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UBC Theses and Dissertations
English maritime predation in the mid-sixteenth-century : a high return investment in an established business Lee, Randall Robert
Abstract
This thesis analyzes mid-sixteenth century English maritime predation as a smoothly run predatory business system, not numerous depredations by individualist renegades motivated by tradition or gambling instincts. Sea-roving offered investment opportunities to shoreside individuals with large or small amounts of ready capital who might become silent partners if the returns they expected were high enough to warrant the risks involved compared to alternative investments. Profitability has been claimed for maritime brigandage by historians, but rarely proven with significant numerical data, although there is much anecdotal evidence of successful participants. While the records surviving do not permit calculation of the actual average revenues and profits, or even precise reconstruction of the accounts of a venture, enough data exists, principally in Admiralty Court records and documents giving prices, to develop a conjectural pro forma of a typical cruise of the era, one that implies that profits might be reasonably anticipated, high enough to attract investment. Supported by the crown, which facilitated predation to advance defence, trade, loyalty, tax revenue and savings on naval expenditures, the ventures gave returns to all the parties involved: investors, shipowners, captains, suppliers, receivers, government officials as well as the crewmen, that were sufficient to make the predatory system an on-going business.
Item Metadata
Title |
English maritime predation in the mid-sixteenth-century : a high return investment in an established business
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2003
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Description |
This thesis analyzes mid-sixteenth century English maritime predation as a smoothly
run predatory business system, not numerous depredations by individualist renegades
motivated by tradition or gambling instincts. Sea-roving offered investment
opportunities to shoreside individuals with large or small amounts of ready capital who
might become silent partners if the returns they expected were high enough to
warrant the risks involved compared to alternative investments.
Profitability has been claimed for maritime brigandage by historians, but rarely
proven with significant numerical data, although there is much anecdotal evidence of
successful participants. While the records surviving do not permit calculation of the
actual average revenues and profits, or even precise reconstruction of the accounts of a
venture, enough data exists, principally in Admiralty Court records and documents
giving prices, to develop a conjectural pro forma of a typical cruise of the era, one that
implies that profits might be reasonably anticipated, high enough to attract investment.
Supported by the crown, which facilitated predation to advance defence, trade, loyalty,
tax revenue and savings on naval expenditures, the ventures gave returns to all the
parties involved: investors, shipowners, captains, suppliers, receivers, government
officials as well as the crewmen, that were sufficient to make the predatory system an
on-going business.
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Extent |
2544909 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-10-29
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0091103
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2003-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.