Eighteenth-century trade

By 1750 Britain was the world´s leading trading nation. Ships full of Swedish iron and China tea queued up to enter the ports. Cartloads of West Indian sugar and American tobacco rattled along the quays. Store-houses were packed with spices and rich cloths from India and the East.

Trade was growing all the time. In 1800, six times as much sugar reached Britain as in 1700. The ports were growing too - Bristol was twice as big in 1750 as in 1700. The merchants who owned the ships grew rich, bought land, and turned themselves into country squires.

Imports had to be paid for with exports. In 1750, Britain still sold her own woollen cloth to all parts of Europe. As well as cloth, though, she sold in Europe some of the spices and sugar that her merchants had brought from abroad. Each deal meant a handsome profit, of course.

Merchants also made big profits from the shameful trade in slaves. They bought slaves on the coast of West Africa, shipped them like cattle to the West Indies and America, and sold them to work cutting sugar-cane or picking tobacco and cotton. Then they brought home cargoes of sugar and tobacco to Britain.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 - 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 9