Mobility, Migration and Human Capital in the Long Eighteenth Century: The Life of Joseph Anton Ponsaing

Abstract

In this chapter, we follow the life of Joseph Anton Ponsaing, who was born in Germany in 1752 and emigrated to Copenhagen at age 20. Twenty-six years later, in 1798, Ponsaing’s ship, the Eenrum, was captured off the coast of Portugal and taken first to Lisbon and later to Portsmouth early in 1799. He was interrogated by the English authorities in both cities. The private merchant ship on which he served as captain took him to Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China in 1797. Ponsaing’s poor physical and mental health saw him replaced as captain in China, on the orders of the ship’s supercargo, who also happened to be the owner’s son, and he spent a brief residence in Indonesia to recover. When we meet Ponsaing later in his career, from 1803 to 1805, his occupational standing had fallen considerably: he was a mere second mate in the Danish Asiatic Company’s (DAC) ship journeying to Tranquebar, in India. Although he later became chief mate, he never regained the heights of captaincy, despite his high skill and obvious experience. By the time of his death in 1812, he had travelled to China and Bengal 15 or 16 times; he had married, gained admittance into the Skippers’ Guild, became a burgher of Copenhagen and experienced life at sea in a variety of occupational roles.

This paper stems from research undertaken as part of the project Migration, Human Capital and Labour Productivity: The International Maritime Labour Market in Europe, c. 1650–1815, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-3339) and based at the University of Birmingham.