| Description |
285 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 20 cm |
| Contents |
1. The genus cannabis -- 2. The importance of hemp in the age of sail -- 3. Sir Joseph Banks - Britain's 'presiding genius' -- 4. The American revolution and the hemp crisis of 1783-1787 -- 5. Naval supplies during the American revolutionary war -- 6. Joseph Banks and New Zealand hemp -- 7. Banks' plans for Botany Bay -- 8. The Norfolk Island hemp experiment -- 9. The Indian hemp trail -- 10. The secret committee and the Indian hemp trial -- 11. George Sinclair and the Indian hemp experiment -- 12. George Sinclair on the hemp question -- 13. Sir Joseph Banks and the Committee of Trade -- 14. The role of naval stores during the French revolutionary wars -- 15. Tsar Paul and the Franco-Russian Alliance --16. Sir Joseph Banks and the hemp crisis of 1801 -- 17. The Baltic War of 1801 -- 18. The French Revolutionary Wars and the price of hemp -- 19 Sir Joseph Banks and the question of hemp -- 20. Banks' Indian hemp solution -- 21. Indian hemp (Cannabis indica) -- 22. Roxburgh's error -- 23. Banks, Coleridge and Indian cannabis -- 24. Banks, hemp and Russia -- 25. Naval supplies during the Napoleonic Wars -- 26. Naval strategy in the Napoleonic Wars -- 27. Tlhe rape of Copenhagen -- 28. Maintaining the Northern trade --29. The 'American' trade -- 30 Conclusion |
| Summary |
Two hundred years ago, hemp - Cannabis sativa - was the most important plant on the planet. As the basis for sail and rope, hemp was as strategic in the Age of Sail as oil is in our era. Today oil supplies and alternatives to oil occupy some of the greatest minds of our time. Two hundred years ago, Sir Joseph Banks - Britains' 'presiding genius' and the 'father of Australia' - was pre-occupied with hemp supplies and alternatives to hemp. Using previously unpublished documents by Sir Joseph Banks on the hemp question, Dr Jiggens argues that the settlement of Australia was for the purpose of hemp, and the convicts were a cover to mislead Britain's rivals. The late eighteenth century saw an extended hemp crisis in Britain, which produced hemp experiments in Canada, India and the Pacific. Banks supervised hemp colonies in the Pacific and India, where his team encountered the Indian hemp plant, Cannabis indica, also known as marijuana. Like twins in a stage farce, these strikingly similar plants would confuse Banks and frustrate his attempt to solve the Question of Hemp |
| Analysis |
Australian |
|
History (Australia) |
|
Local history (Australia) |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 276-285) |
| Subject |
Banks, Joseph, 1743-1820.
|
|
Hemp -- History.
|
|
Hemp -- Australia -- History.
|
|
Hemp -- Australia.
|
| ISBN |
9780957868434 (paperback) |
|
