Entre impératifs stratégiques et subsistance civile : approvisionnement insulaire, cabotage et petits ports en Bretagne-sud au XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

Over the past few years researchers in maritime history have shown a marked interest in port microsites and the modes of local coastal navigation. The present article is a contribution to this field: it illustrates the dynamics of Eighteenth-Century small ports in Southern Brittany which had to supply a strategic fortress of major importance for the kingdom of France. This computer-assisted case study bears on relatively neglected sources (the archives of the service of military supplies). It sheds some light on the living conditions of a garrison in the early modern age, assesses island-supplying problems and tackles the procedures used to remedy them.