In 1229 a charter was granted by Henry III., authorizing the formation of a merchants’ gild, with hanse and other liberties and free customs, with freedom from toll throughout the kingdom. Charters were subsequently granted by successive monarchs down to the reign of William and Mary, which last was the governing charter to the date of the Municipal Reform Act (1835). In 1880 when the diocese of Liverpool was created, the borough was transformed into a city by royal charter.
The crown revenues from the burgage rents and the royal customs were leased in fee-farm from time to time, sometimes to the corporation, at other times to private persons. The first lease was from Henry III., in 1229, at £10 per annum. In the same year the borough, with all its appurtenances, was bestowed with other lands on Ranulf, earl of Chester, from whom it passed to his brother-in-law William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, who seems to have built Liverpool castle between 1232 and 1237. His grandson, Robert de Ferrers, was implicated in the rising of Simon de Montfort and his lands were confiscated in 1266 when Liverpool passed into the hands of Edmund, earl of Lancaster. Ultimately Liverpool again became the property of the crown, when Henry IV. inherited it from his father John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. In 1628 Charles I., in great straits for means which were refused by parliament, offered for sale about a thousand manors, among which Liverpool was included. The portion containing Liverpool was purchased by certain merchants of London, who, in 1635, reconveyed the crown rights, including the fee-farm rent of £14, 6s. 8d., to Sir Richard Molyneux, then recently created Viscount Molyneux of Maryborough, for the sum of £450. In 1672 all these rights and interests were acquired by the corporation.
Apart from the national objects for which Liverpool was founded, its trade developed slowly. From £10 per annum, in the beginning of the 13th century, the crown revenues had increased towards the end of the 14th century, to £38; but then they underwent a decline. The black death passed over Liverpool about 1360, and carried off a large part of the population. The Wars of the Roses in the 15th century unsettled the north-western districts and retarded progress for at least a century. The crown revenues diminished from £38 to less than half that sum, and were finally leased at £14, 6s. 8d., at which they continued until the sale by Charles I. It is, however, not safe to conclude that the reduced fee-farm rent represents an equivalent decline in prosperity; the privileges conferred by the various leases differed widely and may account for much of the apparent discrepancy.
Liverpool sent no representatives to Simon de Montfort’s parliament in 1264, but to the first royal parliament, summoned in 1295, the borough sent two members, and again in 1307. The writs of summons were then suspended for two centuries and a half. In 1547 Liverpool resumed the privilege of returning members. In 1588 the borough was represented by Francis Bacon, the philosopher and statesman. During the Civil War the town was fortified and garrisoned by the parliament. It sustained three sieges, and in 1644 was escaladed and taken by Prince Rupert with considerable slaughter.
The true rise of the commerce of Liverpool dates from the Restoration. Down to that period its population had been either stationary or retrogressive, probably never exceeding about 1000. Its trade was chiefly with Ireland, France and Spain, exporting fish and wool to the continent, and importing wines, iron and other commodities. The rise of the manufacturing industry of south Lancashire, and the opening of the American and West Indian trade, gave the first impulse to the progress which has since continued. By the end of the century the population had increased to 5000. In 1699 the borough was constituted a parish distinct from Walton, to which it had previously appertained. In 1709, the small existing harbour being found insufficient to accommodate the shipping, several schemes were propounded for its enlargement, which resulted in the construction of a wet dock closed with flood-gates impounding the water, so as to keep the vessels floating during the recess of the tide. This dock was the first of its kind. The name of the engineer was Thomas Steers.
About this date the merchants of Liverpool entered upon the slave trade, into which they were led by their connexion with the West Indies. In 1709 a single vessel of 30 tons burden made a venture from Liverpool and carried fifteen slaves across the Atlantic. In 1730, encouraged by parliament, Liverpool went heartily into the new trade. In 1751, fifty-three ships sailed from Liverpool for Africa, of 5334 tons in the aggregate. The ships sailed first to the west coast of Africa, where they shipped the slaves, and thence to the West India Islands, where the slaves were sold and the proceeds brought home in cargoes of sugar and rum. In 1765 the number of Liverpool slavers had increased to eighty-six, carrying 24,200 slaves. By the end of the century five-sixths of the African trade centred in Liverpool. Just before its abolition in 1807 the number of Liverpool ships engaged in the traffic was 185, carrying 49,213 slaves in the year.
Another branch of maritime enterprise which attracted the attention of the merchants of Liverpool was privateering, which, during the latter half of the 18th century, was a favourite investment. After the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War with France and Spain, in 1756, the commerce of Liverpool suffered severely, the French having overrun the narrow seas with privateers, and the premiums for insurance against sea risks rose to an amount almost prohibitive. The Liverpool merchants took a lesson from the enemy, and armed and sent out their ships as privateers. Some of the early expeditions proving very successful, almost the whole community rushed into privateering, with results of a very chequered character. When the War of Independence broke out in 1775 American privateers swarmed about the West India Islands, and crossing the Atlantic intercepted British commerce in the narrow seas. The Liverpool merchants again turned their attention to retaliation. Between August 1778 and April 1779, 120 privateers were fitted out in Liverpool, carrying 1986 guns and 8745 men.
See W. Enfield, Hist. of Leverpool (1773); J. Aikin, Forty Miles round Manchester (1795); T. Troughton, Hist. of Liverpool (1810); M. Gregson, Portfolio of Fragments relating to Hist. of Lancashire (1817); H. Smithers, Liverpool, its Commerce, &c. (1825); R. Syers, Hist. of Everton (1830); E. Baines, Hist. of County Palatine of Lancaster, vol. iv. (1836); T. Baines, Hist. of Commerce and Town of Liverpool (1852); R. Brooke, Liverpool during the last quarter of 18th Century (1853); J. A. Picton, Memorials of Liverpool (2 vols., 1873); Ramsay Muir and Edith M. Platt, A History of Municipal Government in Liverpool (1906); Ramsay Muir, A History of Liverpool (1907).
(W. F. I.)
