Bristol Shipping Records: Imports and Exports, 1770–1917 - Key Data

Containing over 28,000 images, Bristol Shipping Records: Imports and Exports, 1770–1917, charts nearly 150 years of merchant shipping to and from the city of Bristol. It contains Bristol Presentments—Bills of Entry derived from the reports and manifests of ships that docked in the city. These documents offer unique insights into British maritime history and the goods traded in Bristol from 1770 to 1917. 

The prosperity of the city during this period was built on its maritime success as one of Britain’s major ports. Bristol was heavily 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—much of Bristol’s wealth and development relied upon enslavement and this triangular trade. Significantly, the sources in this collection reveal how the city’s economy responded to the gradual abolition of slavery throughout the British empire during the early 1800s. 

The collection therefore provides students, educators, and researchers with a comprehensive overview of how Bristol, and the wider economy of the United Kingdom, interacted with and influenced global trade networks throughout much of the modern period.