Wow! eBook
The British Navy and the State in the Eighteenth Century
Author(s): Clive Wilkinson (Author)
- Publisher: Boydell Press
- Publication Date: 20 May 2004
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781843830429
- ISBN-13: 1843830426
Book Description
The Navy in the eighteenth century, though successful, was costly. Its funding and maintenance made those responsible for it politically vulnerable. The Royal Navy, prominent in building Britain’s maritime empire in the eighteenth century, also had a significant impact on politics, public finance and the administrative and bureaucratic development of the British state throughout the century. The Navy was the most expensive branch of the state and its effective funding and maintenance was a problem that taxed the ingenuity of a succession of politicians, naval officers and bureaucrats. By the middle ofthe century the difficulties its growth created had become critical, and the challenge this presented was taken up by Admiralty Boards led by Anson, Egmont, Hawke and Sandwich. Resolving these problems introduced reform in the navy’s administration and in public finance (often pre-figuring later bureaucratic development), but there was a political price to pay when the management of the Navy and its apparent unpreparedness for the War of American Independence made the Earl of Sandwich and the Navy a focus for political opposition to an unpopular government and a disappointing war. Published in association with the National Maritime Museum. CLIVE WILKINSON is a research officer with the Climatological Database of the World’s Oceans 1750-1850, University of Sunderland.
Editorial Reviews
Review
An impressive account…. A fine study, better grounded in its assessment of political nuances than many on the navy — H-ALBION, November 2004
An indispensable survey of British naval administration. —
MARINER S MIRROR[This] rich book will certainly stimulate thought and open up new avenues of research in naval, administrative and constitutional history. —
ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 2004
