Catholic Merchants and Anglo-Irish Trade in the Late Eighteenth Century: Commerce, Religion and Society

我将揭示爱尔兰天主教在不列颠大西洋帝国发展中的作用。信奉天主教的爱尔兰不只是一个殖民地，从窗外向外窥视。作为帝国跳动心脏的左心室，爱尔兰港口将人力、货物和资本输送到新兴的英国世界。我的研究将填补传统爱尔兰史学和英国帝国财政军事国家学者之间的空白。我将从定量和定性两个方面考察天主教贸易在漫长的18世纪为不列颠帝国融资和扩张方面的影响。具体地说，我的马斯特斯研究将专注于爱尔兰天主教徒在商业大西洋中的角色。对于我的博士研究，我将扩大其规模、年表和范围。我将研究爱尔兰天主教贸易的全球影响。对大英帝国在印度、澳大拉西亚和非洲的描述越来越多地集中在联合王国的组成部分文化和人民所扮演的角色上。然而，这些人压倒性地偏向爱尔兰和苏格兰新教徒；鉴于天主教的非法从属关系，历史记录中声音最大的往往是新教徒，历史学家忽视了爱尔兰天主教贡献的重要性。关于天主教商业的研究在英国和欧洲历史学家中越来越受欢迎。我将把范围扩大到全球的帝国历史。我试图发现，我们是否可以在整个帝国的爱尔兰天主教臣民中找到一种形式的“经济民族主义”。我将不仅在公开的经济爱国主义行为中定义这一点，例如偏爱“英国”商品，而且还将定义为爱尔兰天主教徒积极参与支撑帝国的经济和政治制度。我相信，这将是我博士研究的决定性暗流。它将首先对英国经济史上一个被忽视的部分进行全面研究，但它也将着眼于重新定义英国人，更重要的是，爱尔兰人的概念。我认为，这具有超越历史学的影响。爱尔兰人、英国人，甚至身份本身，都是当代的重要概念。通过考察经济、宗教和文化身份，我相信我的研究有可能对个人和文化产生深远的意义。

I will uncover the role of Catholic Ireland in the growth of Britain's Atlantic empire. Catholic Ireland was not simply a colony, peering in from outside the window. The left ventricle of the beating heart of empire, Irish ports channelled manpower, goods and capital across the emerging British world. My research will bridge a lacuna between the traditional Irish historiography and scholars of Britain's imperial fiscal-military state.In both quantitative and qualitative terms, I will examine the impact of Catholic trade in financing and expanding Britain's empire in the long eighteenth century. Specifically, my Masters research will focus on the role of Irish Catholics in the commercial Atlantic. For my doctoral research, I will expand its size, chronology and scope. I will examine the global impact of Catholic Irish trade. Accounts of the British Empire in India, Australasia and Africa have increasingly focused on the roles played by the United Kingdom's component cultures and peoples. However, these have overwhelmingly been biased towards Irish and Scotch Protestants; given the illicit nature of Catholic affiliation, the loudest voices in the historical record have often been Protestant, and historians have overlooked the significance of the Irish Catholic contribution.Studies on Catholic commerce are increasingly popular among British and European historians. I will expand the scope into global, imperial history. I seek to uncover whether we may find a form of 'economic nationalism' in Irish Catholic subjects across the empire. This I will define not only in overt acts of economic patriotism, such as the favouring of 'British' goods, but also in Irish Catholics' active participation in the economic and political systems that underpinned the Empire. This, I believe, will be the defining undercurrent of my doctoral research. It will first be a comprehensive study of one neglected part of British economic history, but it will also look to redefine conceptions of Britishness, and more significantly, Irishness. This, I believe, has implications that go beyond the historiography. Irishness, Britishness, and indeed identity itself, are important contemporary concepts. By examining economic, religious and cultural identity, I believe my research has the potential to have far reaching personal and cultural significance.