Evolution Of The Modern British Maritime Trade Protection Policy (mid-17th Century Early 20th Century)

Due to the geographical features, the history of British sea-borne trade is very long. And the protection of sea-borne trade can be traced back to the times before Norman Conquest. For quite a long time, the security of British sea-borne trade had mainly depended on merchant ships' travelling together. In the middle of the seventeenth century, British began to convoy merchant ships with warships because of the expansion of overseas trade and its importance. And the convoy had been the main protection policy of British sea-borne trade until the early nineteenth Century. Though this policy had played a positive role, it had some defects. And because of the growing number of British merchant ships and the development of shipbuilding technology, its defects were obvious day by day, which was one important reason of being suspicious of effectiveness of convoy.After the mid nineteenth century, because the first industrial revolution finished and the level of industrialization was improved, Britain heavily depended on overseas, not only in industrial products'sale, but also in raw materials, grain and other important materials'supply. So the safety of sea-borne trade became vital to British economic prosperity and national existence. However, because of various new situations caused by technological change and economic development, effectiveness of the traditional convoy policy was questioned. British began to explore more effective sea-borne trade protection policy. In1874, Alexander Milne, the First Naval Lord, presented'Cruising Routes'idea, which transferred the center of protection from merchant ships to routes. In1878, the Carnarvon commission was established and made four-years investigation into the sea-borne trade security. Its report had important reference value and guiding significance for formation of the sea-borne trade protection policy.In the1880s and1890s, under the influence of sea-power thinkers and the Carnarvon commission's report, Britain gave up the direct protection policy, and formed the'naval blockade and attack'policy, which meant that at the start of the war, royal navy should blockade enemy's naval bases timely and attack enemy's strongholds and maritime ships actively, to attract enemy's naval forces and protect British sea-borne trade objectively. This policy had actually beyonded a mere sea-borne trade protection policy, but stipulated one wartime strategy direction of British navy. Because international situation became tense increasingly, Britain began to carry out the policy in the later stage of1880s.At the beginning of twentieth century, Britain discussed the sea-borne trade protection policy once again due to various reasons. After much investigations and careful considerations, Britain formulated a relatively comprehensive policy of protecting wartime sea-borne trade before the war. Its main contents are as follows. Firstly, commanding the sea is prerequisite. Secondly, in order to provide the direct protection for sea-borne trade, Britain should'station fleets on specific locations along the war routes', and restrain the merchant ships'actions strictly in wartime. Thirdly, the government should take some economic and legal auxiliary measures in wartime, which reflected the development trend of British sea-borne trade protection policy, i.e. from simply relying on navy to mainly relying on navy and also benefiting from some auxiliary measures.