Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480 - 1630

by Kenneth R. Andrews

Not since 1945 has a general account of the origins of the British Empire been published, as if the demise of the empire freed us from our imperial past and historians from any obligation to digest it. Of course, it has done nothing of the kind, but it does enable the historian today to approach that past in a more critical spirit and to attempt a deeper and more detached analysis than could have been expected a generation ago. The purpose of this work is therefore not merely to recount but to explain the course of English overseas expansion and the beginning of the overseas empire; a prolonged pregnancy, culminating in a difficult birth and sickly infancy.

The introductory essay discusses the forces and motives involved in the expansion movement, which is seen as being part of a wider European movement and derivative in many ways from it. The author considers the attitude and conduct of the Tudors and early Stuarts towards this fundamentally commercial movement and examines the nature and importance of sea power, the contribution of different social groups, and the relevance of religious and economic ideals as well as nationalistic sentiment. These various themes are taken up again in the narrative chapters which follow, dealing with the enterprises of exploration, trade, plunder and colonisation successively through from the early Bristol quest for 'Brasil' to the diverse ventures of the 1620s.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

394 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Kenneth Richmond Andrews was an American academic who, along with H. Igor Ansoff and Alfred D. Chandler, was credited with the foundational role in introducing and popularizing the concept of business strategy

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a second reading for me, the first having been in graduate school. Particularly relevant this time as it followed close upon the heels of reading Haywood's Ocean, which covers much of the same material but from an Afro-centric, rather than British, perspective. The two together make provide an even richer treatment of the age of exploration, with its array of heroes, villains, heroic feats, despicable depredations, in other words, the usual mix of good, bad, and middling, all of which play a designated role in the grand design.

[Diane Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read this book from cover to cover, but in pieces for the purpose of supplemental character research. It has some fantastic insight on the British influence in shaping the world.