Books on ships and the sea crowd the shelves of our libraries in endless variety, and scores of new ones appear every year to feed an appetite for the subject which appears insatiable. Naturally enough, the majority of them look to the more romantic or exciting aspects; to stirring adventures, wartime heroism, the hazards of exploration and the picturesque exploits of individuals. All the same, it is surprising that hardly anyone has ever attempted to examine the practical functioning of the shipping industry before modern times, and the material reasons for its growth. Most ships, after all, exist to carry on trade; the principal fonction of the navy has been to protect traders; and the people who kept the whole complex of trade in motion were anxious to see certainty and routine rather than speculation and excitement in the operation of their ships. Shipowners in sailing ship days, no less than in the era of diesel engines, were in the business for profit. Even Sir Francis Drake owed a good deal of popularity to the good dividends he paid! I hope this book will help all who are interested in ships, from whatever point of view, to see their own special interests against the background of the regular, year-round functioning of a great industry; one from which, like any other, men expected to earn their livings.

My second aim has been to cast a little more light into two centuries of our economic history. The prime question of modern economic history is that of the causation of the Industrial Revolution in England. We are still very far from answering it, and the solution will only come when we can apply our economic ideas to a much wider range of information about the preceding century or two than we have at present. It is my belief that one particularly fruitful field of study may be that of the development of overseas trade and its influences throughout the economy. In examining an industry which was ancillary to trade I hope I have contributed to this wider study, providing another foothold for those who will eventually advance to an explanation of how, in late eighteenth- century England, there came about an industrial explosion that has transformed the world.