The Fabric of Early Globalisation: Skin, Fur and Cloth in the De Bry's Travel Accounts, 1590-1630

Depending on the economic interests, political context and social status of the people in question, the texts and engravings could, via analogy and texture, initiate a tension-filled interplay between similarity and difference, skin and fabric. Global history has intensely discussed the role of fashion and fabric for an early age of globalization, c.1400 –1800. Economically, the trade in fabrics and the materials to produce them grew steadily. The significance of non-European raw materials, fabrics, skins and furs in the European textile regions and their global interactions also grew apace. The concrete reference to the types of fabric in the text points to the vibrant textile trade on the coast of Ghana, in which the Portuguese were involved – a long-established superregional, indeed intercontinental trade. The text is accompanied by a typical costume picture, which allows the viewer to assess the degree of civilization of the various inhabitants of the Guinea coast.