WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



already been raised by the London cheesemongers in 

 1690 ;"' it was revived at intervals during the cen- 

 tury,"'' both on behalf of the freemen of London, and 

 on behalf of those of other towns, and was not finally 

 determined till 1799,'" when after a long trial, it 

 was laid down that only ' freemen residing within the 

 liberties ' of the borough which put forward the claim 

 were entitled to the exemption. 



All these disputes were in themselves evidences of 

 the growing wealth to which they were due. The 

 secret of this rising prosperity was that Liverpool was 

 in this period obtaining an increasingly large share of 

 the trade which was then the richest in the world — 

 that with the West Indies, whence almost all the 

 sugar, tobacco, and other ' colonial produce ' consumed 

 by Europe was derived. In comparison with the 

 West India trade, the trade with the American 

 colonies was of very small importance, and as late as 

 1752 only one Liverpool vessel is said to have plied 

 to New York.'" Not only was there the direct trade 

 with the British West Indies, but, even more lucrative, 

 a large irregular smuggling trade with Spanish 

 America was carried on, in spite of the prohibition of 

 the Spanish government. In this traffic, the southern 

 ports of Bristol and London possessed at the end of 

 the 17th century a very great advantage. During 

 the early years of the i8th century Liverpool rapidly 

 gained at their expense. For this two reasons are 

 alleged. The first is that her ships were largely 

 manned with apprentices who received next to no 

 wages until they reached the age of twenty-one, and 

 that the customary rate of pay for the captains and 

 officers was lower than the rate which held in the 

 southern ports."' More important was the second 

 cause : namely, that the coarse stuffs of mixed linen 

 and cotton, or linen and woollen (linsey woolsey) 

 which were produced by the looms of Manchester 

 were in great request in the West Indian markets, 

 and were produced more cheaply than the correspond- 

 ing German goods with which the southern traders 

 endeavoured to supply the market.'" Thus, as 

 always, the growth of Liverpool trade was concurrent 

 with the growth of Manchester industry. The 

 smuggling trade with the Spanish colonies, and the 

 frequent conflicts with Spanish guarda castas to which 

 it gave rise, ultimately led to the Spanish war of 1739, 

 and was almost brought to an end by an Act of 

 Parliament of 1 747, which forbade foreign vessels to 

 frequent British West India ports.'*' But while it 

 was at its height (about 1 730) this branch of trade 

 alone is said to have brought into Liverpool an 

 annual profit of ^^2 5 0,000 and to have consumed over 

 j^5oo,ooo worth of Manchester goods."" 



The legitimate and illegitimate trade of the West 

 Indies and South America equally led on the traders 

 who engaged in it to the still more lucrative African 

 trade which could be worked in combination with it. 



LIVERPOOL 



It was in this period that Liverpool first entered upon 

 the slave trade, out of which she was to draw, during 

 the century, fabulous riches ; and which was to earn 

 for her a highly unsavoury reputation. At the end 

 of the century the greatness of Liverpool was generally 

 attributed — by her own citizens as well as by others "' 

 — entirely to the slave trade. Yet it was not until 

 the fourth decade of the century, when Liverpool 

 was already rapidly overtaking Bristol, that this line 

 of trade began to be seriously developed ; and she 

 had long been preceded in it by the two great 

 southern ports. Up to 1698 the monopoly of the 

 African trade had been held by the Assiento Com- 

 pany of London. In that year its formal monopoly 

 was abolished,"^ though it still retained the sole right 

 of importing slaves into the Spanish dominions. In 

 the early years of the eighteenth century Bristol 

 began to compete with London — led on, as Liverpool 

 was later to be, from the West Indies to the source 

 of their labour supply. Indeed the Bristol merchants 

 seem to have been driven to the African trade largely 

 by the successful competition of Liverpool in the 

 Spanish smuggling trade.'" In 1 709 one Liverpool 

 vessel of 30 tons burthen was dispatched to Africa ;"* 

 but the venture does not seem to have been success- 

 ful, probably owing to the jealousy of the Bristol and 

 London men, for it was not repeated for twenty 

 years. In 1730 an Act of Parliament for the regu- 

 lation of the African trade "' established an open 

 company to which any person trading to Africa 

 might belong on payment of 40/. The money was 

 to be used for the up-keep of factories on the African 

 coast ; and the administration of these was entrusted 

 to a committee of nine, consisting of three members 

 elected by the merchants of each of the three ports, 

 London, Bristol, and Liverpool. At once, under the 

 new system, Liverpool threw herself energetically into 

 the trade. In the same year, 1730, fifteen vessels of 

 1,111 tons were dispatched to Africa."" In 1752 

 the number had risen to eighty-eight vessels ac- 

 commodating nearly 25,000 slaves,'" though it 

 had sunk by 1760 to seventy-four vessels of 8,178 

 tons.'" In 1751 a separate Liverpool company was 

 established "^ by Act of Parliament. The Act states 

 that there were loi African merchants in Liverpool, 

 but though there were 135 in London and 157 in 

 Bristol, ' their trade to Africa is not so extensive as 

 the merchants of Liverpool.' The methods and 

 development of this trade cannot here be described. 

 The materials for its history have been fully mar- 

 shalled by Mr. Gomer Williams, to whose valuable 

 book '*" the reader who is inquisitive on this subject 

 may be referred. But it should be noted that the 

 immensely lucrative character of this traffic is to be 

 attributed to the fact that a treble profit was made on 

 every voyage. The cheap guns, ornaments, and stuffi 

 which formed the outward cargo were exchanged for 



"» Picton, Liv. Munic. Rsc. i, 265, 

 301 ff. 



"* Ibid, ii, 21 ff. et passim. 



»« Ibid. 212. 



"' Smithers, Liverpool, 112. A useful 

 general description of Liverpool trade in 

 the 18th and early 19th centuries, with 

 statistics, is contained in this book, and 

 indeed, forms its best feature. See also, 

 Kaye, Stranger in Liverpool (1825 ed,), 



•■" Wallace, General Dtscr. 216. 

 Derrick [Letters from Liv. &c. 1767) 

 attributes the success of LiTerpool to the 



fact that owing to the security of the 

 passage through the Irish Sea, insurance 

 could be dispensed with. 



*^8 Williams, Liv. Privateers and Slave- 

 trade, 468. 5" Ibid. 



"» Edwards, Hist, of the W. Indies. 



"1 Wallace, General Descr. 229. 



"3 Williams, loc. cit. 



658 Williams, op. cit. 467. 



'" Troughton (Corry), Hist. Liv. 265, 

 gives a table of the number and tonnage of 

 slave-ships sailing from Liverpool from 

 1709 to 1807. 



29 



**^ Williams, op. cit. 467. 



"6 Ibid. 470. 



667 Williamson, hi'v. Memorandum Bk, 

 1753, gives the full list of ships and 

 owners for 1752. The list is reprinted 

 by Williams, op. cit. 675. 



fiss Troughton, loc. cit. 



«9 23 Geo, II, cap. 31, The list of 

 merchants incorporated in the new com- 

 pany is printed by Williams, op. cit. 674. 



660 Jiiit^ of the hi'v. Pri'vateen andLetien 

 of Marque tvith an account of the Liv. Slave- 

 trade, Lond. 1897. 



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