Description

Long before the rise of modern industrial shipping, the coastal waters surrounding Ireland were recognized as some of the richest and most sought-after fishing grounds in all of Western Europe. Ireland’s Sea Fisheries 1400 – 1600, Economics, Environment and Ecology delivers an authoritative, data-driven historical analysis of this vital, overlooked maritime economy.

The text guides readers systematically through the structural networks of the medieval fish trade, where fleets from Spain, France, and England paid local Gaelic chieftains and Anglo-Irish lords for the rights to harvest and cure massive quantities of herring, cod, and hake. Utilizing rare customs rolls, local legal disputes, and modern marine archaeological data, the authors examine the economic systems, early coastal settlements, and ecological conditions of the period. Written with direct clarity, this advanced research volume stands as a crucial asset for marine biologists, maritime historians, and economic researchers.

Critical frameworks evaluated within this text:

• The Political Economy: Details how control over lucrative coastal fishing rights and tidal weirs directly funded regional Gaelic lordships and impacted Tudor conquest plans.

• Ecological Baseline Mapping: Uses historical landing logs and climate data to reconstruct the marine environments and fish migration patterns of the late-medieval Atlantic.

• Elite Scholarly Standard: Extensively documented with multi-lingual archival source material, making it a gold-standard reference for university libraries.