Liverpool and the American trade, 1865-90

By the middle of the nineteenth century, an apparently settled system of international trade was beginning to be affected by new influences, which largely came to fruition between 1865 and 1890. This period was characterised by faster communications, greater competition in international markets, vastly expanded world production of primary products and manufactured goods, and a changeover from a boom cycle in trade to one of recurring depression and uncertain profitability. Commercial houses in ports on both sides of the Atlantic suffered severe losses through an inability to adapt their trading to the new circumstances and opportunities, and valuable connections were destroyed. As a leading port and international market, Liverpool was subjected to local manifestations of these influences, when the resumption of the full range of American trade after the Civil War seemed to herald the return of prosperous and settled conditions in transatlantic trade. With many misgivings, the commercial community found it necessary to abandon conservative attitudes, and to capitalise on the new business practices fostered by improved communications. Similarly, mercantile houses which remained active in trade in Liverpool found it desirable to reject concepts of exclusivity of function, insofar as these had ever become established. There was a belated realisation of the need to modernise the facilities of the port, in order to keep abreast of advances in transport and world production, and to preserve the market functions to safeguard the role of the port. Despite the challenge of established and newly promoted ports, and the introduction of direct trading between inland markets on each side of the Atlantic, Liverpool was able to retain a pre-eminent position among ports of the United Kingdom into the 1890s and beyond because of the extent of the facilities which she could offer, and her favoured position in the generally flourishing American trade.