Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 English Expansion into Spanish America and the Development of a Pro-martime War Argument
- PART I PRO-MARITIME WAR ARGUMENTS DURING THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
- PART II IMPACT ON REALITY
- Chapter 4 Impact on Reality: Naval Policy
- Chapter 5 Impact on Reality: Legislation
- Chapter 6 The South Sea Company and its Plan for a Navel Expedition in 1712
- PART III PRO-MARITIME WAR ARGUMENTS AFTER 1714
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - Impact on Reality: Legislation
from PART II - IMPACT ON REALITY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 English Expansion into Spanish America and the Development of a Pro-martime War Argument
- PART I PRO-MARITIME WAR ARGUMENTS DURING THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
- PART II IMPACT ON REALITY
- Chapter 4 Impact on Reality: Naval Policy
- Chapter 5 Impact on Reality: Legislation
- Chapter 6 The South Sea Company and its Plan for a Navel Expedition in 1712
- PART III PRO-MARITIME WAR ARGUMENTS AFTER 1714
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The pro-maritime war argument has an impact not only on naval policy but also on legislation in Parliament. During the War of the Spanish Succession, there were several attempts to promote colonial privateering and private expeditions to conquer enemy territory by legislation. The ‘Act for the Encouragement of Trade to America’ (hereafter, the ‘American Act’), enacted in 1708, together with the ‘Act for the better securing the Trade of this Kingdom, by Cruisers and Convoys’ (hereafter, the ‘Cruisers and Convoy Act’), can be regarded as the culmination of these attempts.
This American Act has been referred to by several historians who study maritime or American colonial history of the eighteenth century in different contexts. Those who study privateering, such as David J. Starkey and Carl E. Swanson, have regarded the American Act, as well as the Cruisers and Convoy Act, as momentous because the legislation granted the whole value of prizes to captors and established a legal procedure for the condemnation of prizes and distribution of profits. Likewise, according to historians who look at the issue of naval impressments, such as Richard Pares and Nicholas Rogers, the act was significant in that it exempted seamen from impressment in America. On the other hand, Curtis Nettels has mentioned the act in the context of Spanish-American trade and English privateers' attacks on it.
- Type
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- Information
- Britain and Colonial Maritime War in the Early Eighteenth CenturySilver, Seapower and the Atlantic, pp. 134 - 159Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013