WI: English Fund Columbus

uh, was it? I've read different.. basically that people knew about it, but as you say, had no real reason to take that route. But now we have someone deliberately trying to get from east to west, and we have a route that is known. Which also bring up the question of just how well known the ocean currents were known for the north Atlantic... if Columbus doesn't go the Viking route, do people know enough to take the other sailing routes?

Maybe if Columbus goes to the king Copenhagen, he could study old records of Greenland. The explorer Didrik Pining had been in Greenland and possibly Newfundland just a few decades earlier. Records must have existed also in Iceland. Maybe Columbus tries to find a west passage to India through Greneland and then the coast of Markland und Vinland.
 

zhropkick

Banned
In OTL Columbus found tobacco in the Caribbean and recognised its value pretty quickly. Let's say Columbus sets sail from England and lands on the eastern coast of North America - Native American groups here use tobacco in a variety of cultural ceremonies and also present it as gifts. Tobacco can be grown in abundance as far north as Ontario, and historically tobacco was more widely-grown than even cotton in much of Virginia and the Chesapeake bay region. Could tobacco help spur English interest in the new world, along with the economic potential of the fur trade?
 
In OTL Columbus found tobacco in the Caribbean and recognised its value pretty quickly. Let's say Columbus sets sail from England and lands on the eastern coast of North America - Native American groups here use tobacco in a variety of cultural ceremonies and also present it as gifts. Tobacco can be grown in abundance as far north as Ontario, and historically tobacco was more widely-grown than even cotton in much of Virginia and the Chesapeake bay region. Could tobacco help spur English interest in the new world, along with the economic potential of the fur trade?
Creating a continental market for tobacco would take a while, maybe too long for Columbus to enjoy the payoff?
 

zhropkick

Banned
Creating a continental market for tobacco would take a while, maybe too long for Columbus to enjoy the payoff?
I reckon for Columbus as an individual, yes it would probably be too long of a wait. However, that wouldn't stop sailors in general coming to the Americas from bringing back tobacco and inevitably creating a market for it back in Europe when they do. As long as some kind of continued contact occurs between Europeans and natives following Columbus' voyage, which it will (even if it's just Basque fishermen and plucky fur traders, worst case scenario) it's bound to happen eventually. I'd give it a few decades.
 
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