‘These peaceable times are the devil’: Royal Navy officers in the post-war slump, 1815–1825

2014/07/24 by Martin Wilcox · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Australian History and Society #Historical Economic and Social Studies

paper · doi:10.1177/0843871414543445

openalex publication_date 2014/07/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12

Abstract

During the Napoleonic War, the Royal Navy grew to an unprecedented size, but with the return of peace it dispensed with the services of an also unprecedented 124,000 men. By 1818, around 90% of commissioned officers were unemployed and on half pay. Drawing on the papers of navy agent Robert Brine, as well as Admiralty and Parliamentary sources, this paper sets out the scale of the unemployment problem among commissioned officers and the effects it had upon them, and surveys the options available to erstwhile sea officers and the strategies the deployed to make a living amid the post-war slump.

Discussions

• ‘These peaceable times are the devil’: Royal Navy officers in the post-war slump, 1815–1825 by Martin Wilcox was published as part of Volume 26, Issue 3 (2014) doi.org/10.1177/0843... Why not check [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]

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