Barry M. Gough is Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

• Contents: Introduction; James Cook and British Enterprise in the North Pacific: The Northwest coast in late 18th century British expansion; New empires of trade and territory in the time of Malaspina; Pacific exploration in the 1780s and 1790s; James Cook and the origins of the maritime fur trade; India-based expeditions of trade and discovery in the North Pacific in the late 18th century; William Bolts and the Austrian attempt to establish an eastern empire; The North West Company's 'adventure to China'; Peter Pond and Athabasca: fur trade, discovery, and empire; British-Russian rivalry and the search for the Northwest Passage in the early 19th century; The Royal Navy and the Oregon crisis, 1844-46; Forests and sea power: a Vancouver Island economy, 1778-1875; Possessing Meares Island. Pax Britannica: South America, Canada, And The Pacific: Sea power and South America: the 'Brazils' or South American station of the Royal Navy, 1808-37; Specie conveyance from the west coast of Mexico in British warships, c.1820-70: an aspect of the Pax Britannica; The records of the Royal Navy's Pacific station; Canada and the North Pacific, 1871-1914: problems of a lion's cub in an open den; The Royal Navy and Canadian dominion; Sea power and British North America: the maritime foundations of the Canadian state; Pax Britannica: peace, force and world power. Index.

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