Comprehensive history of British conceptions of empire from the 1540s to the 1740s.

1. Introduction: state and empire in British history; 2. The empire of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Ireland, c. 1542-1612; 3. Protestantism and empire: Hakluyt, Purchas and property; 4. The empire of the seas, 1576-1689; 5. Liberty and empire; 6. The political economy of empire; 7. Empire and ideology in the Walpolean era.