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年见证了许多事情：德雷克的环球航行（1577- 1578）和西班牙阿尔马达的失败（1588）。难怪这段时间被视为英格兰发展成为海上强国的关键时期。在大众的想象中，这也是皇家海军作为一股强大的力量出现的时候，它帮助创建了英国的贸易帝国，这种看法嵌入了历史学科。例如，1880年10月，历史学家J·劳顿教授写道：“王国的财富、安全和力量主要取决于海军。事后看来，很容易理解为什么19世纪世纪的历史学家对皇家海军在英国作为世界贸易大国的发展中所起的作用充满信心。在劳顿写道的时候，皇家海军仍然沉浸在纳尔逊和英国军舰征服中国和印度的光辉岁月中。有趣的是，值得注意的是，劳顿没有提到英国商船队。在撰写此书时，皇家海军作为一个机构已经有300多年的历史，而且海军和商业航运在很大程度上已经分开，很容易理解为什么他忽视了商船队在英国崛起为全球大国中所扮演的角色。然而，值得考虑的是，在1588年，大多数参与击败西班牙阿尔马达的英国船只都是私人拥有的商船，船员渴望战利品和名声。缺乏对英国商船队演变的研究，以及操纵它的人，是惊人的，因为虽然商船和海员在文学中的空间很少，他们的工作生活不能完全分开，海军活动。英国君主依靠商船海员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往法国的。即使在都铎王朝统治下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在创造财富方面所发挥的重要作用，即向海外市场出口制成品，反过来，也为西方国家所依赖的产品进口。在本文所研究的时间范围开始时（1400年），英国的托运人倾向于选择商业风险较小的短途沿海航行。在这个项目的时间框架结束时，德雷克已经开始了他的环球航行，沃尔特罗利即将在罗阿诺克岛上安置英国的第一批殖民者。如何取得如此大的成就？通过结合海军记录，提供船舶的定量数据，与海关账户和港口书籍记录海上贸易，并与船舶考古学的证据相关联和连接，该项目将大大增加持续的辩论是什么因素使英国崛起为全球海上强国。它还将涵盖很长一段时间，从而揭示海洋发展的轨迹。这是这个项目的论点，只有通过调查英国的海上能力的演变，并了解在英国从中世纪政体过渡到早期现代国家的过程中工作的人的生活，才能充分认识到她作为一个全球海上强国（包括海军和商业）的崛起。在试图了解英国商船队在这段时间的演变，该项目有两个中心目标：1。通过对英国商船队在海上活动和野心发生重大变化的时期（c.1400-c.1577.2）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。对同一时期的船上社区进行一次人学调查，这也见证了社会变革。

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.