Trade and Commerce.—In 1800 the tonnage of ships entering the port was 490,060; in 1908 it reached 17,111,814 tons. In 1800 4746 vessels entered, averaging 94 tons; in 1908 there were 25,739, averaging 665 tons. The commerce of Liverpool extends to every part of the world, but probably the intercourse with North America stands pre-eminent, there being lines of steamers to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Galveston, New Orleans and the Canadian ports. Cotton is the great staple import. Grain comes next, American (North and South) and Australian wheat and oats occupying a large proportion of the market. An enormous trade in American provisions, including live cattle, is carried on. Tobacco has always been a leading article of import into Liverpool, along with the sugar and rum from the West Indies. Timber forms an important part of the imports, the stacking yards extending for miles along the northern docks. In regard to exports, Liverpool possesses decided advantages; lying so near the great manufacturing districts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, this port is the natural channel of transmission for their goods, although the Manchester ship canal diverts a certain proportion of the traffic, while coal and salt are also largely exported.
Manufactures.—The manufactures of Liverpool are not extensive. Attempts have been repeatedly made to establish cotton mills in and near the city, but have resulted in failure. Engineering works, especially connected with marine navigation, have grown up on a large scale. Shipbuilding, in the early part of the 19th century, was active and prosperous, but has practically ceased. During the latter half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, pottery and china manufacture flourished in Liverpool. John Sadler, a Liverpool manufacturer, was the inventor of printing on pottery, and during the early period of Josiah Wedgwood’s career all his goods which required printing had to be sent to Liverpool. A large establishment, called the Herculaneum Pottery, was founded in a suburb on the bank of the Mersey, but the trade has long disappeared. Litherland, the inventor of the lever watch, was a Liverpool manufacturer, and Liverpool-made watches have always been held in high estimation. There are several extensive sugar refineries and corn mills. The confectionery trade has developed during recent years, several large works having been built, induced by the prospect of obtaining cheap sugar directly from the Liverpool quays. The cutting, blending and preparing of crude tobacco have led to the erection of factories employing some thousands of hands. There are also large mills for oil-pressing and making cattle-cake.
Docks.—The docks of the port of Liverpool on both sides of the Mersey are owned and managed by the same public trust, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. On the Liverpool side they extend along the margin of the estuary 61⁄2 m., of which 11⁄4 m. is in the borough of Bootle. The Birkenhead docks have not such a frontage, but they extend a long way backward. The water area of the Liverpool docks and basins is 418 acres, with a lineal quayage of 27 m. The Birkenhead docks, including the great float of 120 acres, contain a water area of 165 acres, with a lineal quayage of 91⁄2 m. The system of enclosed docks was begun by the corporation in 1709. They constituted from the first a public trust, the corporation never having derived any direct revenue from them, though the common council of the borough were the trustees, and in the first instance formed the committee of management. Gradually the payers of dock rates on ships and goods acquired influence, and were introduced into the governing body, and ultimately, by an act of 1857, the corporation was superseded. The management is vested in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, consisting of twenty-eight members, four of whom are nominated by the Mersey Conservancy commissioners, who consist of the first lord of the Admiralty, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and the president of the Board of Trade, and the rest elected by the payers of rates on ships and goods, of whom a register is kept and annually revised. The revenue is derived from tonnage rates on ships, dock rates on goods, town dues on goods, with various minor sources of income.
Down to 1843 the docks were confined to the Liverpool side of the Mersey. Several attempts made to establish docks in Cheshire had been frustrated by the Liverpool corporation, who bought up the land and kept it in their own hands. In 1843, however, a scheme for docks in Birkenhead was carried through which ultimately proved unsuccessful, and the enterprise was acquired in 1855 by Liverpool. The Birkenhead docks were for many years only partially used, but are now an important centre for corn-milling, the importation of foreign cattle and export trade to the East. In addition to the wet docks, there are in Liverpool fourteen graving docks and three in Birkenhead, besides a gridiron on the Liverpool side.
The first portion of the great landing stage, known as the Georges’ stage, was constructed in 1847, from the plans of Mr (afterwards Sir) William Cubitt, F.R.S. This was 500 ft. long. In 1857 the Prince’s stage, 1000 ft. long, was built to the north of the Georges’ stage and distant from it 500 ft. In 1874 the intervening space was filled up and the Georges’ stage reconstructed. The fabric had just been completed, and was waiting to be inaugurated, when on the 28th of July 1874 it was destroyed by fire. It was again constructed with improvements. In 1896 it was farther extended to the north, and its length is now 2478 ft. and its breadth 80 ft. It is supported on floating pontoons about 200 in number, connected with the river wall by eight bridges, besides a floating bridge for heavy traffic 550 ft. in length and 35 ft. in width. The southern half is devoted to the traffic of the Mersey ferries, of which there are seven—New Brighton, Egremont, Seacombe, Birkenhead, Rock Ferry, New Ferry and Eastham. The northern half is used by ocean-going steamers and their tenders. The warehouses for storing produce form a prominent feature in the commercial part of the city. Down to 1841 these were entirely in private hands, distributed as chance might direct, but in that year a determined effort was made to construct docks with warehouses on the margin of the quays. This met with considerable opposition from those interested, and led to a municipal revolution, but the project was ultimately carried out in the construction of the Albert dock and warehouses, which were opened by Prince Albert in 1845. For general produce these warehouses are falling somewhat into disuse, but grain warehouses have been constructed by the dock board at Liverpool and Birkenhead, with machinery for discharging, elevating, distributing, drying and delivering. Warehouses for the storage of tobacco and wool have also been built by the board. The Stanley tobacco warehouse is the largest of its kind in the world, the area of its fourteen floors being some 36 acres.
Dredging operations at the bar of the Queen’s channel, in the channel itself and at the landing stage enables the largest ocean liners to enter the river and approach the stage at practically all states of the tide. The dredging at the bar was begun as an experiment in September 1890 by two of the board’s ordinary hopper barges of 500 tons capacity each fitted with centrifugal pumps. The result was favourable, and larger vessels have been introduced. Before dredging was begun the depth of water at dead low water of spring tides on the bar was only 11 ft.; now there is about 28 ft. under the same conditions. The space over which dredging has been carried on at the bar measures about 7000 ft. by 1250 ft., the latter being the average width of the buoyed cut or channel through the bar. Dredging has also taken place on shoals and projections of sand-banks in the main sea channels.
Municipality.—Under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, the boundaries of the original borough were extended by the annexation of portions of the surrounding district, while further additions were made in 1895, 1902 and 1905. The city is divided into thirty-five wards with 103 councillors and 34 aldermen. In 1893 the title of mayor was raised to that of lord mayor. In 1885 the number of members of parliament was increased to nine by the creation of six new wards. The corporation of Liverpool has possessed from a very early period considerable landed property, the first grant having been made by Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1309. This land was originally of value only as a source of supply of turf for firing, but in modern times its capacity as building land has been a fruitful source of profit to the town. A large proportion of the southern district is held in freehold by the corporation and leased to tenants for terms of seventy-five years, renewable from time to time on a fixed scale of fines. There was formerly another source of income now cut off. The fee farm rents and town dues originally belonging to the crown were purchased from the Molyneux family in 1672 on a long lease, and subsequently in 1777 converted into a perpetuity. With the growth of the commerce of the port these dues enormously increased, and became a cause of great complaint by the shipping interest. In 1856 a bill was introduced into parliament, and passed, by which the town dues were transferred to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board on payment of £1,500,000, which was applied in part to the liquidation of the bonded debt of the corporation, amounting to £1,150,000.
History.—During the Norse irruption of the 8th century colonies of Norsemen settled on both sides of the Mersey, as is indicated by some of the place-names. After the Conquest, the site of Liverpool formed part of the fief (inter Ripam et Mersham) granted by the Conqueror to Roger de Poictou, one of the great family of Montgomery. Although Liverpool is not named in Domesday it is believed to have been one of the six berewicks dependent on the manor of West Derby therein mentioned. After various forfeitures and regrants from the crown, it was handed over by Henry II. to his falconer Warine. In a deed executed by King John, then earl of Mortain, about 1191, confirming the grant of this with other manors to Henry Fitzwarine, son of the former grantee, the name of Liverpool first occurs. Probably its most plausible derivation is from the Norse Hlithar-pollr, “the pool of the slopes,” the pool or inlet at the mouth of which the village grew up being surrounded by gently rising slopes. Another possible derivation is from the Prov. E. lever, the yellow flag or rush, A.S. laefer.
After the partial conquest of Ireland by Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, under Henry II., the principal ports of communication were Bristol for the south and Chester for the north. The gradual silting up of the river Dee soon so obstructed the navigation as to render Chester unsuitable. A quay was then constructed at Shotwick, about 8 m. below Chester, with a castle to protect it from the incursions of the neighbouring Welsh; but a better site was sought and soon found. Into the tidal waters of the Mersey a small stream, fed by a peat moss on the elevated land to the eastward, ran from north-east to south-west, forming at its mouth an open pool or sea lake, of which many existed on both sides of the river. The triangular piece of land thus separated formed a promontory of red sandstone rock, rising in the centre about 50 ft. above the sea-level, sloping on three sides to the water. The pool was admirably adapted as a harbour for the vessels of that period, being well protected, and the tide rising from 15 to 21 ft. King John repurchased the manor from Henry Fitzwarine, giving him other lands in exchange. Here he founded a borough, and by letters patent dated at Winchester, 28th of August 1207, invited his subjects to take up burgages.
From the patent rolls and the sheriff’s accounts it appears that considerable use was made of Liverpool in the 13th century for shipping stores and reinforcements to Ireland and Wales.