Fleet strength supported the commercial system behind Britain's international position. Shipping, insurance, trading information, and financial decisions clustered in London because maritime traffic generated the information on which money moved. A large navy protected that network and the overseas infrastructure supporting it. The Washington settlement granted the United States paper parity, but the Royal Navy expected Congress not to fund enough cruisers, destroyers, carriers, and supporting ships to realize that equality. The wager held throughout the interwar period, leaving the British advantage larger in practice than treaty ratios alone suggest.
Chapter · 32:18-34:47
British maritime power depends on more than treaty parity
Britain's shipping, finance, and global information networks made naval reach essential, while the Admiralty gambled that Congress would not fund the US Navy to its paper entitlement.