Dr Morgan compares the performance of Bristol as a port during the eighteenth century with the growth of other out ports, especially Liverpool and Glasgow, and shows that, paradoxically, the absolute growth of Bristol's Atlantic trade between 1700 and 1800 was concomitant with its relative decline as a port.

This book offers the first detailed examination for many years of the transatlantic trade and shipping of Bristol during the eighteenth century. It compares the performance of Bristol as a port during this period with the growth of other out ports, especially Liverpool and Glasgow. Dr Morgan's analysis shows that the absolute growth of Bristol's Atlantic trade between 1700 and 1800 was concomitant with the relative decline of Bristol as a port; the main reasons for this decline were the lack of improvement to port facilities, increasing specialisation among the Bristol merchant community, the impact of war on trade, and the superior business acumen in the tobacco and slave trades manifested by Glasgow and Liverpool merchants respectively. Bristol and the Atlantic Trade is based on a great variety of primary sources in the British Isles, the USA, the West Indies, Australia and continental Europe.