Johnson’s Relations: visions of global order, 1601-1630

This paper investigates the seven English editions of Giovanni Botero’s Relationi Universali, produced by London merchant Robert Johnson in the context of the growing rivalry between Britain and Spain concerning international expansion, imperialism and trade. By examining each edition in its unique historical context, two important conclusions can be drawn. First, it becomes immediately clear that Johnson was doing much more than translating Botero; he was making a specific intervention in these debates, arguing for a British international presence to rival and curb that of the Spanish. Second, Johnson made elaborate changes to Botero’s work in order to present his case, and as such to treat these texts as translations of the Relationi, as many historians have done, obscures their rich contextual history.