Coastal and River Trade in Pre-Industrial England : The Bristol Region, 1680-1730

This is the first-ever book-length analysis of England's pre-industrial domestic trading economy, drawing on extensive quantitative data provided by the computerisation of Britain's Portbooks Programme. It is now recognised that internal trade, for too long overlooked by economic historians, provided a vital link in the organization of pre-industrial economics. This book sheds new light on the volume, nature, structure, and mechanisms of coastal and river trade. In addition, the extent to which Bristol acted as a "quasi-metropolis," influencing the direction and conduct of the internal trade of a geographically-extensive region, is exposed to a more critical analysis.