ABSTRACT
The rise of oceanic commerce had important influences on regional development within Britain itself which are reflected in the relative performance of the ports (10.12). The southeast had long been the most populous and productive region, with many ports serving restricted hinterlands on the coasts between Bristol and Hull and engaging mainly in trade with nearby Europe. While they continued or even expanded their traditional role, they were largely irrelevant to the commercial and industrial revolutions. Despite pier and harbour improvements in the eighteenth century, few made much progress between 1791 and 1841 (10.5-6) (Swann, 1968). London, as the chief population and production centre, had always been the hub of British commerce and was undoubtedly the major instigator and beneficiary of colonial trade, retaining through the East India Company a monopoly of Indian trade till 1813 and Chinese till 1833. The relative position of the capital did decline as geographical advantage enabled Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol to capture a substantial share of transatlantic commerce, and in the case of the last two to engage in the slave trade (Hyde, 1971; Minchinton, 1957). They accumulated great wealth which was further invested in the processing of colonial materials and the manufacture of goods for colonial markets. Their ‘stores’ in Virginia for instance secured to Glasgow’s merchants the lion’s share of the tobacco trade (Devine, 1975). The hinterlands of both Glasgow and Liverpool were transformed through the working-up of imported cotton for sale in colonial and other markets. On a lesser scale many ports in the southwest built up a great interest in the Newfoundland fishery in order to supply dried fish to their traditional markets in southern Europe. A word of caution is necessary regarding the major western ports. The large trade flows were not with colonies as might be supposed, but with Ireland, a most important connection which contributed 42 per cent of ‘foreign’ tonnage entering Glasgow in 1791, 83 per cent at Whitehaven and 33 per cent at Liverpool. Whitehaven had third place as exporter because 98 per cent of its tonnage was carrying coal to Ireland.
