Mapping Ralegh's Adventure
Ralegh tried to keep his cartographic information about Guiana secret, but unfortunately for him, corporate espionage appeared at precisely the same time the first corporations did. Funny that.
The Discoverie of the Rich & Bewtiful Empire of Guiana was a work of propaganda at cross-purposes, and it fell to Ralegh’s powerful friend and supporter Secretary of State Robert Cecil to act as an editor for the manuscript before it went to print. Ralegh and Cecil faced a paradoxical need for secrecy and salesmanship, which meant that Ralegh’s book needed to fascinate readers and persuade them to invest in his project while keeping the specific geographical and nautical information away from the public. While this did not bother his audience of armchair explorers, it did not convince any other adventurers that Ralegh was a serious man and not a buffoonish dilettante with no idea what he was doing.
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