Coastal Policing in Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Riddle of the Coast, c.1660-1822

The first comprehensive study of Britain's coastal policing and administration across the long eighteenth century.


Throughout Britain's past its coast has presented security concerns. Despite this long history of raids, smugglers and warfare, consistent, designated and permanent coastal enforcement bodies were only established in England in the 1690s. Initially a reaction to the threats of the Nine Years' Wars, their creation spoke to a new understanding of "The Coast" as a politically disti...