Colonial America In The 18th Century

This dissertation considers the connection between British naval power and Colonial America in the eighteenth century. To be specific, I concentrate on how the navy dealt with American naval stores and the naval stores policy for its procurement of goods from 1690 to 1770. This dissertation analyses the navy’s use of naval stores both from the Baltic areas and Colonial America and the navy’s views about the naval stores policy. In the eighteenth century, the American colonies were the chief sources of masts, pitch, and tar for Britain. Therefore, the navy used them for building warships and expressed the views about these commodities.

In the eighteenth century, many contemporary people commented how the colonies in North America could contribute

Their studies about naval stores were divided roughly into four groups. The first is the study about the naval logistics, which is the most important for this dissertation. These studies focus on the navy’s procurement of naval stores. Among them, Robert Albion’s study is quite famous. His work has affected other studies about naval stores for more than 80 years. He emphasises the relationship between the naval power and forests from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Regarding the eighteenth century, he makes a point of the importance of New England masts for the navy and concludes that the stop of the import of New England masts caused the permanent loss of the Thirteen Colonies. In contrast, Knight asserts that the effects of the loss of American masts were not serious, because Russia, especially Riga, was the largest supplier of masts to Britain in the 1760s and 1770s. As for American naval stores, Julian Gwyn focuses on the contribution of the Northern Colonies and Canada to the Royal Navy. His studies illustrate the gradual rise in the importance of American forests for the navy in the second part of the eighteenth century. Some studies deal with the navy’s procurement of naval stores from other areas. Kirby concentrates on the navy’s purchase of Baltic pitch and tar at the reign of Queen Anne, as Sweden was the largest source of pitch and tar for Britain before 1715. The navy’s search for new sources of naval stores after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies draws scholars’ attention. Frost explains the navy’s interest in the transportation of masts and hemp from Oceania to India in the 1780s. Crimmin focuses on the navy’s search for sources of timber to cope with the timber shortages in the Napoleonic Wars. These studies show the considerable effects of wars on the navy’s procurement of naval stores in the long eighteenth century. Furthermore,