This thesis attempts to trace the effect of the increased size and complexity of armies and navies in the early VIth Century on the English supply services, and also to analyse selected campaigns as a test of governmental efficiency. The provision of ships, guns, gunpowder, and hand-weapons is first discussed, in relation to national self-sufficiency. Ship timber was occasionally imported, but England could, if necessary, have done without foreign supplies; the timber problem was not a pressing one at this period. Naval stores (pitch, cordage etc.) on the other hand, were almost always imported, and the Baltic had thus already acquired something of its later strategic importance. Equally important were the Netherlands. In 1509 all but the smallest artillery was obtained there. This was remedied by the beginning of large-scale bronze and cast-iron gun-manufacture in England; but England still depended on the Netherlands in 1550 for saltpetre (for gunpowder) and copper (for bronze). Werner Sombart's contention that military requirements stimulated the growth of large-scale industry is discussed; shipbuilding and cannon-founding support his argument, provided that the small-scale of industry in general at this period is borne in mind.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:671435 |
| Date | January 1963 |
| Creators | Davies, Clifford Stephen Lloyd |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ac2b1591-ebd9-4446-9a4f-6fb360d1be60 |
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