[ 133 1 



IX. 



SOME ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE COMMERCIAL HISTORY 

 OF DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



(Plates IX.-XIL) 

 By C. LITTON FALKINER, M.A. 



[Head June 9, and June 23, 1902.] 



The volumes placed at the disposal of the Council by Colonel Welch 

 came into his possession as executor of the late Charles Haliday, 

 by whose zeal as a collector of Irish books and manuscripts the 

 Academy has so largely profited. They consist of two volumes of 

 minutes, each bearing closely on the origin and early history of two 

 important Dublin institutions, viz. the Port and Docks Board and 

 the Chamber of Commerce. Of the two volumes, the first in date, if 

 not in point of interest, is an old folio bound in calf, and labelled 

 " Ballast Office, 1708 to 1712." It contains the minutes of the pro- 

 ceedings of the Committee of Directors for the Ballast Office diu-ing 

 the first fom' years of the existence of that body. These minutes add 

 considerably to our knowledge of the development of the Port of 

 Dublin. A portion of them has been published in an abbreviated 

 form in Mr. William Gibbon's notes to those "Observations Explanatory 

 of Sir Bernard de Gonime's map, made a.d. 1673," which are printed 

 as an appendix to Mr. Haliday's " Scandinavian Kingdom of Dubhn," 

 and which form perhaps the fullest account yet attempted of the history 

 of the Port of Dublin. Through the courtesy of Mr. Proud, the 

 secretary, the writer has been permitted to examine the records of the 

 Port and Docks Board, the successors of the Ballast Committee, and 

 has ascertained that the earliest volume of minutes in the possession of 

 that body is the Committee Book of the Ballast Committee, commencing 

 March 3rd, 1721. The volume acquired by the Academy is thus 

 several years earlier than the oldest official record, and as elucidating 

 the condition of the harboui- of Dublin at the very commencement of 

 the eighteenth century, it is of considerable value to all who are 

 interested in the history of the development of our city. 



The second and perhaps the more important of these volumes is a 

 folio manuscript book, bound in green boards, and labelled " Merchants' 



K.I. A. PKOC, YOL. XXIV., SEC. C.J [10] 



