A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



slaves at an average cost of about £iS ; the slaves 

 were then shipped to Virginia or (more often) to 

 Kingston, Jamaica (where the Liverpool merchants 

 combined to maintain permanent agents) and sold at 

 a price which varied from £60 upwards ; the ships 

 were then loaded with sugar, tobacco, and other highly 

 saleable West Indian produce for the homeward 

 voyage. Comparatively few slaves were brought 

 home to England, though occasional advertisements 

 in the Liverpool papers show that a few were im- 

 ported before 1772, when the Somerset case made 

 such importations illegal. This ' great triangle ' of 

 trade was probably the most lucrative in the history 

 of commerce, for its profits were not only very large 

 but rapid. Thus vast fortunes were made, and a 

 vast capital accumulated in Liverpool, much of which 

 went to develop other lines of trade, or to aid those 

 works, now beginning to be undertaken, for the im- 

 provement of the equipment of the port and its com- 

 munications with inland markets. 



Of these activities the most important was the 

 creation of the first dock. The idea of deepening 

 the Pool which curved round the town and turning 

 it into a more effective harbour had long been enter- 

 tained by some of the more enterprising townsmen ; 

 it is alluded to by Sir Edward Moore as early as 

 1668.'*' But in the first years of the 1 8th century 

 the necessity of some such provision for the increasing 

 shipping became obvious. The first project, put for- 

 ward in 1708 by a Mr. Henry Hun of Derby,'" was 

 one for simply deepening and walling in the whole 

 length of the Pool. But in the next year Mr. 

 Thomas Steers, an engineer brought from London by 

 Sir Thomas Johnson, proposed the alternative scheme 

 of making a square dock with gates in the mouth of 

 the Pool. This proposal was accepted, and an Act 

 of Parliament obtained to empower the Town Council 

 to borrow the necessary funds and to raise dock dues 

 for the payment of the interest thereon.'" The con- 

 struction of the dock was begun in 17 10 under the 

 direction of Steers. It took longer, and cost more 

 to build, than had been anticipated ; it was opened 

 for use on 3 I August 171 5, but was not then com- 

 pleted, and a second Act had to be obtained in 

 1 7 1 6 '" to empower the council to raise additional 

 funds for the completion of the works. A 'dry 

 dock ' or basin was added two years later.'"' From 

 the first the dock (whose site is now represented by 

 the Custom House) was fully used, but it was not 

 until 1734.'"' that the creation of a new dock, known 

 as the South or Salthouse Dock, was begun. This, 

 as there was no natural inlet to facilitate the work, 

 took nineteen years to build, and was not opened 

 until 1753.'" 



The beginning of the dock estate marks an epoch 

 in the history of the town ; it is the beginning of 

 modern Liverpool. The Pool, the characteristic 

 feature of mediaeval Liverpool, now vanishes from 

 the maps, leaving as its sole trace the irregularity of 



the directions of the streets that had been compressed 

 into the triangle between it and the river. But tht 

 creation of docks was not the only enterprise of thii 

 period for the improvement of the port's trading 

 facilities. The channel of the river was buoyed and 

 charted ; '" lighthouses were erected,'"' the first good 

 carriage roads out of the town were made with the 

 aid of the Town Council ; '™ the streams running 

 into the Mersey estuary were deepened so as to make 

 them navigable : the Weaver (not without opposi- 

 tion) in 1720,"' the Mersey and the Irwell also in 

 1720,'" and the Sankey Brook in 1755 ;"' while 

 the deepening of the Douglas from Wigan to the 

 Ribble"' cheapened the transport of coal. The 

 Sankey navigation, carried out seemingly by a Liver- 

 pool engineer, and largely financed by Liverpool 

 men,'" departed frankly from the line of the original 

 brook, and so foreshadowed the era of canals. 



The increment of trade which produced all these 

 activities may be indicated by the single fact that 

 during the first half of the 1 8th century the shipping 

 of the port rose from seventy ships with 800 men (in 

 1700) to 220 ships with 3,319 men in 1751.'" 

 In the same period the population rose from 5,00a 

 (est.) in 1700 to 18,000 (est.) in 1750.'" New 

 local industries were also created or greatly developed 

 in this period : shipbuilding, sugar refining, rope- 

 making, iron-working, watch-making, and pottery, all 

 flourished."' In pottery, in particular, Liverpool 

 enjoyed in this age a brief eminence. By the middle 

 of the 1 8 th century, therefore, the town was already 

 vigorous and thriving ; rejoicing especially in its re- 

 cently acquired mastery of the most lucrative trade in 

 the world. 



In the second half of the 1 8th century the com- 

 mercial triumph of Liverpool was secured. This 

 was due to several causes, the first of which was the 

 effect of the wars which almost filled this age. 



In the Spanish War of 1739 and the War of the 

 Austrian Succession into which it merged, Liverpool 

 seems to have taken comparatively little part, though 

 she had shared so largely in the irregular traffic of the 

 South Seas from which it sprang. Four or five 

 privateers are known to have plied from the town, 

 and they made a number of valuable captures ; "* 

 but the non-existence of local newspapers during this 

 period makes it difficult to discover the exact extent 

 of these privateering activities. On the other hand 

 103 Liverpool vessels are known to have been cap- 

 tured by the enemy."' Nevertheless the port profited 

 exceedingly from the war, owing to the comparative 

 security of the route through the Irish Sea. A local 

 observer writes in 1753 that the war had brought 

 such wealth that if it had lasted ' seven years longer 

 it would have enlarged the size and riches of the 

 town to a prodigious degree . . . Trade since the 

 late peace has not been so brisk as formerly.' "* War 

 therefore was welcomed in Liverpool. 



From the Seven Years' War the town derived even 



5S1 Moore, Rental (cd. W. F. Irvine), 

 104. et passiyn^ 



5"^ Picton, Liv. Munic, Rec. ii, 47. 



'" 8 Aane, cap. 12 ; Picton, Liv. 

 Munic. Rec. ii, 48. 684 j Geo. I, cap. i. 



'°' Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 141. 



'68 Ibid. 133, 143. 



W Ibid. 568 Ibid. 49. 



"9 Wit. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 

 395«. 



'7» Picton, Liv, Munic. Rec. ii, 63 ; 

 Acts of 12 Geo. I, cap. 21; 19 Geo. II, 

 cap. 19 ; 26 Geo. II, cap. 65. 



'71 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 

 396(2 ; 7 Geo. I, cap. 10 ; 7 Geo. II, 

 cap. 28. 



^~^ 7 Geo. I, cap. 15. 



«" 28 Geo. II, cap. 8 ; 2 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 56. 



W* 6 Geo. I, cap. 28. 



30 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



''' Picton, Liv. Munic. Rec. ii, 144 ; 

 Brooke, Liv. in the xviii Cent. 105-6. 

 '77 Smithers, Liv. 185. W» Ibid. 195-6. 

 '^ Williamson, Liv. Memorandum Bk, 



(•753)- 



"» Williams, Hist, of Liv, Priviteeri, 

 39. 40. 



'81 Ibid. App. i, p. 659. 



"' Williamson, Liv, Memorandum Bk, 

 I7S3- 



