16世紀イングランドの船員たちと船上文化 : かれらの経済活動の分析を中心として

The seamen’s culture on shipboard is an unexplored field in the maritime history in early modern England. I consider this theme through the analysis of shipboard economy in Guinea trade. In this article, I pay more attention to seamen’s economic activity on shipboard rather than the trade in Guinea itself. I use their wills written on shipboard in order to reconstruct their economic activity. They were not only their last narration, but also important evidence of their economic activity.
The conclusion is as follows; they were free agents who were able to negotiate with promoters about their wages and working conditions, etc. , on every voyage. They actively deal with commodities and so on, based on credit system among them. Moreover, they were permitted their private trade, apart from the formal trade, in Guinea. They were their important additional income in the trade.
The seamen in Elizabethan period were neither ignorant, uncontrolled, inorganic, unreasonable nor rebellious. They carried on their economic activity based on their trusting relationship and had abundant personality.