On the Methods of Long-Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation and the Portuguese Route to India

Abstract

It is argued that long-distance control depends upon the creation of a network of passive agents (both human and non-human) which makes it possible for emissaries to circulate from the centre to the periphery in a way that maintains their durability, forcefulness and fidelity. This argument is exemplified by the empirical case of the fifteenth and sixteenth century Portuguese expansion and the reconstruction of the navigational context undertaken by the Portuguese in order to secure the global mobility and durability of their vessels. It is also suggested that three classes of emissaries – documents, devices and drilled people – have, together and separately, been particularly important for long-distance control, and that the dominance of the West since the sixteenth century may be partly explained in terms of crucial innovations in the methods by which passive agents of these three types are produced and interrelated.