Manuscript Letter on The War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)

Autograph manuscript letter, 2pp., to “Mr Chemynd at Turin”, signed “Sunderland”, ink faded, 225 x 175mm, Whitehall, November 29th, 1709.

Charles Spencer succeeded to the earldom of Sunderland in 1702, inheriting the title from his father, the 2nd Earl of Sunderland. Spencer was a British statesman, joining the Junto, a group of leading Whigs, and served under Queen Anne as secretary of state from 1706 to 1710. He returned to office as one of the Whigs ministers who directed the Government under King George I from 1714 to 1721.

Sunderland writes on behalf of Queen Anne, threatening the Genoese merchants provisioning France despite the neutral position they hold in the war. Reading in part

“…the proceedings of the Genoese in furnishing the French with Corn and that now it is gone so far that there is actually a Company of Genoese Merchants who have undertook to furnish that county with corn for a whole year[…] Her Majesty thinks this proceeding is no longer to be bore…” He also states quite clearly how the British and Dutch shall respond if the merchants continue to supply France. “[The Queen shall] order the Commanders of her fleet in the Mediterranean and elsewhere to seize all Genoese ships – they shall meet with at whatever kind they be, & treat them as enemies, Her Majesty looking upon this sort of commerce as a manifest violation of the neutrality…” Sunderland finishes “as this matter is left to your and the Dutch Envoy’s Prudence and Discretion, so the Queen does not doubt but that you will manage it so as to attain the end Her Majesty & the States design by putting these orders into your hands.”

France was highly susceptible to famines in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, the last being in the year 1709. This was exacerbated by the combination of the high cost of war and The Great Frost, the coldest European winter during the past 500 years, destroying all the rye and wheat planted across the country. The working poor could not afford the inflated prices of grain and corn which could rise three or four times during the famine years. The Genoese Merchant Company made a deal with France to help alleviate the effects of the famine by supplying a year’s worth of corn. Rather than a humanitarian effort, this was perceived as a breach in neutrality by the Allies. Little is known about the involvement of the Genoese Merchant Company in France and the potential effects it had on the French victory in the Spanish War of Succession. Even so, as Secretary of State, Sunderland ensured the British and Dutch objection to Genoese involvement was conveyed.

[Appleby (1979). Grain Prices and Subsistence Crises in England and France, 1590-1740. The Journal of Economic History, 39(4), 865-887.]