>Dawnseeker2000: date format audit, minor formatting, typo(s) fixed: Company → company, 1575-77 → 1575–77

2021-03-03T12:58:23Z

date format audit, minor formatting, typo(s) fixed: Company → company, 1575-77 → 1575–77

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{{short description|English merchant and writer}}
{{for|the New Brunswick politician|Bruce Fitch}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}

{{Infobox person
|name = Ralph Fitch
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth year|1550}}
|birth_place =
|death_date = {{death year and age|1611|1550}}
|death_place = England
|other_names =
|known_for = Traveled via the [[Levant]] and [[Mesopotamia]] to [[India]] then [[Burma]] and [[Malacca]] (in Malaysia) (1583–1591)
|occupation = [[merchant]], [[explorer]]
|nationality =
}}

'''Ralph Fitch''' (1550 – 1611) was a gentleman [[merchant]] of London and one of the earliest English travellers and [[Merchant|traders]] to visit [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Persian Gulf]] and Indian Ocean, India and Southeast Asia. At first he was no chronicler but he did eventually write descriptions of the south-east Asia he saw in 1583–1591, and upon his return to England, in 1591, became a valuable consultant for the [[British East India Company]]<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/208850/Ralph-Fitch Ralph Fitch] [[Britannica.com]].</ref><ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_12.shtml The Spice Trade, Episode 12] [[BBC Radio]].</ref>

==Career==
Fitch's place of birth has long been a mystery but recent research indicates that he was most likely born in [[Derby Cathedral|All Saints']] parish, Derby.<ref>The Leathersellers' Review, 2007–08, pp 16–18: "An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller" by Jerome Farrell</ref> The first known documentary reference to him is in the archives of the [[Worshipful Company of Leathersellers]], of which he was a Freeman and from which Company he received a loan of £50 for two years, 1575–77.<ref>The Leathersellers' Review, 2007–08, pp 16–18: "An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller" by Jerome Farrell</ref> In February 1583 he embarked in the ''Tyger'' for [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]] (the seaport of [[Aleppo]]) in Syria, together with merchants John Newberry and John Eldred, a jeweller named William Leedes and a painter, James Story, all financed by the [[Levant Company]]. This was the latest in a series of English attempts to penetrate the trade of the Indian Ocean and Far East, going back to [[Anthony Jenkinson]]'s travels in Central Asia in the 1550s. From Aleppo they reached the [[Euphrates]], descended the river from [[Birecik|Bir]] to [[Fallujah]], crossed southern Mesopotamia to [[Baghdad]], and dropped down the [[Tigris]] to [[Basra]] (May to July 1583). Here Eldred stayed behind to trade, while Fitch and the others sailed down the [[Persian Gulf]] to the Portuguese fortress and trading station at [[Ormuz]], where they were promptly arrested as spies (at Venetian instigation, they claimed, as the Venetians resented the 16th-century Portuguese commercial monopoly in the Indian Ocean that called an end to centuries of Venetian, Genoese and Pisan – plus Catalan – dealings with Arab middlemen, down from the Middle Ages) and sent as prisoners to the Portuguese viceroy at [[Goa]] (September to October).

Through the sureties procured by two [[Jesuit]]s (one being [[Thomas Stephens (Jesuit)|Thomas Stevens]], formerly of [[New College, Oxford]], the first Englishman known to have reached India by the Cape route in 1579), Fitch and his friends regained their liberty. Story chose to join the [[Jesuit]]s, and the others managed to escape from [[Goa]] (April 1584). They travelled through the heart of India to the court of the Great [[Mughal Empire|Mogul]] [[Akbar]], then probably at [[Agra]]. The jeweller Leedes obtained a remunerative post with Akbar while Fitch continued his journey of exploration. Fitch did the first leg of that journey, from Agra to [[Allahabad]], by joining a convoy "of one hundred and fourscore boates laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge ([[asafoetida]]), Lead, Carpets and diverse other commodities" going "downe the river jumna (Yamuna)". He reached Allahabad sometime in November 1585, when work on Akbar's great Fort at Allahabad was nearing completion. In September 1585 Newberry decided to begin his return journey overland via [[Lahore]]. He disappeared, presumably being robbed and murdered, in the Punjab.

Fitch went on, descending the [[Jumna]] and the [[Ganges]], to visit [[Allahabad]], [[Benares]], [[Patna]], [[Kuch Behar]], Hughli, [[Chittagong]], etc. (1585–1586). He then pushed on by sea to [[Pegu]] and [[Burma]]. Here he visited the [[Rangoon]] region, ascended the [[Irrawaddy River|Irrawaddy]] some distance, acquired a remarkable acquaintance with inland Pegu, and even penetrated to the [[Tai peoples|Tai]] [[Shan state]]s and the Tai kingdom of [[Lanna]] (December 1586 and January 1587).<ref>'Ralph Fitch: An Elizabethan Merchant in Chiang Mai; and 'Ralph Fitch's Account of Chiang Mai in 1586-1587' in: Forbes, Andrew, and Henley, David, ''Ancient Chiang Mai'' Volume 1. Chiang Mai, Cognoscenti Books, 2012.</ref>

Early in 1588 he visited [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]], another of Portugal's great fortresses and the gateway to the Far East, but found the security too strict to get passage into the China Sea. In the autumn of this year he began his homeward travels, first to [[Bengal]]; then round the Indian coast, touching at [[Cochin]] and Goa, to Ormuz; next up the Persian Gulf to Basra and up the [[Tigris]] to [[Mosul]] ([[Nineveh]]); finally via Tirfa, [[Birecik|Bir on the Euphrates]]. He was appointed the Levant Company's Consul in Aleppo and Tripoli, to the Mediterranean. He arrived back in London on 29 April 1591, eight years after he had left. Since no news of him had reached his family and friends in that time, he had been presumed dead after seven years and his will had been proved. He resumed his involvement with the Leathersellers' Company, becoming a Liveryman in 1599, serving as Warden in 1607 and joining the company's Court of Assistants in 1608. His experience was greatly valued by the founders of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]], including another of Elizabeth's adventurers Sir [[James Lancaster]] who consulted him on Indian affairs.

Fitch ranks among the most remarkable of Elizabethan adventurers. There is no evidence he ever married and the main beneficiaries of his final will in 1611 were eight nieces and two nephews.

== Impact and legacy==
* Fitch's journey is referred to indirectly by [[William Shakespeare]] in Act 1, Scene 3, Line 7 of ''[[Macbeth]]'' (circa 1606), where the First Witch cackles about a sailor's wife: "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master of the ''Tyger''."<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Sir Walter Alexander|last1=Raleigh| author-link1=Walter Raleigh (professor)| first2=Sir Sidney |last2=Lee |author-link2=Sidney Lee|title=Shakespeare's England : an account of the life & manners of his age|year=1916 |location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/stream/shakespearesengl01raleuoft#page/186/mode/2up|page=187}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''Aanmerklyke Reys van Ralph Fitch, Koopman te Londen, Gedaan van Anno 1583 tot 1591'', (1706), Leyden, Van der Aa {{in lang|nl}}[https://archive.org/details/aanmerklykereysv00fitc]
* ''Ralph Fitch, England's Pioneer To India And Burma: His Companions And Contemporaries'', (1899), John Horton Ryley, {{ISBN|978-1104443993}}

==See also==
*[[Chronology of European exploration of Asia]]
*[[John Mildenhall]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

=== Bibliography ===

* {{cite book|first=John Horton|last=Ryley|title=Ralph Fitch: England's pioneer to India and Burma; His companions and contemporaries with his remarkable narrative told in his own words|place=London|year=1899|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuPPrNZak5EC&q=+Excerpts&pg=PA217|isbn=9788120613249}}
* {{cite book|first=Michael|last=Edwardes|title=Ralph Fitch – Elizabethan in the Indies|place=London|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=1972}}
* {{cite book|first=Cecil|last=Tragen|title=Elizabethan Venture|place=London|publisher=H.F. & G Witherby Ltd.|year=1953}}
* {{cite journal|first=Jerome|last=Farrell|title=An Elizabethan in Asia: Ralph Fitch, our most adventurous Leatherseller|journal=The Leathersellers' Review|date=2007–2008|ref= pp 16–18}}
* {{cite book|last1=Forbes|first1=Andrew|last2=Henley|first2=David|title=Ancient Chiang Mai|volume=vol. 1|place=London|publisher=Cognoscenti Books|year=2012}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/stream/ralphfitchenglan00rylerich/ralphfitchenglan00rylerich_djvu.txt Full text of "Ralph Fitch : England's pioneer to India and Burma : his companions and contemporaries, with his remarkable narrative told in his own words" ]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081019034821/http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/travelogue.html Account of the Voyage of Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London. This part of the account pertains to the year 1583.]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, Ralph}}
[[Category:1550 births]]
[[Category:1611 deaths]]
[[Category:English merchants]]
[[Category:16th-century merchants]]
[[Category:17th-century merchants]]
[[Category:16th-century English writers]]
[[Category:16th-century male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English writers]]
[[Category:17th-century male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century explorers]]
[[Category:17th-century explorers]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:History of Myanmar]]
[[Category:Historiography of India]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]

Ralph Fitch - Revision history

>Dawnseeker2000: date format audit, minor formatting, typo(s) fixed: Company → company, 1575-77 → 1575–77