The evolution of English Shipping Capacity and Shipboard Communities from the early 15th Century to Drake's circumnavigation (1577)

16世纪的最后25年见证了很多事情：德雷克的环球航行（1577- 1588）和击败西班牙无敌舰队（1588）。难怪这段时间被视为英格兰成为海上强国的关键时期。在大众的想象中，这也是皇家海军成为帮助建立英国贸易帝国的强大力量的时代，这一观念深深植根于历史学科。例如，历史学家劳顿（J. Laughton）教授在1880年10月写道：“一个王国的财富、安全和实力主要取决于海军。”事后看来，很容易理解为什么19世纪的历史学家对皇家海军在英国成长为世界贸易大国的过程中所扮演的角色充满信心。劳顿写道，当时英国皇家海军还沉浸在纳尔逊的光辉岁月中，英国军舰征服了中国和印度。有趣且值得注意的是，劳顿没有提到英国商船队。当时，英国皇家海军作为一个机构已有300多年的历史，海军和商业航运在很大程度上已经分离，很容易看出他为什么忽视了商船队在英国崛起为全球大国过程中所起的作用。然而，值得考虑的是，在1588年，参与击败西班牙无敌舰队的大多数英国船只都是私人拥有的商船，由渴望战利品和名声的水手驾驶。对英国商船队及其船员的演变研究的缺乏令人震惊，因为尽管商船和海员在文献中所占的篇幅很少，但他们的工作生活不能完全与海军活动分开。英国君主依靠商船和航运来实现他们的军事和政治目标。在百年战争中赢得著名胜利的英国军队，大部分是由英国商船运送到法国的。即使在都铎王朝的皇家海军存在的时候，商船仍然在海军作战中发挥着巨大的作用。今天，由于全球经济衰退，我们更加敏锐地意识到商船通过向海外市场出口制成品在创造财富方面发挥的重要作用，反过来，在西方依赖的产品进口方面也发挥了重要作用。本项目所涵盖的期间描绘了这一发展。在本文调查的时间框架开始时（1400年），英国货主倾向于短途、商业风险较小的沿海航行。在这个项目的时间框架结束时，德雷克开始了他的环球航行，沃尔特·罗利即将在罗阿诺克岛上种植英国第一批殖民定居者。如何取得如此大的成就？通过将提供船只定量数据的海军记录与记录海上贸易的海关账目和港口账簿相结合，并将其与船只考古学的证据相关联和联系，该项目将大大增加关于英国崛起为全球海洋大国的因素的持续辩论。它还将涵盖很长一段时间，从而揭示海洋发展的轨迹。这个项目的论点是，只有通过调查英国海上能力的演变，并了解在英国从中世纪政体向早期现代国家过渡期间在其中工作的人的生活，才能充分理解她作为全球海上力量（包括海军和商业）的崛起。为了了解这段时间英国商船队的演变，该项目有两个主要目标：1。通过对英国商船队进行全面的定量和定性评估，改变我们对英国海上能力演变的理解，这段时期在海上活动和野心方面发生了重大变化，从1400年到1577.2年。对同一时期也见证了社会变迁的船上社区进行人类学调查。

The last quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed much: Drake's circumnavigation (1577-8) and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588). No wonder this time is seen as pivotal in England's growth as a maritime power. In the popular imagination it is also the time when the Royal Navy emerged as a potent force that helped created Britain's trade empire, a perception embedded into the historical discipline. For example, in October 1880 Professor J. Laughton, historian, wrote that 'it is on the navy that the wealth, safety and strength of kingdom chiefly depend.' With hindsight it is easy to see why nineteenth century historians felt supremely confident of the Royal Navy's role in Britain's growth as a world trading power. At the time Laughton wrote the Royal Navy was still basking in the glory days of Nelson and British warships had subjugated China and India. Interestingly, and notably, Laughton made no reference to the English merchant fleet. Writing at a time when the Royal Navy as an institution was over three hundred years old, and for the most part naval and commercial shipping had become separated, it is easy to see why he overlooked the role the merchant fleet played in the rise of England as a global power. Yet, is worth considering that in 1588 most of the English ships involved in the defeat of the Spanish Armada were privately owned merchant ships manned by seamen eager for booty and fame.The lack of research on the evolution of England's merchant fleet, and the men who manned it, is staggering because while merchant ships and seamen are afforded little space in the literature their working lives cannot be separated wholly from naval activity. English monarchs relied on merchant seamen and shipping to achieve their martial and political aims. English armies that won famous victories during the Hundred Years War were largely carried to France in English merchant ships. Even when the Royal Navy existed under the Tudors merchant ships still played an enormous role in naval operations. Today because of the global recession we are more acutely aware of the vital role played by merchant shipping in wealth creation by exporting manufactured goods to overseas markets and, conversely, for the importation of products the West is reliant on. The period covered by this project charts this development. At the start of the time-frame under investigation here (1400) English shippers tended to favour short and less commercially risky coastal voyages. At the end of this project's time-frame Drake had begun his circumnavigation and Walter Raleigh was close to planting England's first colonial settlers on Roanoke Island. How was so much achieved? By combining naval records, which provide quantitative data on ships, with customs accounts and port books recording maritime trade, and correlating and connecting this with evidence from ship archaeology this project will add significantly to the continuing debate on what factors enabled England's rise as a global maritime power. It will also cover a long time period, thereby revealing the trajectory of maritime developments. It is the contention of this project that only by investigating the evolution of English maritime capacity, and understanding the lives of the men who worked within it, over the period of England's transition from a medieval polity to an early modern state can her rise as a global maritime power (both naval and commercial) be fully appreciated. In seeking to understand the evolution of the English merchant fleet over this time the project has two central aims:1. To transform our understanding of the evolution of English maritime capacity through a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of the English merchant fleet over a period of crucial change in seaborne activity and ambition, c.1400-c.1577.2. To undertake a prosopographical investigation of ship-board communities over this same period, which also witnessed social change.