British Mercantile Trade Statistics, 1662–1809 - Contextual Essays

Early in the eighteenth century, Lord Haversham stood up in Parliament and made a bold proclamation about the importance of maritime trade to Britain: Your trade is the mother and nurse of your seamen; your seamen are the life of your... Read more →

Seventeenth Century: The Rise of Distant Trade A visitor to the British Isles in the year 1600 would not have found major centres of global trade to rival the bustling commercial hubs of Asia, such as Macao, Surat, Nagasaki, Malacca, or... Read more →