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Interpreting Power and Profit in Economic History: A Case Study of the Seven Years War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Larry Neal
Larry Neal
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Abstract

This article examines the economic costs to the British nation of the Seven Years War. Drawing upon manuscript records and secondary studies, the author analyzes in detail the diversion of resources to the Navy and the effect of increased debts on the economy. Finding that the burden was great but the impact apparently slight, the author suggests that the English may have drawn substantially upon extra-national sources of capital, labor and materials.

Type
Papers Presented at the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 1977 , pp. 20 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1977

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References

1 Churchill, Winston, A History of the English Speaking Peoples (New York, 1956–58)Google Scholar, vol. 3, The Age of Revolution, ch. 11; Gipson, Lawrence, The British Empire before the American Revolution, vol. 6, The Great War for the Empire: Years of Defeat, 1754–1757 (New York, 1946).Google Scholar

2 Ehrman, J. W., The Navy in the War of William III, 1689–1697 (Cambridge, 1953).Google Scholar

3 Mahan, A. T., The Importance of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 (London, 1899)Google Scholar; Crowhurst, R. P., “The Admiralty and the Convoy System in the Seven Years War,” Mariner's Mirror, 57 (1971), 163–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Graham, Gerald, Empire of the North Atlantic: The Maritime Struggle for North America (Toronto, 1950)Google Scholar; and Corbett, J. W., England in the Seven Years War, 2 vols. (London, 1907).Google Scholar

4 Davis, Ralph, “Seamen's Sixpences: An Index of Commercial Activity,” Economica, N.S. 23 (Nov. 1956), 328–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar, describes the origins and administration of this tax.

5 Schumpeter, Elizabeth Boody, English Overseas Trade, 1697–1808 (Oxford, 1960)Google Scholar, Tables III and IV; Davis, Ralph, The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1962), p. 27.Google Scholar

6 These figures are primarily based on information kindly supplied the author by Mr. John W. Brown, University of Exeter. Under the direction of Professor Walter Minchinton, Brown is conducting a quantitative investigation of privateering during the Seven Years War, based on letters of marque filed at the British Public Record Office (subsequently referred to as P.R.O.) under HCA 24. I have corroborated his numbers for 1756 from bail bonds filed under HCA 25. The numbers shown are running totals of the crew sizes reported for each letter of marque. Brown's source omits crew size for some ships; for 1756 the shortfall is ten percent. In later years, however, overcounting is likely since each ship obtained a new letter of marque whenever it changed captain, owner, port of origin, or name. Duplication does not exceed ten percent before 1762 when new letters of marque had to be issued against Spain.

7 Ibid., fols. 522 and 537.

8 ADM 4/371 is a large folio volume of 537 pages completely filled with handwritten entries, usually giving crew sizes for the boats protected, but containing a large number of blanket protections. Other volumes record protections issued later in the war and protections issued for apprentices and foreigners. In December 1758, the House of Commons asked for and received an accounting of all protections that had been issued to that date. No trace of these accounts has been found by the author.

9 House of Commons Journals, vol. 28, p. 318.

10 National Maritime Museum, ADM/B/161, “Admiralty In-Letters from the Navy Board, 1759.” I gratefully acknowledge the help of Professor Julian Gwyn, Department of History, University of Ottawa, who suggested I check this source.

11 British Sessional Papers, Bills, I, 13 (1739) “To facilitate Manning of the Fleet,” p. 10.

12 P.R.O., ADM 49/47.

13 P.R.O., HCA 24. Courtesy of Mr. John W. Brown.

14 P.R.O., HCA 34/37–42.

15 P.R.O., ADM 7/352.

16 HCJ, vol. 27, pp. 44, 412, 666; vol. 28, pp. 354, 661; vol. 29, pp. 39, 430, 691.

17 Beveridge, William et al., Prices and Wages in England, vol. 1, Price Tables: The Mercantile Era (London, 1939), pp. 513–28.Google Scholar

18 SirClapham, John, The Bank of England, vol. 1, 1694–1797 (New York, 1945), p. 237.Google Scholar

19 British Parliamentary Papers, 1868–69, vol. 35, p. 124 ff. gives the following comparison for years ending October 10 (millions of pounds sterling):

20 Wilson, Charles, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1941)Google Scholar; Carter, Alice, “Dutch Foreign Investment, 1738–1800,” Economica, N.S. 20 (1953), 322–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., “Transfers of Certain Public Stocks in the London Money Market, from 1 January to 31 March 1755,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 78 (Nov. 1955), 202–12; and id., The Dutch Republic in Europe in the Seven Years War (Coral Gables, Florida, 1971).

21 Carter, Dutch Republic, pp. 149–62.

22 Ibid., p. 140.

23 Dickson, P. G. M., The Financial Revolution in England (New York, 1967), p. 322.Google Scholar