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

我将揭示天主教爱尔兰在英国大西洋帝国发展中的作用。信奉天主教的爱尔兰不仅仅是一个殖民地，从窗外窥视。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不列颠世界。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，从定量和定性两个方面考察天主教贸易在漫长的世纪中对英国帝国融资和扩张的影响。具体来说，我的硕士研究将集中在商业大西洋爱尔兰天主教徒的作用。对于我的博士研究，我将扩大其规模，时间顺序和范围。我将研究天主教爱尔兰贸易的全球影响。关于大英帝国在印度、澳大拉西亚和非洲的记载越来越多地关注联合王国的组成文化和人民所扮演的角色。然而，这些研究大多偏向于爱尔兰和苏格兰的新教徒;由于天主教的非法性质，历史记录中最响亮的声音往往是新教徒，历史学家忽视了爱尔兰天主教贡献的重要性。天主教商业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，帝国历史。我试图揭示我们是否可以在整个帝国的爱尔兰天主教科目中找到一种形式的“经济民族主义”。我将不仅定义为公开的经济爱国主义行为，如偏爱“英国”商品，而且还定义为爱尔兰天主教徒积极参与支撑帝国的经济和政治体系。我相信，这将是我博士研究的决定性暗流。它将首先全面研究英国经济史中被忽视的一部分，但它也将重新定义英国人的概念，更重要的是，爱尔兰人的概念。我相信，这一点的含义超出了历史编纂的范围。爱尔兰性、英国性以及身份本身都是当代重要的概念。通过研究经济，宗教和文化身份，我相信我的研究有可能产生深远的个人和文化意义。

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.