The Control of Port Services by International Companies in the Macaronesian Islands (1850–1914)

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on the role of the Atlantic Macaronesian islands (in particular the Canary Islands and Cape Verde) in the supply of services to international maritime vessels during the period that has been labelled the ‘first globalisation’, which lasted from the middle of the nineteenth century until the first third of the twentieth. A connecting thread in this was the supply of coal to steamships — an activity that was undertaken primarily by foreign firms and, in particular, the English.