The Quota System (also known as ''The Quod''), introduced by Prime Minister

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

in 1795, required each British county to provide a quota of men for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, based on its population and the number of its seaports: London, for example, had to provide 5,704 quotamen while

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

had to provide 1,081. The counties found it difficult to meet the quotas. Some offered high cash bounties to inexperienced volunteers (mostly inexperienced landsmen) and created resentment among the regular seamen, who, despite their experience, had received only a small fraction of that bounty on their own volunteering (and none if they were pressed). Sometimes, the counties resorted to sending convicted criminals in lieu of punishment, further creating ill feeling among ships' companies and sometimes introducing

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

(otherwise known as ''gaol fever''). Britain ended using the quota system, along with

impressment Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is a type of conscription of people into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European nav ...

, in 1815, at the close of the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, when much of the fleet was decommissioned, and the supply of unemployed seamen was more than adequate to man the remaining ships.

References

External links

Nelson's Navy: The Impress Service
18th-century history of the Royal Navy 19th-century history of the Royal Navy Conscription in the United Kingdom 1795 establishments in Great Britain 1815 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1795 in military history Quotas {{UK-navy-stub