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One
of the hardest tasks facing the regime was that of feeding the
army and navy and provisioning the militia. The provision of
an adequate food supply was easier in those areas with fertile
soil such as the Netherlands and France . Ireland by comparison
was barren and could barely satisfy the needs of the native
population. Sir John Perrot when Lord Deputy of Ireland frequently
expressed alarm at the difficulty at keeping the garrison fed.
There were often fears that troops must withdraw from Ireland
unless provision were sent from England .
An
invading English army in any country was faced with the problem
of their demands forcing a rise in the price of provisions,
even in the comparative plenty of France and the Netherlands
. When Leicester arrived in the Netherlands he took the precaution
of arranging for provisions to be shipped from England as a
reserve stock in case the enemy interfered with the local food
supply and too keep local prices from getting out of hand.
The
troops of the army had to pay for their rations out of their
wages and would go hungry if the prices were too high and become
sick if the quality was too poor. In the earlier part of Elizabeth
's reign the supply of food was principally in the hands of
merchants working on their own account. It is not entirely clear
how these were selected. The appointments may have been in the
gift of the higher ranking officers or of the Privy Council
itself. The victuallers followed the army
as civilians, bought provisions locally or carried supplies
from England and retailed them to the troops. It was customary
for the Crown to advance a small sum to enable these private
merchants to lay in their first supplies. The restrictions were
relaxed on the export of foodstuffs to enable the merchants
to provision the troops when in the field.
The
wages the troops needs to pay for their victuals
were constantly in arrears. The victuallers
had to offer credit and when wages were paid the prices were
often inflated in order to make good the merchant's losses.
When there were no wages for the troops the victuallers
had to use his own resources to provide the provisions
and beer.
There
were frequent complaints about the activities of private merchants.
They were known to charge 30% more than the open market price.
Of course some of this may have been to defray the expenses
of transportation of food by sea and cart to the army. There
was some pressure to cut down the number of victuallers
to avoid all going bankrupt. The existence of the
victuallers could be precarious but there
must have been compensations and the opportunity of a good return
in the right circumstances for so many to wish to be involved.
Competition between private merchants seems to have led to a
considerable amount of trouble and various devices were used
to regulate it. For example, in Normandy in 1589, private victuallers
were ordered to supply men only from their own county,
to prevent competition amongst them for the entire force.
The
poor victuals at high prices, supplied by
private merchants, were often a source of discontent and partly
caused the mutiny at Ostend in 1588. The soldiers threw a victualler
into the harbour in the hope that he would provide
better service in future.
Profiteering
was not the only crime of the merchants. It was not unusual
for some of the merchants to sell goods to the enemy if the
price were sufficiently attractive. English corn was being exported
to Spain even at the time of the Armada. When a merchant was
exporting corn they had to give a bond for double the value
of the goods exported, which were redeemable only when proof
of the supplies being received by the proper authority abroad.
Any shipment not covered by a licence was liable to confiscation.
IT was certainly known that some coastwise shipments within
England were “blown off course” and had to land on the continent.
Eventually
the Privy Council entered into contracts with a small number
of reliable established merchants to provision the army. The
council were more able to keep track of the supplies sent abroad
because the merchants were made responsible to the crown. They
partially transferred the financial burden from the merchants
to the government. The transfer from private hands was beginning
about 1580. In that year the Privy Council accepted the offer
of a Liverpool merchant to supply food to the army in Ireland
. Half the costs were paid to the merchant when the contract
was signed. However the goods were to be carried at the merchant's
risk. If the goods were shipwrecked, waylaid by pirates, captured
by the enemy or went bad in transport the merchant lost his
half of the value of the goods. The balance was paid when the
food reached Ireland . The first comprehensive Netherlands contract
was signed in 1588 when some London merchants undertook to supply
the English forces.
The
transport of the food was organised in much the same way as
the transport of levies. Ships were requisitioned and the sailors
pressed into service as occasion demanded, the greater part
of the work falling on the shoulders of the civic authorities
of the ports from which the food transports sailed. Instructions
were issued to public officers to help the contractors buy bread,
biscuit, butter, cheese, oatmeal, flour, bacon, and beer. They
were to see that they or their representatives were able to
ship these supplies without hindrance. Even as late as 1598
the victuallers were complaining that the
customs officials were molesting them and trying to charge duty
on the export of the food.
The
rations supplied to the forces consisted of biscuit or wheat
to be baked as biscuit locally; oatmeal and hulled oats, peas,
beans, rice, butter and cheese; pork, bacon and fresh and salt
beef, fresh Dutch ling, dried Newfoundland cod (stockfish),
and herring (red – smoked and white – salted), and beer. The
latter being an essential in the soldiers' diet. If he drank
water he soon fell victim to disease. In Flushing the beer allowance
was half a gallon a day. The ration in 1598 was a quart a day
supplemented by half a pint of sack and every second day half
a pint of whisky. A drink simply known as “beverage” was made
from liquorice and aniseed was also provided for the troops.
In the victualling contracts the rations were
supplied in detail. The daily allowance, in one example, was
a pound of bread or biscuit (1d), three ounces of butter (¾d),
six ounces of cheese (1d), and three quarters of a pint of oatmeal
(¾d). Transport and other expenses were reckoned at (½d)
per man, raising the daily cost of a man's rations to 4½d.
On
the seventh day they would supply two pounds of salt beef or
two and a half pounds of fresh beef. Alternative daily rations
if beef were in short supply would be a quarter of a Dutch ling,
eight herrings, one large Newfoundland cod or one and a half
smaller cod. Salt fish were an unpopular substitute for meat
because it aroused a thirst that was not easily quenched. Alternative
to cheese were disadvantageous to an army on the move since
they required cooking using pans and fuel.
Discontent
and disease were the inevitable consequence of victualling
from a government store because the food was often
very old and damp. The victualler's agent
issued the food. The role of the victualler
began in England , where he superintended the lading of food
transports at the port. He then accompanied them on their journey
and the cargoes were examined on arrival for damage by seawater.
He was responsible for keeping records of the amount of food
issued to the troops which formed the basis of a monthly statement
on which the deductions from pay were based. He also kept a
record of supplies going bad in store, which as a precaution
against fraud had to be signed by two witnesses of good character.
During
Elizabeth 's reign there was a gradual transfer of the organisation
of victualling . At the beginning the food
was supplied by free-lance victuallers and
by the end a contracting system had been firmly established
to the greater benefit of the service.
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