ABSTRACT
At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign this essential service was under the control of Edward Baeshe, who had been appointed General Surveyor of Victuals for the Seas. Then with the 1565 bargain printed here, victualling was placed on a contract basis, and the new procedures by which Baeshe alone was accountable to the Exchequer. A large amount of supporting material is to be found among the State Papers and elsewhere. Reconstructing Baeshe's operation ought therefore to be fairly straightforward, but there are inevitably some residual mysteries. For the most part Baeshe's papers give simply the dates and numbers of men for which ships were victualled; commodities, quantities and prices are not itemised, though cash totals are given at the foot of each original page, and at the end. Because of the increasing cost of Baeshe's supplies and other complicating factors the terms contracted soon became unrealistic, and in response to his repeated representations of the fact some allowances were made.
