We have investigated the transnational exchange of warmaking resources between states and non-state actors from the early sixteenth to later nineteenth centuries through six case studies. Five examined key locations which served as ‘hubs’ for organising the exchange of military personnel, experts, information and intelligence, finance, war materials, and use of foreign facilities, including the transit across other states’ territory and waters. These cases were Amsterdam, Geneva, Genoa, London, and Vienna. A sixth study was framed regionally by tracking the movement of key military assets in and out of the Baltic using the digitised Sound Toll data. Additionally, the PI examined all aspects across Europe to plot key continuities and changes in practice, and to explain how and why the system emerged, developed, and was eventually progressively dismantled as previously accepted practices lost their legitimacy.
Our combination of qualitative and quantitative methods allowed us to measure the scale and scope of the interchange between states and non-state actors in the supply of war resources. We have discovered that virtually all resources came from Europe, with non-European supply being important in only a few instances, notably saltpetre, a key ingredient of gunpowder. States interacted with the system differently with this changing over time. For instance, Britain initially exported manpower and some armaments, switching after 1688 to hire large numbers of auxiliaries with the onset of each new conflict. By contrast, Sweden relied heavily on foreign subsidies to defend itself. We capitalised on the economies of scale deriving from pursuing disparate yet interconnected strands of research simultaneously and to examine phenomena which are usually studied separately, such as money transfers and military operations.
We have published our findings in 19 peer reviewed open access outputs, with a further 8 in press, and six books under contract. A further book, co-authored by the project team, will showcase our findings through 64 objects and images exemplifying key aspects of the exchange of warmaking resources. This is under contract and will be published open access. Additionally, we disseminated our findings through organising 7 workshops and conferences, by presenting papers to scholars and the wider public, and publishing a series of blogs on our website. We are also making available two sets of quantitative research data on a stable openly accessible platform.
