the English Channel as a Boundary Zone in Early Modern France

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520850
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Kwansei Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: AGA Yujiro 関西学院大学, 文学部, 教授 (80030188)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 境界域 / 英仏海峡 / 奴隷貿易 / 関係史 / 交易ネットワーク / 海の領有 / 奴隷船の構造

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we investigated the role and the significance of the English Channel in early modern France through the movements of people and things and from the view point of "appropriation" of the sea.. First of all, we clarified that several lines were drawn on the English Channel as a result of repeated negotiations about the territorial limit, the exclusive fishing zone and the custom control zone between France and England in this period. We consider that this situation was the origin of the formation of international maritime law.
Secondly, we inspected the characteristics of the French slave trade through the examination of the maritime state of affairs (for example, slave trade ship, funds and cargoes invested in the project) and the "seamen" engaged in the trade.We made sure that the slave trade wan not so much profitable as the abolitionist had formerly insisted, but that English trade system was more efficient than that of France from a comparative point of view..

Free Research Field

西洋史学