ABSTRACT
The British coastline is littered with long-lost ports; here and there a "new" one tests the water. Compared with past performance--and ignoring deep-water quays--most of the old major ports are dying or dead. Harwich, Felixstowe and Dover have taken their places, partly because of changes in composition of trade; partly because of shifts in its direction; and partly because of the entrepreneurial skills of those building new ports. Much is made of the importance of port facilities, 1 but historical evidence would seem to show that these are less important than total transport networks and mercantile connections, which constantly change. The purpose of this paper is to trace the relationship between various influences on the rise, fall, rise, fall and rise of the port of Great Grimsby since 1796. It seems appropriate in this volume to consider the "trade-makers" in one of the English ports about which Peter Davies has written
