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This chapter describes how the British community in Canton used its English-language press (newspapers and journals published in Canton) to debate China, Britain and free trade. The Warlike party gradually settled on a new perspective of China that was understood in terms of war, while the Pacific party denounced the war rhetoric. The Pacific party saw Britain primarily as a Christian nation of peace. The Warlike party’s aggressive imperialistic discourse became marked when compared to the peace argument of the Pacific party.

This chapter discusses the migration of a British merchant and Quaker, Zephaniah Kingsley Sr., to Charleston, South Carolina in 1770. After suffering bankruptcy in Bristol, England, Kingsley and his wife, Isabella Johnstone Kingsley, reared six children and achieved commercial success in Charleston during the volatile years of the American Revolution. Colonial commerce, the Atlantic slave trade, and the wartime plight of Loyalist families in revolutionary Charleston are important themes discussed. Kingsley’s steadfast loyalty to Great Britain resulted in the confiscation of his considerable properties and banishment from South Carolina. Isabella and the Kingsley children joined him in exile in New Brunswick, Canada. Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. was five years old when the family arrived at the Charleston port. He was eighteen years old when he joined his father at St. John, New Brunswick. During his early formative years, he was influenced by the volatile incidents he witnessed in Charleston during the Age of Revolution.

This chapter sketches Bowles's life to 1791, discussing displaced British merchants who wanted to retain their trade with the southeastern Indians and who used Bowles to further their commerce. Bowles soon wanted a greater role among the Creeks and Seminoles and to replace McGillivray as an Indian leader. The Creeks sought weapons to defend their lands from encroaching Americans, and Bowles journeyed to England to seek help in trading on the Gulf Coast.

This essay charts the considerable decline of the British shipping industry in the twentieth century. Sarah Palmer demonstrates that growing distance between shipowners and shipbuilders; tremendous decline in liner shipping; unwillingness to innovate; and inconsistent policies established by the government that played significant roles in the decline from the turn of the century’s forty percent global tonnage rates to the meagre three percent reported in 2007.

This chapter examines government regulation in the British shipping industry in relation to the coastal sector. It explores the lack of government presence in the wider shipping industry in comparison to the railway sector, then deconstructs their shipping presence, where it becomes apparent that the majority of government inquiry and legislation in shipping pertained to the coastal sector. By studying Parliamentary acts, the Board of Trade, and governmental activity, it demonstrates that the government strived to pioneer new technology and keep the shipping industry active. It concludes that enquiries and legislation faced by the industry were the result of wrecks, explosions, and collisions - events which affected the coastal sector more keenly than the deep-water sector.

This chapter examines the transformation of international law from justifying slave trade to ultimately suppressing it. It argues that the key player in the international abolition movement was Great Britain. At first, British merchants were early participants in the slave trade, second only to the Portuguese in terms of volume of slaves shipped. But by the late eighteenth century, attitudes toward the slave trade in Britain began to change. Historians agree that British abolitionism arose out of a combination of factors, including economic changes, Enlightenment philosophy, and religious revival movements. Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, Britain continued the practice of seizing foreign slave ships. In the years following the Napoleonic Wars, Britain triggered a sea change in the status of the slave trade under international law. Time and again, British diplomats would remind other nations that they had agreed by treaty to suppress the slave trade.

This chapter accounts three journeys taken by Salter aboard the Brigantine Coquette, departing from Halifax to Sierra Leone, Demerary, Grenada, Bermuda, Barbados, St. Thomas, Berbice and Liverpool, spanning November 1838 to November 1839. Salter provides a summary of wind speeds and currents, while reporting successful sales in each port. Also discussed in this chapter is the issue of slavery and the abolition of slavery, as well as a seamen’s burial at sea.

This chapter details Salter’s journey from Halifax to Sierra Leone via the Brigantine Emily from June 1840 to July 1841. Described within it are cargo transactions, including palm oil; timber; ground nuts; and camwood, and the resulting loss or profit. Salter expresses the difficulties of travelling at sea and recounts issues resulting from bad weather and tornados, and conveys the unpleasantness of sea sickness, fever and illness. Dedicated extracts to Sierra Leone provide an insight into the country’s setting and also adds to the characterisation of its natives.

This chapter describes the journeys of three voyages in two Brigantines, Victory and George Henry, from New York to British Guiana and Jamaica, spanning July 1836 to May 1837. Salter’s brief diary extracts range from the factual to the emotive. Some extracts present descriptions of purchases, nautical terms, and the weather and wind speed, while others provide a colourful depiction of what it means to travel at sea, with detailed accounts of friendships, homesickness and stories of fracas with other ships.

This chapter depicts the journey taken by Salter aboard the Brigantine Emily and Brigantine Margaret from Halifax to Sierra Leone, spanning November1839 to May 1840. Within the diary extracts, Salter reports the purchase of a vessel necessary to convey troops to the West Indies and describes, in detail, the troop recruitment process.

This chapter sees Salter sell the Brigantine Emily and fall into partnership with his brother, George Salter, as they begin a business selling stocks of goods, ship stores, flour and fish. The chapter concludes with Salter’s marriage to his wife, Margaret Shaw.

This chapter describes important changes in Salter’s life; personal changes include the births of two of his children, Sidney and Bessie, and professional changes include the purchase of a shipyard in Moncton in 1846. Many extracts are devoted to recalling time spent in Liverpool. The chapter conveys the pressures and responsibilities involved in contracting large numbers of ships and vessels and portrays the necessary correspondence, recruitment and transactions of a shipyard manager.

This chapter describes the journey of Salter’s fourth voyage aboard the Brigantine Emily from Halifax to Barbados, Columbia, Jamaica, and back to Halifax, spanning August 1837 to October 1838. Salter dedicates most of the chapter to highlighting the danger involved in his journey travelling across rough seas with huge gales and hurricanes and describes the damage to both the ship’s structure and travelling cargo.

This chapter explores the business of shipbuilding and documents a social turning point in labour history when Salter grants his men a 10 hour working day in April 1853. This decision marks Salter as an outstanding exception to businessmen who cared very little about the welfare of their employees. The chapter also includes the announcement of the birth of Salter’s third child, Maggie, born in 1853 and Salter’s mayoral election in 1855.

This chapter details the beginning of the end for the Salter shipping business and explores the contributing factors involved in its downfall. Despite initially believing that the company’s assets were greater than its liabilities, after a combination of bad weather; ill health; lack of knowledge; debt; loss of profit and confidence, the chapter concludes with the failure of the business and sees Salter being freed of all liabilities.

This chapter details Salter’s second attempt to enter the business of shipbuilding, in order to rectify his mistakes and do good to those who were harmed by his previous failure. It also examines the process of acquiring and selling stocks and shares in the 19^th Century.