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This chapter analyses previous studies of maritime freight rates and offers a statistical and economic analysis of the British coastal trade. It explores the methodology of calculating freight rates, plus the motives for raising and lowering them, and calculates the operating costs of coal shipping in the British coastal trade. It asserts that advances made in coastal shipping technology lowered costs and transformed the coastal coal trade into a more profitable enterprise.

This chapter provides a thorough exploration of trade between Britain and Northern Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It studies the bulk rates of goods imported and exported; the way trade operations differed depending on the goods involved; and the variety in shipping across regional ports. It documents how the coal, wine, timber, and corn trades operated in Northern Europe and Britain. It compares British shipping with neighbouring French, Dutch, and Baltic shipping. It concludes by stating that Baltic products were of increasing demand during the period, and that Anglo-Baltic trade grew at the expense of Dutch-Baltic trade, which damaged Anglo-Dutch relations.

This chapter explores one of the few existing sources for coastal trade activity in ports - the trade records of Connah’s Quay on the River Dee between 1905 and 1914. It examines the port register, crew agreements, and the records of Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay Railway, in attempt to determine the specific (as opposed to national or regional) factors that contributed to the decline of port activity in the run up to the First World War. These factors include the treacherous waters of the Dee Estuary; the absence of liner trade; the narrow range of goods; and the imbalance between outward and inward-going voyages. Through analysis of these factors, it concludes that Connah’s Quay was indeed atypical of the national trend in coastal shipping during this period.

This chapter introduces the conventions of British shipping during the mid sixteenth to late seventeenth centuries, concluding in 1689, a year Davis regarded as a turning point in the growth and commercial development of shipping. It begins by comparing British shipping unfavourably to Dutch shipping in 1560, then addresses the mid-century development of British fisheries and the coal trade. It also charts the development of long-distance trade; the disruptiveness of the Spanish Armada and various other wars; growth in tonnage and value; the steady development and impact of Northern trade the seventeenth century; and the trade of colonial goods. It concludes by with a summary of the economic literature pertaining to the period.

This section is divided into two further segments. The first considers aspects of tramp-shipping and ownership. It introduces the tramp-shipping industry in general, and devotes equal attention to the three core trades associated with steamships - ore, cattle, and coal. Craig provides a history of each trade from the early 1800s onwards, summarising their individual significance to the tramp-shipping industry. He then details the challenges ship-builders and ship-owners faced in perfecting the industry and overcoming the host of hazards and challenges faced within international commerical shipping, and rounds out the segment with information pertaining to notable ship-owners and tramp-shipping businesses operating within the period. The second segment explores capital formation in shipping, and considers the difficulty of assessing pre-1786 shipping statistics, followed by an exploration of the methods that can be used to quantify capital for the large amount of maritime mercantile data that exists post 1786, after the implementation of the Navigation Act.

This chapter explores the development of ships and the role of shipbuilders across England during the seventeenth century. It begins by examining the technical changes to ships in the sixteenth century, with major elements including the transition to three-masted ships and the lengthening of ships in relation to their beams. It examines the seventeenth century struggle to trade coal in English vessels due to their structural unsuitability in comparison to superior European flyboats. It then explores the British use of Dutch bulk-carriers taken as prizes during the Dutch Wars; and the reasons for the reluctance of British shipbuilders to alter their methods. It concludes with the collapse of East Anglian shipbuilding due to the preference for Dutch prize-ships, and the realisation that British shipbuilding needed to develop in order to expand.

This chapter explores the employment conditions on British coastal ships between 1870 and 1914, focussing on the modern and industrial screw collier fleet on the east coast, which previous studies have traditionally overlooked. It uses data from British government censuses of seamen taken during the period and employment data from eighty Crew Agreements. In detail it discusses wage rates; methods of payment; recruitment stipulations; methods of maintaining crew morale; the hierarchy of promotion; and the way crew members expressed dissatisfaction with working conditions - such as through desertion. It determines that screw colliers received regular work, long-term employment opportunities, reasonable wages, and less hazardous employment conditions than other maritime career paths such as long-distance voyagers, and was thus a popular role.