Wayne State University

The Level Expert

I am currently conducting research for a book-length monograph on one of the largest and most significant engineering projects undertaken in early modern England: the drainage of the English fens during the seventeenth century. This massive endeavor, aiming at nothing less than the complete drainage of a series of wetlands spanning parts of five counties in eastern England, took place over several decades and had profound political, social, and environmental implications. The drainage works were commissioned by wealthy London investors, who planned to reap a profit by selling off the newly arable (and hence much more valuable) common fenlands they sought to drain. As a great many investors were also important figures in the royal administration, often including the king himself, the drainage works represent a tangible manifestation of the spread of centralized administrative and economic power into the more peripheral areas of the realm. My approach to the story links together three main historiographical issues: the continuing evolution of the early modern idea of expertise, the tumultuous development of a centralized nation-state in England during the seventeenth century, and the environmental history of the fenlands. By uniting these three themes, setting each within the context of the others, I hope that this project will provide a richer understanding of all three.

While my previous project left off in the early seventeenth century, the importance of expertise and the rise in the intellectual and social status of experts in England certainly continued well beyond that point. The political and economic circumstances of the seventeenth-century only enhanced the experts' cultural currency: by the 1630s the monarchy and its privy council were more centralized and powerful than had been the case even during Elizabeth's long reign; the monopolistic joint-stock company had become vastly more wide-spread and sophisticated as an economic and social institution; and powerful courtiers were far more active in using their royal and corporate connections to make their fortunes and expand their influence. During this period, technical expertise became ever more prevalent and significant as a tool of royal and corporate administration. While the English Civil War at mid-century can be interpreted in part as a popular reaction against the ever-expanding power of the king and his ministers, the resulting Commonwealth and Protectorate remained every bit as dependent upon the services of experts.

The principal focal point for my research is one of the central figures involved in the drainage works: the Dutch hydraulic engineer Cornelius Vermuyden. Vermuyden began his career in England during the 1620s, and rapidly rose to prominence when he succeeded in draining the royal estate of Hatfield Chase, for which he was knighted by Charles I in 1629. Despite the attacks of numerous critics, Vermuyden retained the confidence of the king, and became a royal favorite in matters of hydraulic engineering. Over the succeeding decades, Vermuyden was almost continually employed in English drainage projects of increasing scale and expense. Despite a number of failures, Vermuyden's rare knowledge and experience made him seem an indispensable resource to his many patrons, as evidenced by the fact that he was repeatedly employed by speculators who were not even fully satisfied with the outcome of his earlier projects. Moreover, beyond his purely technical contributions, Vermuyden's expertise effectively made him a key agent of centralized economic and social control in England, with an active hand in virtually all phases of the endeavor. He literally sold his proposals to the investors in London, and then went on to carry out his plans on site, sometimes over and above the violent opposition of the local fenland inhabitants. Using his expertise to mediate between his patrons and their technically demanding projects, Vermuyden's participation was vital in making the drainage enterprise a feasible one.

Yet the story of the fens cannot be wholly encompassed in a political, cultural, or technological history of the human actors involved; at its root, the draining of the fens represented a major ecological upheaval over a vast area of eastern England, one in which the fens themselves must be seen to have played a central role. The fenlands, after all, were not passive, stationary targets for the investors and engineers who sought to alter them. Rather, they were a constantly evolving landscape, varying widely over space and time, and resistant in many ways to the changes wrought upon them during the seventeenth century, as the spotty success of many drainage projects of the period demonstrates. Any history of the drainage which aims at a comprehensive understanding must therefore consider the fens themselves, their particular geography, history, and relationship with the humans who lived in them.

This project will thus addresses the interactions between the all of main actors (engineers, investors, local gentry, and the fen inhabitants, as well as the fenlands themselves) involved in an undertaking of enormous scale, expense, and political and social importance in seventeenth-century England. In looking at the fens, I hope to use the methodological approaches of environmental history and the history of science and technology to gain a new perspective on the development of a centralized administrative and economic state in early modern England.