source of energy.12 Apart from mass motorization and residential heating, more and more parts of the economy became dependent on the continuous flow of oil, while the oil industry presented itself as the basis not only of economic growth but also of modern civilization and its social and political stability. As Halliburton asserted in an advertisement in 1959, oil was the “energy for civilization”: The needs of civilized man have increased throughout the ages based on desires of increasing populations to live better. Oil and its energy making components have been and will continue to be part of this progressive program of civilisation which guarantees function and preservation of this ideology. On this theme the future of democracy will forever depend. Halliburton’s extensive research and development programs are devoted to this progressing civilization ... through scientific application of Halliburton services and techniques, our tomorrows will be better ... because of oil.13 The growing dependence of Western industrial nations on oil and especially oil imports from the Middle East did not necessarily pose a problem for their national security. Energy experts carefully distinguished between “dependence” and “vulnerability”. As long as the United States remained the world’s largest producer of crude oil and had a significant surplus production capacity at its disposal, energy imports did not produce national security risks. In fact, advocates of oil imports argued that foreign oil would enhance US national security as it would spare oil reserves at home.14 As late as during the Six Day War in 1967, the United States could counter an embargo attempt by OPEC countries by simply augmenting its own production. Owing to increasing domestic demand, however, this possibility ceased to exist soon afterwards and the security of oil supplies and especially the possibility of intentional oil supply interruptions became a matter of great concern to the governments of Western industrialized countries.15 How far did these developments influence or change the conception of energy security in itself? Traditionally, energy and particularly oil security had been linked to a conception of national security that was largely understood in military terms. According to this narrow conception, national security was guaranteed as long as the state was able to provide sufficient oil supplies for its armies in order to defend itself. In 1971 the independent analyst and former member of the Army Nuclear Power Program with the US Atomic Energy Commission, Carl Vansant, produced a late and, at the time of publication, almost anachronistic expression of this view analyzing the “strategic energy supply and national security”. Vansant argued that energy sources were “fun12 13 14 15 Chick 2007. Halliburton 1959. Chick 2007, 16. Yergin 1991, 598-599. 333 damental to a nation’s strength” and that they had to be secured, above all, by military and political means.16 But even Vansant acknowledged that there was more to energy security than its military dimension: From a military point of view, it is important that the energy supplies for military forces be designed for, and maintained in, a secure posture. It is even more important, however, that national systems for energy supply be built on secure foundations of political, technical, and economic policy; for, in fact, it is the civil structure of energy systems that underlies and braces strategic security.17 In general, energy experts as well as experts of national security acknowledged the rising importance of oil for the functioning of industrialized economies in the postwar world and, therefore, broadened the concept of energy security, which was essential not only to the conduct of modern warfare but to the vital functions of economy and society as a whole. This conceptual change was to a large extent induced by political actors, national governments, and international organizations. Still bearing in mind the Suez crisis and facing threats to a continuous flow of oil throughout the 1960s, the countries organized in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tried to coordinate their oil and energy policies in order to achieve security against interruptions of supply. In May 1960 the Council of the OECD recommended that its member countries should “prepare, in advance, plans that will enable them to introduce prompt and effective reductions in consumption of petroleum products if an oil supply emergency should occur”.18 In order to review the degree to which these plans had been developed and implemented, the OECD Special Committee for Oil sent detailed questionnaires to the governments and in turn distributed the results of these surveys to all member countries in 1963, 1966, 1970, and 1972.19 In the member countries these questionnaires raised attention to oil and energy issues and induced national activities in these fields. The efforts mainly aimed at politically motivated short term supply interruptions and were intended to guarantee the ability of the states to sustain their vital functions and military capabilities. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s the relevant ministries in most Western industrialized countries started to develop plans to restructure their energy sectors in order to secure the continuous availability of sufficient energy sources at low prices, which indicates a diversion from the close connection between energy and military security. 16 17 18 19 Vansant 1971, 7, 47-74. Vansant 1971, 83. OECD. Council: Recommendation of the Council Concerning the Apportionment of Oil Supplies in an Emergency, 5.5.1960, National Archives of the United Kingdom (NA UK), POWE 63/642. OECD. Oil Committee Reports, NA UK, POWE 63/642. 334 In this process the concept of energy security was broadened in exactly those dimensions that Rothschild and Daase observed for the overall development of the concept of security: Energy and especially oil supply security was not only related to military ability and strength but also to economic development as a whole and, thus, the issue area of energy security was widened. It was fundamental for economic, but also for political stability, as the legitimacy of Western democracies depended on delivering a high standard of living and sufficient consumer goods. Accordingly, energy security concerned not only the well-being of the state but also of individual human beings in the industrialized countries, i.e. the reference group was significantly extended. As the oil economy was a global system and Western industrialized countries became increasingly dependent on oil imports from the Middle East, threats to energy security ceased to be domestic and regional – they became increasingly globalized and therefore the geographical scope of energy security widened. Among the central and most disturbing experiences of the oil crises in the Western world in the 1970s was the perception that the decisions and actions of rulers in remote regions of the world who seemed to be irrational and hard to control had an almost immediate effect on the everyday life of the people in Western Europe, Japan, and the USA. Moreover, categorization of dangers moved from direct threats to discussions of vulnerability and risk. Finally, for various reasons states had only limited capacities to influence the flow of oil and to secure their own supplies. Thus, several looked for internationally coordinated strategies, for example within NATO, the European Community or the OECD, in order to achieve energy security. Accordingly, the number of possible providers of energy security increased as well. This tendency towards the widening of the concept of energy security and the loosening of its connection with military and national security became apparent in the workings of the United States National Security Council in the early 1970s. In order to assess the consequences of the changes in the global economy of oil for the national security of the United States, the Security Council issued two National Security Study Memoranda (NSSM) that influenced US strategy and decision-making in the field of energy throughout the so-called first oil crisis: NSSM 114 on the “World Oil Situation” was produced in 1971 and NSSM 174 on “National Security and US Energy Policy” was composed in the spring and summer of 1973.20 NSSM 114’s aim was to answer the question of how the changing world oil situation – that is the increasing prices due to OPEC and the producing countries’ demands of sovereignty over their mineral resources – affected “US security, political, and economic inter- 20 National Archives and Record Administration, Nixon Library (NARA), NSC Institutional Files (“H-Files”), Box H-180 and Box H-197. 335 ests”.21 It distinguished between two different positions: On the one hand, experts judged that the growing dependence on oil from the Middle East posed a severe security risk for the USA and NATO. While the oil import control and domestic resources put the USA in a comparatively good position, NATO partners only had petroleum inventories for about three months which would be used up much faster in the case of East-West tensions. This might cause serious problems, but the Department of Defense did not believe that “US military operations in Southeast Asis [sic] would be seriously endangered by an oil crisis – in the event of a Libyan or Persian Gulf shutdown.” On the other hand, experts thought that even these fears were exaggerated because politically motivated interruptions of supply were very unlikely, as the producing countries were primarily concerned about prices and most of them could not afford supply interruptions.22 Two years later, NSSM 174 was commissioned by Henry A. Kissinger as a “study of the national security implications of world energy supply and distribution” in order to “define and discuss the national security aspects of the prospected situation and propose alternative policies”. Compared to NSSM 114 it expressed a greater sense of urgency concerning the security of oil supplies while at the same time diminishing the military aspect of the problem. Projecting energy supply and demand up to 1985, it judged that the USA would “become increasingly vulnerable” to oil supply disruptions that might be caused by three factors: a non-nuclear war, a war in the Middle East or a politically motivated embargo. In all cases military security was the smallest problem. Experts argued that the Department of Defense’s “needs for oil would be greatest in a general non-nuclear war involving NATO. However, these needs would be only about 10 percent of US domestic production and could be met, on a priority basis, solely from our domestic production.” Rather, they suggested that the “major effect of a supply cut-off on our military capabilities would likely be indirect: the adverse effect on our economy as a whole and the pressure which cutoffs would create for diversion of military oil supplies to civilian use.”23 Because of the different degrees of dependence on oil from the Middle East, the oil question might also cause frictions within the Western alliance and thus weaken its security structure. All in all, NSSM 174 concluded that “the energy question does not stand in isolation from our major monetary, trade, environmental and national security issues facing this country. It is intrinsically related to these issues.”24 21 22 23 24 NSSM 114: World Oil Situation, January 24, 1971, NARA, NSC Institutional Files (“HFiles”), Box H-180, 17. bid., 41. NSSM 174: National Security und U.S. Energy Policy, August 1974, NARA, NSC Institutional Files (“H-Files”), Box H-197, 17. Ibid., 57. 336 In October 1973 the Organization of Arab Petrol Exporting Countries announced overall oil production cuts and a full embargo against the United States and the Netherlands in order to pressure Western governments to assume a pro-Arab stance in the conflict with Israel, which had again become violent in the Yom Kippur War. Supported by oil price increases unilaterally implemented by OPEC as a whole, the so-called first oil crisis confirmed expectations of the possibility of an intentional supply interruption. However, even in the European countries and Japan, which were much more dependent on oil from North Africa and the Middle East, the oil crisis had consequences not for military but for economic, social and, thus, political security. Already in preparation for oil supply emergencies, the British Central Policy Review Staff and an interdepartmental group of officials headed by the Department of Trade and Industry developed strategies to secure energy supplies not because of the expected military but because of the general economic effects of an oil shortage.25 When the oil crisis coincided with a miners’ strike at the end of 1973, the conservative Heath government introduced a state of emergency and announced a three-day working week. Even the gloomy Joint Intelligence Committee Report of December 5, however, did not see Britain’s or NATO’s military capabilities endangered. Yet it argued that a prolonged embargo might lead to international tensions, military conflict and even superpower confrontation. Thus, it suggested that an oil shortage might have severe consequences for Britain’s national security, but also for the (as we might say human) security of people around the globe.26 As in Great Britain, neither the state planning commission in France nor the Expert Council on the Assessment of Economic Development (Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung) in Germany saw the oil embargo and the oil price hikes as threats to national security and military capabilities.27 However, they diagnosed significant consequences for economic and social development and suggested alternative energy strategies. The only constellation in which the oil crisis seemed to endanger military capabilities occurred at the beginning of November 1973 when the Saudi Arabian government imposed a secondary embargo on those countries from which the American fleet, which was distributed around the globe, obtained its oil.28 Noting that the oil embargo’s effect on the United States was not severe enough, the Saudi Arabian government had requested that Aramco obtain the 25 26 27 28 Central Policy Review Staff: An Energy Policy for Great Britain. Summary and Recommendations for 1973 and 1974, 2.5.1973, NA UK, PREM 15/1847; Interdepartmental Group of Officials: Report on Oil Policy, January 1973, NA UK, POWE 63/848. Report by the Joint Intelligence Committee (A), JIC (A) (73) 34 CAB 186/15, 5.12.1973. Centre des archives contemporaines, Service du Premier Ministre, Commissariat General du Plan, 19890617, Art. 99-101; Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung 1973. US Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations 1974. 337 relevant data for a secondary embargo from its mother companies in the US: Exxon, Texaco, Mobil and Standard Oil. Despite the fact the American fleet was on strategic alert because of the seemingly impending superpower confrontation in the Middle East in the course of the Yom Kippur War, executives of the multinational corporations complied without hesitation to Aramco’s demands and supplied Saudi Arabia with the data. In the ensuing hearings in front of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, the Democratic Senator Henry A. Jackson asked: Didn’t anyone say ‘Look, boys, we are in the midst of a strategic alert. Shouldn’t the Secretary of Defense, the highest people in the government, be advised of the October 31 wire and what do we do about it?’ Wouldn’t that be the thing an ordinary stiff would understand?29 As it appears, none of the executives had had this idea; instead they called the Pentagon only shortly before the end of the deadline set by the Saudi Arabian government in order to make sure that they could not be sued for giving out the data. Even this incident, however, did not cause a serious impediment to US military security. However, the oil embargo and the oil price hikes as a whole changed the perception of energy security. Even though energy security had been an important concern of OECD governments throughout the 1960s, in most countries it was only the energy crisis of the early 1970s that established it as central field of political activity. The awareness of energy as a basis of economic and political life rose as experts constantly talked about it in the media and the highest government officials received weekly, and at times even daily, reports on the energy supply situation in their countries. Experiencing or rather expecting a lack of oil supplies, governments restructured and centralized energy competences and some sought international cooperation in the field of energy, which led to the Washington Energy Conference in 1974 and to the establishment of the International Energy Agency. However, energy security did not become a central concern because oil was needed for military purposes, but because it was closely connected to economic development and the wellbeing of the people. Contemporary fears concerning the possible consequences of supply disruptions for the economy and the people in Western industrialized countries were magnified as the oil crisis coincided with general worries about the exhaustibility of mineral resources. Criticizing American-style consumerism and arguing that the German economic growth rates in the 1960s had depended on the unlimited availability of cheap oil, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, for example, declared that the oil crisis heralded the coming end of “affluent societies” and of the age of abundance in the West and painted the future in dark colors.30 29 30 US Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations 1974, 900. “Mit knappen Vorräten sorglos geaast,” Der Spiegel, November 19, 1973. 338 Reading drastic depictions like these, the discourse on energy security in the 1970s appears almost as a discourse on human security avant la lettre. Of course, in the industrialized countries energy supply interruptions did not pose such severe limitations to people’s vital freedoms as wars or ecological disasters, which are commonly associated with the concept of human security. Yet, “security” and especially its emotional components are relative to the achieved living standard and, therefore, threats to embargo Europe and to wreck its economies could engender significant fears concerning the security of the people in Western industrialized societies.31 Moreover, less-developed countries were hit much harder than industrialized countries that could afford higher prices more easily, and the plight of the people in these countries for whom a lack of oil could indeed affect very basic freedoms was discussed intensively as consuming countries used them as an argument against OPEC.32 Finally, as the above-mentioned British Joint Intelligence Report argued, the structure of energy regimes had severe implications for the security of the international system. Particularly advocates of alternative energy paths, such as Amory Lovins, suggested that the current, highly centralized energy systems that relied heavily on fossil fuels would foster undemocratic political structures and destabilize the international order, thus affecting conditions we deem essential for human security worldwide.33 3. The Energy Crises of the 1970s and the Changing Perceptions of Security As I have shown so far, due to increasing oil consumption, the notion of energy security changed over the course of the postwar decades and especially in the 1970s. While it had been closely connected with conceptions of military capability and national security, it gradually widened and encompassed economic, social, and political security. In certain respects the discussions on energy security even resembled later debates on human security. Thus, I will now continue to scrutinize whether the widespread discussions on energy in the 1970s, and especially the broadened notion of energy security, influenced the widening of the overall discourse on security: Did energy security contribute to the conceptual change from state and military to human security? 31 32 33 See for example Muammar al-Gaddafi’s interview in Le Monde, October 23, 1973, quoted in: Middle East Economic Survey 17 (October 26, 1973), 11: “We’ve made all the preparations – and so have the other Arabs – to deprive Europe completely of oil. We shall ruin your industries as well as your trade with the Arab world.” Jungblut 1973. See also NA UK, FCO 15/1866, Effects of Energy Crisis in South East Asia. Lovins 1976. 339 Most authors consider the emergence of “human security” and the widening of the security concept as a product of the post-Cold War era when the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union lost its dominant position, but its beginnings can be located earlier. While Emma Rothschild traces ideas of human security back to the Enlightenment, she depicts the 1970s as a formative period for contemporary conceptions of human security.34 In the same vein, Christopher Daase argues that the awareness of threats to national security other than military attacks rose in response to the economic crises in the 1970s and that, therefore, the contents of the concept of national security widened.35 Indeed, in the 1970s economic stability and growth became essential elements of national security concerns; in the opinion of the democratic Senator and later US Vice President Walter F. Mondale “the risk that the operation of the international economy may spin out of control” even overshadowed the dangers arising from nuclear armaments and superpower confrontation.36 For this change in the perception of threats as well as the feelings of insecurity, the Arab oil embargo and OPEC’s oil price increases of 1973/74 were crucial. As the American President Richard Nixon put it when addressing the Washington Energy Conference of non-communist oil-consuming countries in February 1974, for Western politicians it had become evident that “security and economic considerations are inevitably linked, and energy cannot be separated from either”.37 In a similar way, the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt argued in front of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London in 1977 that the economy was first among the “new dimensions of security”. Schmidt continued that if there was one single most important question for the economic security of the West, it was the energy question for which, in turn, oil was essential.38 This assessment was shared throughout the political spectrum. As the Christian Democrat Manfred Wörner had already declared at the Munich Security Conference in 1975, NATO was not autarchic any more in providing security to its member states. Following Karl Kaiser, Wörner held the view that, while NATO could span a nuclear umbrella to shelter its members, it could not offer an umbrella of raw materials.39 For both Schmidt and Wörner, the oil embargo of 1973 had been the event that sparked this insight and, therefore, Wörner even called it a “fundamental watershed” and the “key event of the Western world in the second half of the 20th century”.40 This appreciation was shared and to a large extent produced by political scientists and foreign policy experts, who wrote in the aftermath of the embargo 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Rothschild 2007, 3-4, 7-11. See Christopher Daase’s paper in this volume. Mondale 1974. Nixon 1974. Schmidt 1979, 627. Wörner 1979, 593. Wörner 1979, 590, 594. 340 and the oil price hikes and constructed them as a turning point in world history.41 Reviewing the contemporary literature on energy security and foreign policy for the newly founded journal International Security, Linda B. Miller argued that since 1973 the close connection between energy and security as well as the impossibility of guaranteeing national security by military means alone had been obvious to everybody.42 According to Miller, the oil crisis and its aftermath from 1973 to 1975 had already become a new paradigm case for the study of world politics. This paradigm suggested that state-centered views were insufficient because the complex interactions in the fields of energy and other resources involved a multitude of non-state actors.43 In the same vein, Joseph S. Nye discussed the prospects of collective security in 1974 and argued that it was insufficient to treat it as a military question but rather that one also had to integrate economic stability. As economic security was a matter of degree, Nye suggested that it could be severely endangered by resource supply disruptions and advocated international structures on a mutually beneficial basis for producing and consuming countries.44 In the discourse on oil/energy and national security after the first oil crisis, only a few authors still concentrated on the military aspects of the question, such as Bo Heinebaeck.45 Apart from the geopolitics of scarce resources and their importance for economic development, authors dealing with “energy” and “security” also discussed nuclear proliferation, military preparedness, the possibility and risk of a military confrontation at the Persian Gulf and the consequences of energy policies for conflict behavior.46 At the beginning of the 1980s, however, the economically widened notion of security, and the essential importance of energy and particularly oil in this context, had been firmly established as the majority view.47 Thus, Philip Odeen, who had been a staff member of the National Security Council during the preparation of NSSM 174, preached to the already converted when he argued that the essential connection between energy and national security had been neglected too long and that energy had to be put at the center of US national security concerns.48 This had become the official US strategy at least with the announcement of the Carter Doctrine, according to which the United 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Vernon 1976. Miller 1977, 111. By contrast, Joan Edelman Spero argued in 1973 that for twenty years energy self-sufficiency had been at the center of US national security concerns, which had already been guided by a wider notion of security (Spero 1973, 123). Miller 1977, 114. Nye 1974. Heinebaeck 1974. Deese 1979. Krapels 1977; Dafter 1979; Deese and Nye 1981; Nye 1982; Blair and Summerville 1983; Fesharaki 1983; Luttwak 1984. Odeen 1980. 341 States understood any attempt to change the power structure around the Persian Gulf as an attack on its vital national security interests.49 The Carter Doctrine points at another dimension in which energy and security became linked and which also contributed to an extension of the security concept: Energy and security were not only closely connected because supply interruptions endangered the economic, social, and political security of the people in the consuming countries, but also because the fear of supply interruptions might engender military conflicts or resource wars. As Richard H. Ullmann observed in 1983, “‘resource wars’ (as some call them) [had] figured prominently in the doomsday literature for more than a decade”.50 This understanding that the heavy reliance on fossil fuels and particularly oil posed a primary international security risk can still be found today in both scholarly treatises and the popular media.51 Another influence of oil and energy on the broadening of the security concept was exerted via the debates on international development and on the establishment of a fairer economic world order. Since the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s there had been intensive discussions among the developing countries to take OPEC and the oil embargo as an example and turn other natural resources into strategic assets in order to achieve more favorable terms of trade or even a New International Economic Order.52 These claims of permanent sovereignty over natural resources voiced by so-called Third World countries raised significant fears in the Western world53 and led to the establishment of various commissions and discussion groups in order to avoid confrontation, such as the Euro-Arab dialogue. These groups aimed at the establishment of more secure living conditions in both the developing and the developed countries. At the level of the UN or at least inspired by the UN, several commissions dealt with global security issues and constituted important precursors of the 1990s debates on “Human Security” within the United Nations Development Program: From 1977 to 1980 the “Independent Commission on International Development Issues” (the so-called Brandt Commission) produced the report North-South – A Programme for Survival; two years later the “Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security” (Palme Commission) published Common Security, and from 1984 to 1987 the “World Commission on Environment and Development” (Brundtland Commission) worked on the report Our Common Future.54 49 50 51 52 53 54 Horowitz 2005; Hakes 2008. Ullmann 1983, 140. Klare 2001; Rutledge 2005; Seifert and Werner 2005; Gelpke and McCormack 2007. Murphy 1984; Rahman 2002. Bergsten 1973. Hampson and Penny 2007. 342 Named after the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who had headed the commission, the Palme Report dealt mostly with questions of military security and – particularly nuclear – disarmament. Characteristically, it turned the already established connection between national and economic security around, suggesting that a common security structure between the East and the West would reduce the costs of military armaments and thus free financial capacities for achieving social and economic security.55 However, the Palme Report also advocated a wider notion of security, arguing that security could not be achieved by military means alone.56 Yet, on its priority list of how to reach the new “common security”, economic issues were only ranked at the sixth and last spot.57 By contrast, the Brandt Commission had set itself the broader task of “securing survival” and, accordingly, laid much greater emphasis on the importance of addressing economic and especially energy questions in order to overcome the contemporary worldwide dangers and security risks. The focus on energy as the crucial factor for the global security situation is not surprising if we look at the biographies of the members of the Brandt Commission, which first met in 1977. Several of them had held high government positions during the first oil crisis and had thus experienced how disruptive an imagined or real shortage of oil could be to both economic life and international relations: Willy Brandt himself had been Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Edward Heath the British Prime Minister, Haruki Mori the Japanese ambassador in London, Olof Palme the Swedish Prime Minister, Layachi Yaker the Algerian minister of trade and Jan P. Pronk the Dutch minister for developmental cooperation. On the basis of their first-hand experience of the oil crisis, they argued that the world economy was in severe danger because of the huge differences in wealth between the North and the South. If nothing changed and developments simply continued, they envisioned ecological disasters, hunger and poverty in the developing world, inflation and high deficits in the industrialized. Considering the exceptional position of oil in the international economy and its use by OPEC in order to voice Third World demands, they saw energy as the decisive issue that had to be addressed in an “Emergency Programme” in order to “secure survival”.58 While secure oil supply at a reasonable price concerned the standard of living in industrialized countries, it affected the basic life chances of people in the least developed countries. The “Emergency Programme” therefore recommended that oil-producing countries should pledge not to decrease or interrupt supplies, oil-consuming countries should reduce demand, oil prices should be fixed at a fair level, and the international commu55 56 57 58 Palme 1982, 9. Palme 1982, 20. Unabhängige Kommission für Internationale Entwicklungsfragen 1980, 158-192. Unabhängige Kommission für Internationale Entwicklungsfragen 1980, 201-215. 343 nity should invest in collaborative research and development of alternative energies.59 With its goals to secure survival and distribute life chances more equally or at least to secure basic necessities of human life for everybody on this planet, the Brandt Report already resembled later visions of human security which were formulated in the 1990s. The central trigger for the formulation of the report, however, was the changing energy scene of the 1970s and its consequences for both the security of living conditions in Western industrialized countries and the lives of people in least developed countries which might be threatened by lack of resources, future resource wars or even the ecological consequences of the burning of fossil fuels. Ecological problems and the threat they posed to worldwide survival but also to economic well-being and security were the main issues of the “World Commission on Environment and Development”, which was headed by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who had also been a member of the Brandt and the Palme Commissions. The report argued that the traditional concept of security which concerned political and military threats to national sovereignty had to be extended because of the increasing influence of environmental pollution on a local, national, regional and global level.60 In this respect, energy, understood not as a single product but as a combination of products and services, was essential: On energy, the report maintained, depended the well-being of the individual, the sustainable development of the nations, and the life-sustaining capacities of the world ecosystem.61 With the upheavals of the oil economy in mind, the report argued that oil was crucial in the field of energy. 4. Conclusion: Energy Security as Human Security? This article pursued the twofold goal of examining, on the one hand, the changes in the concept of energy security in the second half of the twentieth century and, on the other hand, the influence of these conceptual changes on the overall change to “security”. Following Emma Rothschild’s and Christopher Daase’s theses that the concept of security was significantly extended in the postwar world, that this extension accelerated in the 1970s, and engendered current conceptions of human security, I showed how the scope of “energy security” increased in a similar fashion. As oil became increasingly important for modern industrialized economies in the postwar world, more and more often discourses on “energy security” did not treat oil as a strategic resource necessary to fuel the war effort, but rather as the foundation of economic, so59 60 61 Unabhängige Kommission für Internationale Entwicklungsfragen 1980, 347-348. Hauff 1987, 22. Hauff 1987, 204. 344 cial, and political life in Western industrialized countries. Owing to its vital importance for a wide variety of economic processes, even short supply disruptions or minor price increases posed threats to economic development, to the social cohesion of consensual democracies, the stability of political institutions, and thus to national security. In drastic depictions of the consequences of a loss of oil supplies for the industrialized, but especially for the developing countries, as well as in the debates concerning the destabilizing effects that the world energy economy might have on the international system and the increasing risk of military confrontations, discourses on energy security anticipated later discourses on human security. This resemblance is not coincidental, as the flourishing debates on energy security in the 1970s directly influenced the extension of the concept of security in the postwar world from state-centered military to human security. The challenge of energy security during the oil crises of the 1970s opened the security debates up to the appreciation of new risks, their global nature, and thus also the relevance of international cooperation, the importance of non-state actors, and the acknowledgment of individual people whose livelihood was to be secured. The Brandt Report in particular focused on energy, as it aimed at securing survival on the planet by bringing about a fairer world order. Against the backdrop of the 1970s oil crises, high government officials, who had experienced the economic and political upheavals a lack of oil supplies or even rising oil prices could cause, judged that energy was the crucial issue that had to be addressed in order to achieve ecological, economic, social, and political stability. In its broadened conception of security the Brandt Report already resembled later UN reports on Human Security. From the point of view of the twenty-first century’s discussions on climate change and resource wars, its diagnoses and recommendations appear to be surprisingly up-to-date. However, it would be exaggerated to describe the Commission as prescient. Rather, the changes in the energy and particularly oil economy in the 1970s had cut through the traditional Cold War structure of threats and security, which was ultimately abolished in the years around 1990. The oil crises of the 1970s thereby created a situation in which several of the most fundamental political, economic, and cultural problems emerged which continue to occupy us today, so that they appear as an important watershed in the history of Western industrial nations. References Barnhart, Michael A. Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919-1941. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1987. Beaubouef, Bruce Andre. The strategic petroleum reserve: US energy security and oil politics, 1975-2005. 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New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. 348 Mixed Issue Cliometrics No. 134 HSR Vol. 35 (2010) 4 Environmental Challenge in the Canning Industry: The Portuguese Case in the Early Twentieth Century Maria Eugénia Mata Abstract: »Ökologische Herausforderung in der Konservenindustrie: Der Fall Portugal im frühen zwanzigsten Jahrhundert«. Fish-canning industries are closely-linked to, and have an impact on environmental conditions, bringing great challenges to optimality. While entrepreneurship perspectives focus on the survival and profitability of firms, social utility perspectives focus on collective welfare and long-term sustainability. This paper illustrates the theoretical puzzle of the fish-canning industry in examining the historical experience of Portuguese public policies from the point of view of industrial economics and collective welfare. Keywords: Portuguese canning, environmental challenges, fishing sustainability, regulation. Fisheries and the Ecosystem Equilibrium Fishing has been a well documented economic activity in Portugal since ancient times, as limited agricultural potential coupled with a long Atlantic sea coast offering ample fishing resources.1 Commercially valuable species have supported a labour-intensive fishing industry along this coast from Roman times until today.2 The historical record of fisheries in Portugal and their role in the exports of fish-preserves continue on through medieval and modern times.3 Fish stocks offering valuable commercial opportunities remained comfortably abundant for many centuries, but the depletion of resources following industrialisation brought strong incentives to study efficient levels of harvesting in fisheries and critical thresholds among valuable species. According to the tools of environmental economics, there is a stable relationship between the growth 1 2 3 Address all communications to: Maria Eugénia Mata, Associate Professor, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Economia, Campus de Campolide, 1099-032 Lisbon, Portugal; e-mail: [email protected]. I am grateful to John Huffstot for correcting my English, José António Pinheiro and Patrícia Xufre for analytical support, and Joseph Love for bibliography. Any error that remains is mine. Parreira, 1938. There are abundant historical vestiges at Tróia, an archeological site south of Lisbon. According to excavations, this was one of the most important fish-salting and preserving centers of the Western Mediterranean in the first century. On the virtues of fish in the human diet, see Jorge, 1938. Historical Social Research, Vol. 35 — 2010 — No. 4, 351-372 of fish populations, the size of the fish populations and the scale of fishing and canning activities.4 As fisheries and canning were labour-intensive sectors, seaports were nests of marine and industrial jobs that supported local commerce, exports, consumption, standards of life, and intensive urban growth phenomena. Major threats to fisheries were also major economic threats to local urban activities. At the same time, business prosperity and growth were perverse to ecosystem destruction, and were severe threats to marine-life. In Portugal, strong fluctuations occurred in the availability of alternative species for canning, the most important of which were sardines, tuna and mackerel. These species occupy niches in the food chain in such a way that an abundance of tuna means a scarcity of sardines and mackerel.5 If the stock of the prey species is more abundant, this implies a scarcity of the predator. Cycles for canning different species matched the needs of the canneries and provided a good answer to business and commerce opportunities, as well as to employment. Balancing the effects of booms were ecosystem difficulties arising from wastes, pollution, and sanitation problems. Depletion effects on the ecosystem also brought great difficulties for maintaining the scale of production. Conservation and protection of wildlife habitats became decisive features of production in vertical integration strategies of canning and fishing for long-term double-edge equilibrium. Canning Industry: Scale and Depletion Traditional preserving technologies were based on drying and salting, two methods to support exports and specialisation. The exceptional climatic conditions and the abundance of commercially valuable species for fishmeal activities explain why so many generations embraced this sector using traditional technologies. Sterilisation methods became widespread only in the second half of the nineteenth century, benefiting from the Appert method.6 Evidence on the introduction of sterilisation technology in Portugal is available for sardine canning since 1855, achieved by boiling the cans at high temperatures after soldering them closed.7 The world exhibition of Paris in 1855 presented showcased brands of sardines canned in olive-oil, from Portugal.8 Plants belonging to Feliciano António da Rocha and Manuel José Neto introduced the method for canning sardines in oil in the city of Setúbal. A third brand, belonging to Gustavo Carlos Herlitz & Company was operating in 1861.9 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tientenberg, 2007. Brandão, 1938. On the presence of germs and bacilli, see May (1938). On the safety of sterilisation methods, see Lepierre, 1938. Moura, et al, 1957, p. 57. Parreira, 1938. Mata, 2009. 352 As preserving technologies improved and the average revenue per capita grew, the consumption of canned fish increased throughout Europe, the main international market for Portuguese produce. The continued abundance of fishing resources off the Portuguese shores must mean that the reduction in the stock due to out-migration, mortality and fishing was compensated by increases resulting from in-migration and growth of the fish populations.10 Fishing is predation and is sustainable if and only if the catch harmonizes with the specie’s growth rate, that is, the maximum sustainable yield for a specie’s population is “the largest catch that can be perpetually sustained”.11 Some problems occurred because of certain species’ erratic migration routes in the Atlantic. In the 1880s sardines were scarce on the French and Italian coasts and some canning entrepreneurs moved to Portugal. An industrial inquiry in 1880 revealed that only twelve factories for food industries existed in Portugal at the time, and among them only five were devoted to canning fish. Four were on the Southern coast (Parodi & Roldan, S. Francisco, belonging to Francisco Rodrigues Tenório, Santa Maria, and Sebastião Migoni) and one on the western coast (Santos, Cirne & Cª).12 In the space of a decade the number of factories devoted to food industries increased to 52, and among the 45 which were devoted to canning fish, 11 belonged to foreigners who came to Portugal: Victor Tortrais, Emile Roullet, Wenceslau Chancerelle, F. Delany, Joseph Pierre Chancerelle & Cª, Sebastian Stephan, Jalma & Seguena, Frederico Delary, J. Labrouche, Domenico Migone, and Angelo Parodie.13 Delocalisation to Portugal brought new opportunities to foreign firms, more jobs in the Portuguese seaports, and dramatic competition to Portuguese producers.14 Canning became the dominant industry along the coast, outstripping the importance of salt production, but shoals could disappear from the coast for unknown reasons. Fishermen’s wages were not paid on a piecemeal basis, so demand and supply could adjust their revenues in the fish auction market, but poor catches always meant social problems.15 If shoals changed their movement along the coast, fishing had to adjust, but the species’ movements were difficult to predict, in spite of practical knowledge on the colour of the sea water to discover their location. To offset these difficulties, oceanographic studies were undertaken by the end of the nineteenth century.16 Scientific observation discovered the species’ main routes and habits. Frequently public 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Schaefer, 1957. Tietenberg, 2007, p. 219. Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, 1880. Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, 1890; Archive of the Portuguese Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, Sociedades Estrangeiras. Mata, 2009. Only in codfishing were wages paid on a piecemeal basis. Difficulties in locating shoals still exist today, in spite of the modern technologies employed. 353 authorities charged the cost of this research to public institutions. Portuguese Royal Navy vessels devoted efforts to marine biology and oceanographic research, particularly from 1896 to 1906, and provided valuable information for the potential future development of fishing and canning industries.17 As massive sums were invested in the fishmeal industry, the depletion of ocean resources continued: The massive extraction of sardines contributed to disappearance of tuna, as the 1st level of the food chain was destroyed.18 The danger of species extinction was already visible in the 1920s, as tuna moved away from the coast. International Competition, Cycles and Times of War Factories required hygiene, and required much washing for beheading and cleaning the fish. Wastewater from canning was a challenge, beaches became dangerous places to swim or play, and canning seaports became toxic dumpsites. The floor of the plants needed to be cleaned and washed frequently because of the residues and smell. Plants needed abundant water supply, sinks and systems for draining waste water, even though they might be nothing more than light constructions along the beaches. Waste water was typically drained into the sea. Scaling the fish was avoided in order to preserve their fresh appearance and minimize the residues. The fishmeal industries’ impact on the environment was a managerial challenge in increasing costs because of the blood-water and stick-water resulting from the production process, as these proved to be among the worst pollutants.19 The canning industry was soon driven by foreign firms located in Portuguese seaports. Of course, newcomers faced some entrance barriers resulting from the operation of the established producers. They had to struggle for market shares and learn about local conditions.20 Local producers could also react by adopting better technologies and marketing their brands to retain consumers’ loyalties and defend their market shares against the newcomers’ competition.21 However, the new entrants also had their own brands in their home markets or were established even in the global market of consumers.22 Technological improvements were introduced among the established firms through new investment, providing innovation and scale, and increasing barriers to new entrants.23 Moreover, business practices might also have reflected some deter17 18 19 20 21 22 23 D. Carlos, 1899. Sousa, 1938. Clarke, 2008: 67. Schmalensee, 1981. Ferguson, 1974. Cubin, 1981. Stigler, 1968. Dixit, 1980. 354 rence effects, both in exhausting raw material and in lowering prices of the final product, in order to squeeze out competition.24 Following a strategy for growth and internationalisation under high-quality standards, profits and reinvestment meant expansion into geographically diverse locations for factories.25 Some firms managed to achieve vertical-integration to reinforce their positions.26 Ramirez family and Júdice Fialho were successful entrepreneurs who followed this strategy from 1892 to 1934, and obtained positions among the eight largest producers in the 1950s.27 Fishing by steamship was an important technological improvement that helped the Ramirez plants benefit from scale economies, a feature that increased deterrence effects.28 Fialho’s factories were vertically integrated with their own fleet of fishing vessels, which were built and serviced in the firm’s own shipyard. Ramirez today boasts its status as ‘the oldest cannery in the world’, as it is now one of the few fifth-generation business families in Portugal).29 As it happened, deterrence effects against newcomers were blurred by foreign markets.30 The increased scale of production after the 1880s thanks to new units belonging to foreign competitors worried the established canners, although one must consider the competitiveness consequences on the locally established producers, who could raise entry barriers to the newcomer.31 The number of factories in Portugal increased during the war from 116 in 1912 to 188 in 1917.32 Increased consumption resulting from the military demand during the First World War brought new opportunities for all producers. Food scarcity on the battlefields and in civilian markets increased the international demand, and most of the cannery entrants were European firms.33 Increased production coupled with technological innovations linked to the use of steampower to boil and sterilize the cans increased social welfare in the European and Latin American countries, due to higher overall demand. However, for such a large number of plants and scale of production, the urban equipment could not assure hygiene. 24 Caves & Porter, 1977. Soares (2005), p. 40. On the brand Cocagne see pp. 42 and 45. 26 Spence, 1977. 27 The other six large producers were Algarve Exportador &Cº, Ângelo Parodi Bartolomeo, Lopes da Cruz &Cº, Conservas Unitas, João Gargalo Herdeiros, and Francisco Alves & Filhos. Moura et al, 1957, p. 74. Fialho’s traditional brands were Marie Elisabeth, Falstaff and Désirées. Faria, 2001, p. 44-45. 28 Soares, 2005: 34, 35. Spence, 1980. 29 Soares (2005), p. 27. 30 Stigler, 1968; Schmalensee, 1978. 31 Demsetz,1982. 32 And employed 14,679 people. Moura; Dubraz; Dores; Gonçalves; Chaves; Oliveira (1957), pp. 57-58. The estimation at Soares (2005), pp. 42, 45 is too optimistic. 33 Dowell, 2006. 25 355 Hygiene and Health Problems. Environmental Effects Running plants produced large quantities of harmful residual wastes that were tragic to ecosystems, both on land (near the urban core or residential shore zones in canning seaports) and in the sea, where fetid emissions were emptied directly into the bays. Although sanitation was a fashionable issue, there was a lack of piping for carrying sewage into septic tanks. In Portugal, fishmeal plants existed alongside the living quarters in the cities, and plants accumulated deposits of wastes on neighbouring lots.34 As the cans were made of tin-plate, the terrain around the fish-canning factories littered with very dangerous sharpedged metal waste. Such pollution coupled with the destruction of the ecosystem to threaten the sustainability of the fish-canning industry.35 Overfishing was also a problem. Discarding fish on the beach to rot or throwing them back into the sea also aggravated environmental problems and provoked poor public relations. Economic booms sometimes translate into ecological setbacks or even the extinction of some species.36 Not only were some species being seriously overfished, but pollution from fish cleaning and canning increased the amount of pressure that was being put on the catch because industrial residues made it ever more difficult to harvest the decreasing stock of fish, as species moved away from the increasingly polluted coastal waters. Moreover, there was the need to avoid contaminating the potable water supply.37 For reasons that are perfectly clear, the fish-canning industries were very concentrated. As fresh fish were quickly perishable, proximity to beaches, seaports and auction markets for fisheries was critical for the provision of fresh raw-material, and avoiding transportation costs, (and refrigeration systems, later on). Concentration was (and still is) the rule for canning industries. The same occurs all over the world, and the higher is the concentration, the more impressive is the environmental challenge, with strong effects on health problems.38 The estimation of concentration coefficients for the location of canneries in Portugal reveals that they are similar to those in the UK and US (0.68 in 1940 and 0.63 in 1950, in Portugal, against 0.66 in Great Britain and 0.70 in the USA).39 However, for the districts of Setúbal on the western coast and Faro on the southern coast the coefficient attained very high levels (4.2 and 12.6, re34 35 36 37 38 39 Brandão, 1923. Archive of the Portuguese Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, Sociedades Estrangeiras, Emile Louis Roullet. Stavins, 2007. Perman, R.; Ma, Yue; McGilvray, J., Natural Resources & Environmental Economics, New York, Longman, 1996. Lemos, 1991. Clarke, 2008. Moura et al, 1957, p. 61. 356 spectively, in 1954).40 The higher the concentration, the greater was the proliferation of dirt and noxious odours. Billowing factory smokestacks characterized the typical canning city of the nineteenth-century, and the unpleasant atmosphere represented a deterioration of living conditions, which also were unhealthy because of epidemics. Cholera and typhus killed 9,000 in Lisbon in the winter of 1855-56 and re-appeared in 1865. By the end of the century, smallpox was endemic in densely populated quarters, killing over 200 people annually in Oporto, and bubonic plague hit this city in 1899.41 Jobs attracted labour from agricultural regions to canning seaports, exacerbating the demographic explosion. Contagious diseases were responsible for 44.2% of the deaths in the country, and tuberculosis was especially common among industrial workers.42 The 1919 influenza epidemic alone killed 100,000 people in Portugal. In spite of citizens’ complaints, the medical authority for factory inspections was not enough to control unhealthy industries. Local metropolitan authorities were overwhelmed, as resources were insufficient to meet public expenditures. Central state controls might have been effective, but petitions failed to bring intervention. As a consequence, intense pollution arising from the canning industry dominated the cities’ skylines. The number of factories increased from 188 to 400 from 1917 to 1925, but this depleted fishing resources. Government regulation sought to ensure that fisheries supporting the canning industry would become ecologically sustainable in perpetuity. Public Regulation Maximizing the net benefits from the use of the biological resources is a good definition for economic efficiency allocation, considering the associated costs and benefits. From a static perspective, an efficient sustainable yield is a catch level that will produce the highest annual net profit, if maintained perpetually.43 Such a static-efficient sustainable yield allocation to canning has constant net benefits for constant catches, species’ populations, and effort levels. If fishing effort increases, a maximum sustainable yield will be attained for identical levels of net benefits, catches, and species’ populations.44 In a longrun perspective, fishing is motivated to increase until profit becomes zero. To maximize profit, a fisherman increased his fishing effort until marginal cost equalled price. As ocean fisheries were common-property with open-access, entry barriers did not exist, deterrence effects could not take place, leading to 40 41 42 43 44 Moura, 1957, p. 62. Ferreira, 1990. Cascão, 1993. Tisdell, 1994: 240-242. Tientenberg, 2007: 217-240. 357 increased effort levels (Figure 1 presents thousand gross-registered tons of fishing boats). Figure 1 1944 1940 1936 1932 1928 1924 1920 1916 1912 1908 1904 1900 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1896 th.grossTons BOATS th.grossRegTons year Source: Valério, 2001, pp. 241, 242; 246, 247, quoting Estatística das Pescas Marítimas from 1896 to 1945. Thanks to the technological improvements before the First World War, the marginal cost of fishing declined. The new equilibrium corresponding to the higher effort level must have been associated with increased catches, lower species’ populations and higher net benefits. Too much fishing effort with too many boats and too many fisheries was leading to overexploitation of resources and decreasing fish stocks damaging the future level of activity and profits of coming generations. Many things may be done to avoid unrestricted access to valuable species. The rationale for government intervention rests on the adverse economic consequences of depletion and overexploitation, as this implies lower income for fishermen, depression, and social crisis.45 The link between the economic and biological aspects is illustrated in the following equations: where Ca, t is the amount of canned fish of age α at the year t , and Fa, t the fish catches of age α at the year t . Note that 45 Morais, 1938. 358 dC 0 dF , because stocks are abundant in the beginning, and because fresh-fish consumption is subject to satiety. d 2C 0 dF 2 , because the system is pressed by new-entrants, (as entrance barriers were not efficient to prevent newcomers to canning), and because of the large international demand for canned fish, which war periods increase still more. where Pt + 1 means the effect of pollution effluents, and Ct is the amount of canned fish of any age at the year t . Note that dP 0 dC , because canning produces effluents that are highly toxic for fish species. d 2P 0 dC 2 , because investing in hygiene and recycling were managerial abilities to help in decreasing the pollutant effects on the sea. where Et + 1 means the effects on the effort level, and Pt means the effect of pollution effluents from year t . Note that dE 0 dP , because increasing pollution requires increasing effort levels to compensate the negative effects on the survival of fish species. d 2E 0 dP 2 , because efforts must be very increased in introducing not only more (and larger) boats, but also more efficient technology (such as steamships and oceanographic studies). for a given fish stock St. Where Fa, t the fish catches of age α at the year t and Et means the effort level in year t. Note that dF 0 dE , because more and (or) larger boats combined with more efficient technology can increase the fish catch. d 2F 0 dE 2 , because there are always technological constraints to consider (as no-freezing possibilities for harvesting too far away, at the time). As a result, the four equations close a model. It represents a cobweb. Depending on the shape of the equations, the adjustments to face the challenges 359 expressed in each one of the four equations may lead the system to increasing or decreasing levels of fishing and canning. The case of increasing levels of fishing and canning, that Figure 2 represents, require that the birth rate of the species may benefit from highly efficient reactions to avoid pollution, and also accommodate the highly efficient effort levels, so that the stock may provide higher catches. Note that where St+1 means the fish stock at the year t+1, St means the fish stock at the year t, Bt means fish births in year t, Ft fish catches in year t, and Dt fish deaths in year t. Figure 2 C P F E The case of decreasing levels of fishing and canning, that Figure 3 represents, will occur whenever highly efficient reactions to avoid pollution are not enough for reaching the birth rates that can accommodate the predation that results from the higher effort levels. (Decreasing levels of fishing and canning, that Figure 3 represents, also will occur if less efficient reactions to avoid pollution and less efficient effort levels are adopted). 360 Figure 3 C F P Unless regulation will be adopted, the consequences will translate into business failures, unemployment, setbacks of economic activities, and social problems in the urban life of seaport cities. Sardine scarcity afflicted the Portuguese canneries during the 1920s (1927, 1929 and 1933 were the most severely affected), after the rapid expansion it experienced throughout the First World War and thereafter.46 This difficulty brought high opportunity costs for jobs in a context of military demobilisation and political uncertainty, as well as for the exports and trade balance, as the Portuguese currency depreciated sharply from the end of the War until 1924. The temptation to not interfere and not regulate sanitary conditions resulted from the favourable effects of the sector on exports and the trade balance. The government’s prospect of earning high tax revenues from the industry may have had the same effect.47 However, fish scarcity and falling production gave the policymakers their opportunity to choose. The crisis in the fish-canning industry led to heated debate in the Portuguese political circles. In 1927 a Congress on fisheries and canning was held, which led to the prohibition of founding new factories.48 Soon the Great Depression of 1929-33 provoked even graver difficulties, and the number of fishing workers declined, as Figure 4 illustrates. 46 47 48 Valério, 2001:317-318. Coutinho, 1938. Decree 15581 of 15 June 1928. 361 Figure 4 Th.Fishing Workers Thousand fishing workers 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 18 96 18 99 19 02 19 05 19 08 19 11 19 14 19 17 19 20 19 23 19 26 19 29 19 32 19 35 19 38 19 41 19 44 19 47 0 Year Source: Valério, 2001, pp. 241, 242; 246, 247, quoting Estatística das Pescas Marítimas from 1896 to 1945. Although prices declined, exports fell by 38% from 1930 to 1933.49 Note that reactions for adjustments that would invert the trend could not work properly because disruption of international trade meant not only market lacunae, but also lack of raw-material for production, such as olive oil, which was another problem. The disruption of international trade had dramatic consequences for the fishmeal industry, raising the hope of increased consumption of canned fish, domestically and in the colonies, as Colonial territories only absorbed 1 to 2% of the Portuguese canning production, a luxurious consumption for the low local per capita average revenue.50 To distinguish between private and social costs, a definition of property rights must be introduced to share the existing scarcer rent, because each new fishery and canning activity should enter until cancelling the rent. The government aims were to maximize production and exports in a sustainable way, to create jobs, and implement economic growth. The solution settled on, was to reorganize the whole sector in 1933 under the government philosophy of Corporatism, after António de Oliveira Salazar, the Prime Minister, visited several factories and published a report on canning (when he was the Minister of Finance).51 The state wished to enact and enforce a reorganisation for canneries under a bureaucratic structure. This is an inherently political issue that the Republican regime (1910-1926) could not manage, not 49 50 51 R., J. M. V. 1996. Moura, et al, 1957, pp. 57-58, 83. Published in Diário de Notícias, 8 December 1931. Rodrigues, 1996:196. Salazar, 1935. For Corporatism and codfish, see Garrido, 2003. 362 only because of its short longevity, but also because of the overall political instability resulting from the short duration of governments. Beginning in 1931, and according to decree nº 20521, the idea was to extend the beneficial effects of the government intervention to a larger field of industrial activity (…) being necessary to protect the national industry from the competition that the foreign industry is doing or might do, through skilful manoeuvres. Such protection was beneficial for the largest producers, but many companies went bankrupt or were bought by larger firms. The general framework introduced institutional constraints that affected new-entrants. Industry was subject to government control, as all new units needed authorisation from the Minister of Commerce and Industry (with the exception of the Atlantic Islands, where fishing resources were abundant and the number of point-source pollutants was small). Existing firms also needed authorisation if they wished to increase their production.52 The decree nº 24947 of 10 January 1935 protected the existing operators and forbade the creation or transformation of existing firms into joint-stock companies, unless other companies exited. This obligation might be considered as a constraint on free enterprise, free market competition and free location. Moreover, the preservation of free access to commercial biological resources would mean initial higher catches at the expense of a lower steady-state profit level. Small units (having fewer than 5 workers) were not subject to government control and were free to innovate, grow and move, but canneries were labourintensive factories employing dozens of workers. Government intervention in policing ports, inspecting factories, or enforcing maximum permissible catch levels, always meant higher costs. The surveillance of these activities was attributed to the association of fishermen and canning producers (Grémios) in order to avoid ruinous competition, stimulate cooperation in grouping them to produce some brands together, and regulate maximum and minimum prices (for both fishmeal and canned fish) to avoid predatory practices.53 The cooperation received from the police and the customs clerks was a decisive element.54 As a result, the number of plants decreased from 203 in 1933 to 179 in 1954. By then, 6% of the firms (the largest) accounted for 28% of the production. The Gini coefficient showed a 20% concentration, as the survivors were the major producers – the only ones who could respond to the need of research for technological improvement and quality control, taking advantage of scale economies and government protection. 52 53 54 Decree 21623 of 27 August 1932. Decree nº 40787, Diário do Governo. Salazar, 1953. Decree nº 24947, (10 January 1935), Articles 78 and 86. 363 Alternative Regulations Today it is common that a politicisation of the aquatic ecosystems addresses the regulation of coastal waters to avoid or limit the access of foreign fishing vessels to national waters, demanding public expenditure for naval surveillance and intervention. In Portugal, the adoption of Corporatism solutions sought to respond to several problems resulting from simple quota-systems for fishing or canning. Alternative systems could include a control mechanism based on raising taxes, or one based on individual quotas.55 Taxation might be seen as an approach to protect ecosystems, but it is inefficient, because of the perverse incentives to fish and work for more hours, to operate with more boats or enlarged plants or to adopt better equipment to increase fisheries and canning. If producers dislike taxation control-systems, they also eschew individual auctioned quotas. Producers who fail to reach their quota limits will sell them to others, who, having lower costs, soon discover that they may increase profits by enlarging their scale of production. It may be true that such a regulation system can improve technology, because those producers feel encouraged to adopt or introduce new cost-reducing equipment.56 In any event, producers will always trade (transferable) quotas until market equilibrium is reached, and all obtainable rent is realized by that generation of producers, unless the government decides to auction the quotas and appropriate the whole rent for the central state. Systems for controlling these practices are expensive and may encourage evasion and/or bribery. Bribes, corruption of deputies (or congressmen), and lobbying may have the same effect of defending the interest of producers, with externalities for the smaller ones. Moreover, the aim of government should be to help industry to reach and sustain an efficient level of catch and allocation to canning to sustain a perpetual industrial activity. The system adopted in Portugal in the 1930s did not solve all of the problems. Canning was a seasonal activity and this fact had consequences on the labour force, which was idle for much the year. Sardines, for example, have a better quality for canning during the five months around November. In 1935 the government forbade canning sardine from 1 January to 30 April in canneries located in the North of the country, 16 January to 15 May in canneries located in the centre, and 1 February to 30 May in canneries located in the south.57 This policy defines seasonal bans on fishing and processing, Vedas, as well as off-loading fish on weekends. The largest producers could take advantage of the down-time for repairing ships and nets, or improving production techniques, to make fishmeal an extremely profitable venture. 55 56 57 Tientenberg, 2007: 230. Stigler, 1968. Decree nº 24947 (10 January 1935) , article 78. 364 To protect the species’ reproduction, regulation was enacted defining the minimum length of fish for canning (sardines no smaller than 12cm, for example, a two-year old fish). This control was already in place in the 1880s and continued throughout the twentieth century.58 Government management of wharves and docks provided an opportunity for more surveillance over sanitary conditions of fish for canning, without onerous bureaucracy. Port captaincy licences to fish was also an alternative way to regulate the sector. However, there are many negative effects in such a system. As fishermen were paid according to the quantity of fish off-loaded, no wages were paid if they remained on land and no money was available for shops and markets in the communities.59 The policy of seasonal bans on canning mainly affected women, who were the dominant gender in this work, as they were more devoted to cooking activities, docile, and less well-paid.60 Women made up more than 80% of the labour force in canneries in the 1950s and 99% of the seasonally recruited labour force. Women were competing with men even to solder the cans, thanks to the introduction of new technology for this purpose. In Portugal, as in the USA, the loss of men’s jobs to machines and women brought success to unions and gender conflicts in the industrial labour-market, from the early twentieth century to the Second World War.61 Some factories also canned other foods, namely vegetables and meat in olive oil, or fruits in sugar, as profitability criteria were dominating survival and business rationale. These policies stimulated managerial solutions to overcome the inconvenience of closed seasons. Following a diversified-product strategy, Fialho’s factories coupled fish canning with agricultural production and animal husbandry, and the subsequent canning of the vegetables and fruits, all “produced on his 16 farms, using cans that were made in his own locksmith workshop, and decorated in his own lithography shop to be packed in wooden crates from his own carpentry workshop”.62 Public Policies versus Managerial Initiatives The Consórcio Português de Conservas de Peixe, (re-named União dos Industriais e Exportadores de Conservas de Peixe, by the Decree 24947) was the institution comprising all producers and exporters, watching over and improv58 59 60 61 62 Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comércio e Indústria, Direcção Geral do Commercio e Industria, Repartição do Trabalho Industrial (nº2), (Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1905), p. 94. Morais, 1938. Moura et al, 1957 p. 66 mentions that the average female wage was about one half of the male average wages in the 1950s: 14$25 and 26$00, respectively. R. 1996: 196. For the USA, May, 1938. Mata, 2009: 52. (Faria, 2001, cap. III). This firm survived until 1988, when it was bought by the American Heinz. 365 ing production to ensure quality, establish minimum prices for domestic sales and exports, avoid predatory managerial policies, and decide on producers’ shares in the market. It also introduced strict rules on hygiene, preserving the environment, decreasing operation costs, and contributing to rationality and collective welfare. Other very important missions for The Union were the efforts in marketing, branding, protection against unfair competition, defining rules for labour-force protection, and the regular apportioning of raw-material to the sector.63 The enforcement was assured through a regime of severe penalties that included fines, temporary suspension of activity, or even forced closure.64 The Portuguese seaports with canneries developed an exporter bourgeoisie from middle-class origins that became a genuine local oligarchy. Literature addressing historical cases in other countries observes that local oligarchies were living in elegant quarters of nearby regional capital cities, doing little effort to improve local conditions in the cannery seaports.65 Contrary to these situations, in Portugal most of the nineteenth-century canning families lived in the coastal cities where their factories were located.66 Canners made some efforts to improve the ecological impact of the fishmeal plants or improve social infrastructures. If not, the Portuguese cannery communities would have been slums, unacceptable to the wealthy families owing the firms.67 Fishwashing water was recycled to produce oils, although they had limited use (because of odours acquired), but were used as lubricants for ships’ masts, animal harnesses, in the soap industry.68 The fish waste was also recycled in the production of fertilizers.69 However, collection and storage were in the open air, not always far from residential areas. Ca(OH)2 was added to accelerate the decomposition into humus, so that it could be used to fertilize soils. The Portuguese seaport of Setúbal, for example, had large stores of this kind of fertilizer, and even Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, had one.70 Government regulation also stipulated that fish wastes should be removed daily from the factories in the Portuguese seaports, in order to improve the urban centres’ sanitation.71 The tin-waste, mentioned above, was also re-cycled. Using a pitchfork, the small pieces were collected in a cubic wooden box and beaten down with a 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 On the advantages of firms’ coordination in clusters, see Chandler et al, 1998: 325. Chapter X (articles 95-99) of the Decree 24947. Clarke, 2008. The Spanish-origin Ramirez & Cº Ltd always lived near the family plant, The Cumbrera & Cº,from 1853 on, Soares (2005), pp. 28, 30, 32. Reis, 1988. Ferreira (1906), p. 181. Ferreira (1906), pp. 179, 180 for evidence on the period before 1914. Moura et al, 1957, p. 64 for twentieth-century evidence. Fertilizer was sold at a price of about £3.1/ton ($15/ton or 14 milreis/ton) at the Pereira Lima fertilizers. Article nº 82 of Decree 24947 (10 January 1935). 366 mace. Two men were enough in the port city of Setúbal, the largest canning centre in Portugal until 1936, to do this.72 Removing the sides of the box revealed a cubic foot of compressed tin-plate pieces to be melted down and exported to produce toys.73 The polluter-pays-principle was at work.74 To appraise the effects of government regulation of the 1930s, many features related to explicit and control costs must be weighed.75 Portuguese historians long discussed the public regulation policies. As the 1920s were a very unstable period, the1930s’ abundant legislation, which imposed severe government regulation, must be studied and interpreted according to the tools of industrial and environmental economics.76 Most of the industrial sectors were included in the entrance-deterrence law that sought to limit excessive competition to Portuguese industries.77 This kind of regulation is frequently identified as a negative measure, because protection is inefficient. Historians also point out that the 1930s government policy resulted from the political power of industrial families in Portuguese society, and lobbying is recognized as a restriction to the market structure, reducing collective welfare, in comparison with free-entrance.78 Fish canning received special attention from the regulatory authorities.79 The 1930s regulation was imposed from the perspective of employment and social justice for disadvantaged groups, preventing competition to defend the firms’ survival in the Great Depression years and its aftermath.80 Moreover, economics literature shows that an oligopolistic market with firms generating high-quality products to compete among themselves for market share, and lobbying to try to overcome their rivals in looking after higher profits, can improve growth and welfare under general-equilibrium conditions, depending on the adjustments in the labour market.81 From an international perspective, in the 1930s, the greater the difficulties facing the Spanish, French and Moroccan producers vis-à-vis the Portuguese canners, the better it was for the largest Portuguese firms. It is well-known that one country’s production constricted the other countries’ market shares, and vice-versa. The Spanish Civil War was a new opportunity for exporting Portuguese canned goods, as was the Second World War. Not only was the main competitors’ production ravaged, but the increased international demand 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 Matosinhos would take the first position from then to now. Moura et al, 1957, p. 62. Tin plate waste was sold at the price of £2.7/ton (about$13/ ton or 12 milreis/ton). Ferreira (1906), p. 183. Tisdell, 1993:240, 242. Callan & Thomas, 2000: 237-250. Field, 1997:179-190. Decree 19354 of 01-03-1931. Brito, 1989. Confraria, 1992. Decree 24947 of 01-10-1935. On moral aspects and justice see Chapman: 79. Pereto, (1996, 1998). Júlio, 2008. 367 brought in a new boom for Portuguese canners. 82 In the next decades, regulatory inspections became ineffective, bureaucracy grew out of control, and historians recognize that public policies failed, as the factories implemented their initiatives without authorisation.83 This means that external and agglomeration economies could work, as operators were enacting independent decisions to expand along the Atlantic coast and to relocate in the Portuguese seaports, according to Krugman’s analysis.84 The petitions for government authorisation reflected this desire to benefit from clustering, and the authorisations granted simply confirm the trend.85 Conclusion As the size of fish stocks is jointly determined by oceanographic biology and management decisions for production levels in the fishing and canning industries, technological improvements impacted the rate of depletion of ocean resources. The species of fish particularly desirable for canning were overfished in some periods, threatening the ecosystems in a variety of ways, including depletion and pollution (land, air and sea), and giving origin to business crises in the sector. Technological improvements stimulated economic links, particularly to the shipbuilding industry, and entrepreneurs’ pursuit of profits put ecosystems under great stress, as booms and contractions were extended from the fishmeal industry to shipyards. The First World War stimulated canning so strongly that mature open-access fisheries were severely exploited, putting Portugal into the rankings of fishing and canning nations. Fishing and canning represented an assault upon the ecosystem resources and polluted the coastal bays through the run-off of blood from the factories. The need to reduce the pressure on biological resources and sustain the economic activity in the long run is obvious. Fishermen, canners, local authorities and central government were the main actors, using their own strategies. Entrepreneurs bought larger boats, built more plants, reinvested in raw-materials, promoted the marketing and branding of their high-quality produce, and took measures to control refuse.86 The government performed a role in regulating and organizing the sector for business survival, shortening fishing seasons, minimizing damage to the ecosystem, and preserving jobs. The methods to reach these goals were difficult to implement and control by government, but business rationality always created managerial abilities that overcame the challenges. 82 83 84 85 86 According to Barbosa, 1941, WWII brought a local 41 thousand tons maximum of exports. Brito, 1989. Confraria, 1992. Brito, 2004. Krugman, 1995. Moura et al, 1957, pp. 73-74. 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