The First London Dock Boom and the Growth of the West India Docks

Abstract

In the course of the i8th century, the trade of the Port of London trebled, whether measured by official values of imports and exports or by number and tonnage of ships using the Port.' More and ever larger merchantmen entered the Port, but nothing was done to adapt it to the growing trade. As the draught of vessels increased, the shipping channel in the centre of the River which they could safely use became narrower. Once arrived in the Pool, they moored wherever they could find room. While thus immobilised, they blocked the shipping channel for other vessels; navigation up the River and in the Pool of London became ever more perilous as congestion grew worse. Complaints rose to a high pitch at the outbreak of the French wars, when foreign trade, hitherto one of the chief mercantile activities of the country, became a matter of national survival. Of the various branches of overseas trade using the Port of London, the West India trade was the most important as regards both volume and value of merchandise.2 Even before the war rendered a convoy system necessary, prevailing winds determined sailings in such a manner that all West India ships reached London between July and October and left again before the end of November. Figures calculated by the Port Committee of the Court of Common Counci1P in I798 showed the average amount of shipping in the Pool at any one time to be 689 ships of I4I tons (total tonnage 97,I49) whereas West India shipping usually in the Pool