Trading in War
Margarette Lincoln, Trading in War: London's Maritime World in the Age of Cook and Nelson (Yale University Press, 2018)
Summary: An extremely detailed exploration into the world of British shipyards in the 17th- and 18th-centuries. Covers the politics surrounding the Port of London, the West India and East India corporate docks, and the role of the Navy Board. Less a history of the period and more a laser sharp focus on the intricacies of commercial life and development.
Key Quote: "If Britain had profited from protectionism, the new docks gave London the facilities it needed to thrive in the era of free trade that many predicted would come with peace...The port was to endure until the early 1980s, when containerization led to larger ships that could not get upriver." - p. 246
Bottom Line: Read this book if you're interested in the infrastructural nuts-and-bolts that made Horatio Hornblower possible.
