We are now trialling Liverpool Shipping Records: Imports and Exports, 1820–1900 and welcome feedback from students and researchers.

This resource documents 80 years of merchant shipping to and from the city of Liverpool. This collection of over 85,000 documents comprises Bills of Entry derived from the reports and manifests of ships that docked in the city. These detailed documents offer unique insights into Liverpool’s maritime history and the goods traded in the city throughout most of the nineteenth century. They also illustrate how heavily Liverpool became involved in various imperial trade networks, including those concerned with cotton, indigo, rice, rum, sugar, and tobacco. Many of the goods traded in the city were derived from the labour of enslaved people. Liverpool and its merchants were major players in the transatlantic slave trade. By 1800, the city was the largest slave trading port in the world and much of Liverpool’s wealth and development relied upon enslavement and this triangular trade. 

Content Warning: This collection contains racist or offensive terms. Owing to their historical importance, the sources are in their original state.

More about this resource

“Liverpool was a major slave trading port during the eighteenth century. This changed after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and, subsequently, the end of plantation slavery in most British colonies after 1833. Cotton therefore became the most important commodity in Liverpool. In 1784, the first cotton from North America arrived in the city. By 1850, over 1.5 million bales of cotton were imported from America to Liverpool every year and cotton accounted for almost half of the city’s trade. This boom relied upon cotton produced from the labour of enslaved people, as slavery was not abolished in North America until 1865. Mills across Lancashire transformed this cotton into finished goods, which were exported across the globe from Liverpool’s docks.”

“Bills of Entry are printed records of imports and exports. The first Bills of entry for Liverpool were printed around 1750. Over time, they became more extensive, eventually serving as business newspapers for the local commercial community. By the late 1840s, the Bills were printed daily, except for Sundays, giving a comprehensive overview of maritime trade in Liverpool. The documents in this collection contain detailed information, such as the names of ships, where they arrived from and where they embarked for, their captains, their tonnage, their date of arrival and departure, cargo details, as well as the names of the people and companies associated with each shipment.

The sources in this collection provide a detailed overview of the nature and development of Liverpool’s trade routes and relationships. They also highlight how trading priorities changed over time, particularly during the Industrial Revolution, when Britain began exporting large volumes of goods manufactured using new technologies and processes. Crucially, the sources also illustrate how Britain’s commercial interests and networks laid the foundations for a vast, global empire.

The sources in this collection detail key imports and exports entering and leaving Liverpool. For example, pimento and logwood were shipped to Britain from Jamaica, while mustard seeds, liquorice root, and saffron came from India. Bacon and lard made their way from New Orleans, and wine, lemons, and oranges were imported from Spain. Meanwhile, Britain exported tobacco, paint, and sewing machines to Africa; cotton, soap, and tools to Singapore; whilst wine, leather, and glassware were shipped to Brazil.”

Information about this resource has been taken from British Online Archives: Liverpool Shipping Records: Imports and Exports, 1820–1900.

Email feedback to Isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

While you are here…

you may also be interested in other resources (available to registered readers)

• Black Abolitionist Papers (1830-1865)
• Church Missionary Society Archive
• Colonial Africa in Official Statistics, 1821-1953
• India, Raj and Empire
• Slave Trade Records from Liverpool, 1754-1792
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, part III: The Institution of Slavery
• Slavery, Exploitation and Trade in the West Indies, 1759-1832
• South Africa in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1819-1900