Abstract
The historiography of submarine telegraphy has been dominated by what David Edgerton defined as techno-nationalism, i.e. the assumption that the nation state is the key element of analysis. The most recent trend, to which also this essay contributes, stresses the interrelatedness of telecommunication and globalisation processes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a global history approach, this paper focuses on the individual cable agents of nineteenth century submarine telegraphy and shows how for them the nation state was a category to work with, rarely one to be guided by. The cable agents’ realm of action was based upon the concept of cable transnationalism, deduced from the border-transgressing character of telegraph science and technology. In its last part, this paper shows how discourses of mounting nationalism were met with strategic nationalism, i.e. the alleged adoption of a distinct nationality according to the relevant discourse.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Marland 1962.
- 3.
The term ‘transnational’ only emerged in the early twentieth century. For its history see Tyrrell, “What is Transnational History?”.
- 4.
Vries 2009.
- 5.
Hobsbawm 1990, pp. 183–184.
- 6.
- 7.
Kunert 1962.
- 8.
- 9.
Coe 1993.
- 10.
- 11.
On the financial aspect Winseck and Pike for example highlight the financing argument. See Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 4.
- 12.
Hills 2002 .
- 13.
Griset and Headrick 2001, p. 543.
- 14.
Kennedy 1971.
- 15.
Headrick 1981.
- 16.
Boyce 1995.
- 17.
Wenzlhuemer 2010; Hampf and Müller-Pohl 2013 (forthcoming).
- 18.
Winseck and Pike 2007, p. xvii.
- 19.
Yang 2009.
- 20.
On the interrelation of a capitalist economy and imperialism see also Pomeranz 2000.
- 21.
Smith 1999.
- 22.
In its understanding of cable transnationalism, this study benefited from Scott Malcomson’s concept of ‘real existing cosmopolitanism’ which is both located and embodied. In distinction, however, from contemporary notions of cosmopolitanism which acclaim universalism and the agents’ use of nationalism as a strategy I found the term cable transnationalism more fitting. It avoids confusion with this universally acclaimed cosmopolitanism of the sources and on the other hand allows for the state to be an important structure, too. See Robbins 2008.
- 23.
Leeds Mercury, 6.9.1869.
- 24.
Finn 1980.
- 25.
Coates and Finn 1979, p. 165.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post 1.8.1866.
- 28.
Headrick 1981, p. 162.
- 29.
Winseck and Pike 2007, pp. 5–6.
- 30.
Conrad and Osterhammel 2006, pp. 13–15.
- 31.
Bright 1898, pp. x–xi.
- 32.
In support of this argument see Highton 1852, pp. v–vii. The author lists all the books he took into consideration for his work on the Electric Telegraph. Among many British authors, there are also other from Germany and France such as Manuel de la Télégraphie Electrique by L. Bregust, Der Elektro-magnetische Telegraph by Dr. H. Schellen or Der Praktische Telegraphist, oder die Electro-magnetische Telegraphie nach dem Morse’schen System by Clemens Gerke. An interesting monograph Highton consults is the work by Werner Siemens – albeit in French translation: Rapport fait à l’Académie des Sciences sur les Appareils Télégraphiques de M. Siemens (de Berlin).
- 33.
- 34.
Crawford et al. 1993, p. 1.
- 35.
Siemens 1872/73, p. 22.
- 36.
A complete run of membership lists and forms can be found at the IET Archives in London.
- 37.
Hunt 1994, p. 57.
- 38.
Crawford et al. 1993, p. 13.
- 39.
Bright 1898, p. 80.
- 40.
Ibid., p. xiii.
- 41.
Pollard 2004.
- 42.
Bright 1908, pp. ix–xi.
- 43.
Pollard 2004.
- 44.
Bright 1908, pp. 202, 308.
- 45.
de Cogan 2005.
- 46.
Scott 1958, p. 73.
- 47.
Isin and Wood 1999, pp. 91, 103.
- 48.
- 49.
Yang 2009.
- 50.
Ahvenainen 1995, p. 80.
- 51.
Ahvenainen 2009, p. 65.
- 52.
Bright 1898, p. 154.
- 53.
Ibid., p. 167.
- 54.
In turn, when seeking landing rights, the cable companies asked for exclusive rights. As the cable’s manufacture and laying equipment was exorbitantly expensive, it was vital that they could depend upon a certain amount of business, without competition: Ahvenainen 2009, p. 67.
- 55.
The attitude of the various nation states towards submarine telegraphy as well as their engagement with it changed during the course of the nineteenth century. Although there are different models of state involvement, government support generally became less important and less common after 1866 as cable companies managed to find ample private investors and had their own cable ships and personnel. Haigh and Wilshaw 1968, pp. 317–319; a noted difference may be discerned in the case of the French government, which continually, but rather unsuccessfully, attempted to install a French cable company as a state enterprise, see Griset 1996.
- 56.
Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 165.
- 57.
Pender, September 14, 1877, Cable and Wireless Archive.
- 58.
Hills 2002, p. 60.
- 59.
Boyce 2000, p. 40.
- 60.
Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 106.
- 61.
Boyce 2000, pp. 44–45.
- 62.
- 63.
Laborie 2010.
- 64.
Ahvenainen 2009, p. 70.
- 65.
Bureau International des Administrations Télégraphique 1880, pp. 253–256, 261, 291–293, 419, BT Archives.
- 66.
General Post Office 1879, BT Archives.
- 67.
Ibid.
- 68.
C.H.B. Patey cited in James Anderson 1879, POST 30/361, BT Archives.
- 69.
Ibid.
- 70.
Ibid.
- 71.
General Post Office, “Telegraph Conference 1879”, BT Archives.
- 72.
“International Telegraph Conference,” in: The Times, 23.06.1879.
- 73.
Hobsbawm 1990, pp. 181–185.
- 74.
- 75.
Scholz 1904, p. 1.
- 76.
Bright 1898, pp. 137–140.
- 77.
On territorialization as the key concept of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Maier 2000.
- 78.
Hewitt, February 11, 1895, Cooper Union Archives.
- 79.
New York Times, 6.8.1914.
- 80.
Hewitt, February 11, 1895.
- 81.
New York Times, 11.2.1899.
- 82.
Griset and Headrick 2001, pp. 566–567.
- 83.
Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 170.
- 84.
Griset and Headrick 2001, pp. 566–567.
- 85.
Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 5.
- 86.
An example of this is Carl Ludwig Loeffler. He was the pervious incumbent as managing director at Siemens Brothers before the aforementioned George von Chauvin and renounced his German citizenship in 1890. Carl Ludwig Loeffler, Letter to the Home Office, June 14 1890, National Archives Kew.
- 87.
- 88.
This can be seen in the shareholder lists of various companies. One of the best examples because of its archival continuity is the Direct United States Cable Company. Shareholder lists exist from its foundation in 1873 well into the twentieth century; among the most important shareholders were various members of the Siemens family, the Anglo-Austrian Bank, the Deutsche Bank, the Banque Centrale Anversoise as well as various merchants from Germany, Belgium, France and England. Direct United States Cable Company, Ltd; BT 31/14576/11597, National Archives Kew.
- 89.
Interesting in this context is Edgerton’s interpretation of Ernest Gellner’s account of nationalism, whereby he understands modern nationalism as being vital to (industrial) modernity “not as a way of escaping from a globalized cosmopolitan world, but a means of participating in it while retaining one’s dignity, and indeed creating one’s capacity to participate”. Edgerton 2007, p. 2.
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Müller-Pohl, S. (2013). Working the Nation State: Submarine Cable Actors, Cable Transnationalism and the Governance of the Global Media System, 1858–1914. In: Löhr, I., Wenzlhuemer, R. (eds) The Nation State and Beyond. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32934-0_6
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