The regulation and taxation of Irish trade under the Tudors have strong but neglected claims on the attention of the Irish historian. Their obvious relevance to the economic activities of the country and, in particular, its seaborne trade will only incidentally be discussed here. Dr Longfield’s pioneer account of Anglo-Irish trade has at length been followed up by more systematic explorations of her chief sources, the English and Welsh port books and customs accounts, and a definitive treatment of this sector is surely not far distant. Even here, however, where an enviable amount of solid information is available—despite their incompleteness and familiar problems of interpreting the port books—no one seems to have asked why Irish historians have to use non-Irish sources.