The Adventurers for Irish land transformed England’s trade and government finances in the mid-seventeenth century, laying the foundations of the British Empire and modern fiscal state. This is the first book to recognise the key role of the Adventurers and the centrality of Ireland to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

At the start of the English Civil War, a small group of merchants quickly gained an iron grip on the country’s trade. They dictated key policies for Ireland and the colonies and financed the struggle against Charles I, raising £250,000 to send an army to Ireland but sending it instead to fight for parliament in England. These merchants were the Adventurers for Irish land.Although they supported Cromwell’s military campaigns, the leading Adventurers rejected his Protectorate in a dispute over their Irish land entitlements and eventually helped to restore the monarchy. Charles II rewarded them with one million confiscated Irish acres, despite their role in deposing his father. Empire and enterprise is the first book to explain this great paradox in Irish history, and to recognize the centrality of Ireland to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It examines the background and relentless rise of the Adventurers, the remarkable scope of their trading empires and their profound political influence.Empire and enterprise is essential reading for students and scholars working on Britain and Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century, the origins of England’s empire and the Cromwellian land settlement.