The volume of shipping required by the Transport Board changed month by month and year by year, as did the availability of the limited pool of merchant ships from which transports were procured. Whilst the Transport Board was charged with the provision of sufficient tonnage to meet government demands at the lowest cost, the constant dilemma for ship-owners was how to utilise their ships to generate the best return. Economics, not patriotism, was the principal motivation for ship-owners because military success did not earn the contractors who supplied services to the military the gratitude of the public. Victories were bought at a considerable price, and hostility emerged towards the perceived beneficiaries of the escalating military expenditure, including ship-owners.

Ultimately the market determined the availability of shipping for government service, but how successful was the Transport Board in engaging with the industry to achieve its goals? When large tonnages of shipping were required for major expeditions, there were invariably insufficient ships immediately available. This chapter will identify why shortages occurred and assess the impact of government demands on the British shipping industry. For example, did the demand push up freight rates? Did it encourage the building of more ships than would be needed in the long term? Did it divert ships from trade, which might have generated additional revenue for the state?

The size of the British merchant fleet in 1793 gave the government an advantage over rival nations and it was destined to double in capacity over the next thirty years. Its main competitors were Holland and France. Despite the wars there was a rapid expansion in world trade and a corresponding increase in demand for shipping. In 1815 Britain still had the largest merchant fleet, but its closest rival, in terms of fleet size, was then the United States of America. The US had overtaken the other nations as early as 1803 when it was reported in a statement to a Committee of the House of Congress that ‘the merchant tonnage of the United States was now inferior to no other country except Great Britain’.