The Earles of Liverpool
：A Georgian Merchant Dynasty
Publication subTitle ：A Georgian Merchant Dynasty
Publisher： Liverpool University Press
Publication year： 2015
E-ISBN: 9781781388778
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781781381731
Subject： K5 European History
Language：
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Description
This book uses the experience of three generations of the Earle family to throw light on the social and economic history of Liverpool during its rise to prominence as a great port, from 1688 to 1840. The focus is on six members of this successful family, John who came to Liverpool as apprentice to a merchant in 1688, his three sons, Ralph, Thomas and William, who all became merchants specializing in different branches of the trade of the port, and William’s two sons, another Thomas and another William, who consolidated the fortunes of the family and began the process of converting their wealth into gentility. The approach is descriptive rather than theoretical, and the aim throughout has been to make the book entertaining as well as informative. Where sources permit, the book describes the businesses run by these men, often in considerable detail. Trading in slaves was an important part of the business of three of them, but they and other members of the family also engaged in a variety of other trades, such as the import-export business with Leghorn (Livorno) in Italy, fishing in Newfoundland and the Shetland Islands, the wine and fruit trades of Spain, Portugal and the Azores, the import of raw cotton for the industries of the Industrial Revolution and the Russia trade. Other family interests included privateering, art collection and the trade in art, a sugar plantation in Guyana, and the emigrant trade. While the book is mainly a work of economic history, there is also much on the merchants’ wives and families and on the social history of both Liverpool and Livorno. The book personalizes the history of Liverpool during its rise to prominence as a port by focussing on the activities of three generations of one very successful merchant family. Uses a single family to illustrate the growth of Liverpool. Places emphasis on the fact that the slave trade, while very important, was by no means the only trade engaged in by Liverpool merchants. Offers detailed descriptions of the operation of the slave trade, especially at Old Calabar in south-eastern Nigeria, and an emphasis on the fact that nearly all these slaves were sold to the Earles and other white merchants by local black slave traders. Provides detailed descriptions of just what merchants and privateers did. Integrates mercantile history with the history of privateering in Liverpool; the Earles and other merchants used profits made in privateering to finance their other trades. List of Illustrations Preface 1. Origins of a Merchant Dynasty 2. This Very Opulent Town 3. Slave Ship Captain 4. Slave Merchant 5. Jack of All Trades 6. Thomas Earle of Leghorn 7. Thomas Earle of Hanover Street 8. Privateering in the American War 9. Ralph Earle and Russia 10. Brothers in the Slave Trade 11. The Last Years of Livorno 12. New Horizons Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index A welcome and highly readable study of three generations of a family of merchants in eighteenth-century Liverpool. Based on meticulous research, this book will undoubtedly become a key reference point for the economic history of eighteenth-century Liverpool’s shadowy mercantile community.
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