Trade and Trade Policy from 1691 to 1800

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Trade and Trade Policy from 1691 to 1800

Overseas trade became a central component of Irish economic life in the period between the Treaty of Limerick (1691) and the Act of Union (1800) in spite of the constraints imposed on Ireland by English mercantilist policy. In 1660 the English Acts of Navigation placed English and Irish colonial trade on an equal footing. In 1663, however, a modification to the law limited Irish exports across the Atlantic to horses, victuals, servants, and (in 1705) linen. In 1671 Parliament prohibited Irish importation of certain enumerated goods (articles such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and dyestuffs) directly from the colonies. The ban was extended in 1696 to encompass all colonial produce. Another set of acts, collectively known as the Cattle Acts, at first restricted (in 1663), then prohibited (in 1671) English imports of Irish livestock, beef, pork, and bacon, and (in 1681) mutton and cheese. Later, the Woolen Act of 1699 prohibited Ireland's export of woolens to markets other than England, where they already faced prohibitive duties. Most of this legislation was modified or reversed in the eighteenth century. An act of 1731 opened Ireland to those colonial imports not specifically prohibited in 1671; the ban on meat exports to Great Britain ended in 1758, as did that on live cattle in 1759; but the Wool Act and Glass Act (1746) remained in force until 1780, the same year that the British parliament removed restrictions on Irish colonial trade.

Contemporary politicians and pamphleteers (and a later generation of historians) exaggerated the negative impact of these laws. The regulations did limit the scope of Irish trade, but they were motivated by broad mercantilist goals rather than anti-Irish sentiment. For example, restrictions on the wool trade were balanced by encouragements to Ireland's linen industry (linen exports rose from less than 20,000 yards in 1700 to about 45 million by the mid-1790s), and the Cattle Acts fostered Ireland's preeminence in the production and marketing of Irish salted provisions (exports of salted beef reached over 200,000 barrels per year by the American Revolution, and butter exports totaled nearly 300,000 hundredweight in the same period). Limits on Irish trade were further compensated for by access to London financial services, direct and indirect entrée to colonial markets, and the protection of the Royal Navy.

The volume of Irish trade expanded dramatically between 1691 and 1800, with exports growing about fivefold and imports increasing more than sevenfold. Irish overseas trade passed through three distinct phases. The first (1691–1730) began with a promising recovery from the setbacks of the Williamite War (1689–1691), but depressed export prices and bad harvests contributed to indecisive growth in the early decades of the eighteenth century. There were difficulties as well in the second phase (1731–1775), but it was a time of broad and sustained expansion for Irish overseas trade, particularly from mid-century to the outbreak of the American Revolution. Although periods of expansion and wartime disruption characterized the third phase (1776–1800), these years were distinguished by Great Britain's increasing dominance of Irish imports and exports.

Great Britain was Ireland's largest trading partner. About half of Irish exports went to England and Scotland in the early decades of the eighteenth century, a share that rose to over 85 percent by 1800. Irish imports from Britain experienced similar growth. Before the readmission of Irish salted provisions (1758) and live cattle (1759) into the English market, exports to Britain had consisted mostly of raw wool, woolen and worsted yarn, linen cloth, and linen yarn. Exports broadened further in the final three decades of the century with increased shipments of Irish grain, flour, and oatmeal. Irish imports from Great Britain were far more varied and included coal, dyewoods, hops, sugar, rum, silk, tea, tobacco, wheat and flour (in times of harvest failure), woolens, and a variety of manufactured goods.

On the European continent Irish commodities faced high tariff barriers, but salted beef suitable for reexport to the West Indies enjoyed a virtual monopoly. Irish butter (much of it for reshipment to the Caribbean) found markets in southern Europe in exchange for wine, brandy, and cognac, as did Irish wool, an article long traded illegally outside the bounds of British commercial legislation. Much of the smuggled tea and tobacco that entered Ireland in this period, the golden age of smuggling, came via the Continent. Trade with Europe is most closely identified with Nantes, Bordeaux, Cadiz, and Lisbon, but Ireland also maintained strong ties to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Copenhagen.

In its trade with British America, Ireland sent vast quantities of beef, butter, pork, herring, and linen to the West Indies in exchange for sugar (meant for ports in Great Britain) and rum (sent directly to Ireland after 1731). Much of this trade was managed by commission houses in London associated with the sugar trade. The 1731 modification of the navigation laws that allowed Ireland direct importation of colonial barrel staves, flaxseed, iron, lumber, rum, and wheat and flour gave rise to a significant trade with the middle colonies of the North American mainland. By the time of the American Revolution, New York City, Philadelphia, and other colonial ports were sending Ireland about 300,000 bushels of flaxseed per year, or about 98 percent of its total imports of that commodity.

Overseas commerce and Irish economic development were intertwined. Foreign demand for Irish provisions, linen, and wool brought employment to the countryside, encouraged investment, and stimulated the growth of Irish seaports and inland market towns. Dublin, the second-largest city in the British Isles, was Ireland's busiest port, followed by Cork, its most cosmopolitan center of transatlantic commerce, and by mid-century, Belfast, the principal trading town of the North. London also played a vital role in Irish commerce. Besides providing a ready supply of capital, credit, and maritime insurance, London was home to a large and sophisticated Irish merchant community that managed much of Ireland's long-distance trade. Enclaves of expatriate merchants scattered throughout the British Isles, continental Europe, and British America formed a distinctly Irish commercial network held together by ties of kinship, faith, and identity.