Natural knowledge and sea power : the cultivation of hemp in the British imperial world

This thesis argues that Britain’s global search for naval raw materials, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, produced knowledge about natural resources and human communities that played a profound role in the making of the modern world. Connections and comparisons are formed with events that have mostly been neglected by historians, only mentioned in passing, or approached as discrete fragments of the past. The findings intersect local, national and regional histories in the fields of agriculture and science, while providing an original perspective on the debate surrounding Australia’s colonial origins.