Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

352 BRITAIN AT WORK. the rising port, for it brought it into com- munication with the manufacturing towns of South Lancashire. Looking back, one sees that the growth of Liverpool as a great centre of shipping, was inevitable. As one writer has put it, it had Lancashire at its back and the Atlantic in front. Lancashire was a magnet for the raw material of the world; and Liverpool is naturally the sea- port for the county, through which its imports and exports most conveniently pass. 1 he steps in Liverpool’s progress are the develop- ment of the cotton trade and coal mining, example, we find that in the year 1898-99, compared with 1897-98, there was a decrease in the number of sailing vessels of 410 and a decrease in the sailing tonnage of nearly 85,000, while the grand total of steam and sailing vessels showed an increase of 858 and 718,740 tonnage. In thus tracing the history of the Liverpool Docks we have emphasised the external influences which have effectively assisted its development, but full credit must be given to the men of Liverpool for far-reaching initiative and enterprise. That Liverpool has been a pioneer is proved by the construction early last century of the Liverpool and the opening of factories, and the construction of railways. The rapidity with which the port has grown to its present dimensions cannot be more strikingly exhibited than by citing some available figures. In 1770, 2,073 vessels paid dues amounting to Ä4J42 5 forty years later the number of vessels had in- creased to 4,746 with a tonnage of 450,060, and the dues came to £23,379. By 1850 there were 20,457 vessels, the tonnage was 2,537,337, and the dues £211,743. tor the closing year of the nineteenth century the figures were: Vessels 24,870, tonnage 12,380,917, dues paid £1,042,926. Naturally the abolition of sailing vessels and the in- crease in the size of steamers may reduce the number of vessels using the port, but the tonnage shows no diminution. To take an Manchester Railway, and also by the Over- head Electric Railway—opened in 1893 — which runs along the whole length of the docks, and which at the time of its opening was the first successful electric railway of any size in Europe. But, apart from that, the great shipping companies are monuments of industry. Such organisations as the W hite Star, the Cunard, and the Elder-Dempster lines have not been brought to their present perfection without independent conception and abundant energy. Without dock de- velopment, however, such monster lines could not exist, and so, in studying Liverpool from whatever point of view, we are forced back to those mighty structures along the Mersey banks—the pride of Liverpool and one of the prides of Britain.