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

The long 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 English 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 colonization successively through from the early Bristol quest for ''Brasil'' to the diverse ventures of the 1620s. The last chapter comments on the interaction of trade, plunder and settlement and the wave-like chronological pattern of the English advance to oceanic empire.