Ireland-Bristol Trade in the Sixteenth Century
Department of History, University of Bristol

Research: The Background to the Project

The purpose of this page is to discuss the background to the project and the progress made by the project team, rather than to examine its findings. The latter have been presented in a number of conference papers, which are now being published. See the Datasets and Outputs page for details.

The project examined changes in the size and structure of Ireland's overseas trade with Bristol during the sixteenth century. In doing this, it aimed to throw light on the development of the economy of southeast Ireland, which was then the most developed region of Ireland. The study extended the results of an unpublished analysis by the principal applicant, Dr Evan Jones, and that of the research assistant, Susan Flavin. Their analyses suggested that the economy of southeast Ireland became more commercially and industrially orientated during the first half of the sixteenth century. This suggested that the Irish economy had a much greater potential for independent development than has been recognised and that southeast Ireland played an active part in the early expansion of the European Atlantic economy. This in turn implied that the military and political subjugation of Ireland from the late sixteenth century did more than simply perpetuate the country's unequal commercial relationship with England. Rather, it suggested that the conquest of Ireland, the island's integration into the English market, and the growth in competition from English industries, promoted the decline of a pre-existing commercial and industrial sector in southern Ireland.

The Historiographical Context

It is widely accepted that in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Ireland's trade with England assumed a distinctly colonial character. During this period, England first conquered Ireland and then established a 'New English' Protestant elite who, during the seventeenth century, took control of most of Ireland's land and resources: Simms, 1951. At the same time, Ireland became increasingly integrated into the wider British economy. As this occurred, Ireland's economic role became established as a supplier of raw materials, such as wool, livestock and timber, to the English market: Cullen 1976, 392. Once established, this commercial relationship was to persist till modern times.

Interpretations of how and why Ireland became so heavily dependent on the export of primary products have varied. To nationalist historians of the early twentieth century (Murray 1903; Green 1908; O'Brien 1919), Ireland's focus on such activities was the result of the deliberate suppression of Irish commerce and industry, so as to render the island subservient to and dependent on England. Others have taken a more moderate line, noting that the English Crown's policy was, at least until the 1620s, in fact geared towards promoting Irish industry. Nevertheless, Ada Longfield (1929), in what is still the best study of Ireland's overseas trade during the sixteenth century, argues that from the late sixteenth century English political, commercial and industrial interests overrode those of Ireland, to the detriment of Irish industry and commerce. While her arguments remain influential (e.g. Ellis 1998, 49), since the 1950s a number of historians (Kearney 1958, 1959; Treadwell 1966, 1977; Gillespie, 1991) have offered alternative interpretations. These have downplayed the impact of English policies on Ireland's economic growth. Instead, Irish underdevelopment is explained in terms of economic factors, such as the high cost of capital and the poor skills base of the Irish workforce. Nevertheless, all such analyses assume that the Irish economy remained fundamentally underdeveloped during the sixteenth century.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the arguments that surround the economic developments of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, those who have studied Ireland's trade of the fifteenth -early sixteenth centuries have agreed that the conditions of this period were much more favourable to Ireland's independent commercial development: Longfield 1929; Carus-Wilson 1933; Quinn & Nichols 1976; Childs & O'Neill 1993. Notwithstanding the political problems caused by the Gaelic revival of the fifteenth century, Irish trade was reasonably open in the late middle ages. The merchants of the Anglo-Irish ports faced few restrictions to engaging in commerce with the resurgent Gaelic population and the ports were free to engage in overseas trade with both England and the Continent. These relatively liberal trading conditions, combined with the extensive commercial and political privileges enjoyed by the Anglo-Irish ports, contributed to the success of the coastal towns.

Despite the freedoms enjoyed by Irish merchants, the existing literature has found little evidence that Ireland's overseas trade underwent any significant transformations in the fifteenth -early sixteenth centuries. Although it is recognized that there was a modest growth in Ireland's woollen and linen cloth industries at this time, it is accepted that Ireland's economic backwardness ensured that it remained in essence an exporter of raw materials, such as fish and skins, and an importer of manufactured goods: Longfield 1929, 196; Quinn & Nichols 1976, 36-7; Connoly 1998, 442; Britnell 2004, 512. From England, Ireland's principal trading partner, imports consisted of manufactured goods, such as woollen broadcloth, and Continental re-exports, such as spices. For some historians, this evidence is sufficient to suggest that, even before the English interventions of the late sixteenth century, Anglo-Irish trade had 'the classic form of colonial commerce': Sacks 1991, 39. The existing studies therefore imply that the colonial policies pursued from the late sixteenth century did not alter either the nature of Ireland's overseas trade or the structure of any part of the economy geared up to supplying that trade. English policies, at worst, merely perpetuated Ireland's economic underdevelopment. Such assumptions underpin both the analyses of economic development in the seventeenth century and the more politically orientated studies of the period: e.g. MacCarthy-Morrogh 1986; Lennon 1994; Ellis 1998; Canny 2001.

Questioning the Historiography: Anglo-Irish trade in the first half of the sixteenth century

The reason for questioning the extent to which the Irish economy failed to develop during the sixteenth century, can be found in two separate analyses of the 'particular' customs accounts of Bristol. Such accounts were a detailed official record of every ship, merchant and item of overseas merchandise that entered or left the port of Bristol. The two analyses of these accounts were conducted by the principal applicant, Dr Evan Jones, and the project's researcher, Ms Susan Flavin: Jones, 1998; Flavin, 2004. As part of his doctoral research on the Bristol shipping industry, Dr Jones computerised all the data contained in the particular accounts that dealt with the financial years 1541/2, 1542/3 and 1545/6. His research revealed some startling evidence on the nature, size and structure of Anglo-Irish trade. Flavin's more recent work supports and augments Dr Jones' findings, demonstrating that many of the trends apparent by the 1540s were in evidence by 1516/17. In particular their research reveals that:

• Ireland's export of cloth and clothing increased from about a tenth of total exports in the late fifteenth century to half of exports by the 1540s, most of the growth occurring after 1516/17.
• Irish imports became steadily more diverse in nature, with a marked increase in the quantity and range of consumer goods - ranging from playing cards to spectacles and cutlery.
• The size of Ireland's trade with Bristol rose from an average of £3202 pa in the late fifteenth century to an average of £5330 pa in the sixteenth century accounts - an increase of 66%.
• The percentage of Irish trade conducted on Irish ships rose over time, from 50% of total trade in 1503/4, to 58% by 1516/17, to 75% by the 1540s.
  

Table: Summary of Ireland-Bristol Trade, 1479-1545

Source: Longfield 1929, 213-19; Childs 1982, 17-20; Jones 1998, 174-82; Flavin 2004, 69.

Jones and Flavin's data indicated that the trade between Bristol and southeast Ireland, which was then the most important branch of Ireland's overseas trade, underwent a major transformation between the late fifteenth century and the mid-sixteenth century. By the 1540s the majority of Ireland's foreign trade consisted of manufactured goods, a state of affairs Ireland would not enjoy again until modern times. Most of the growth in manufactured exports involved the export of woollen cloth and clothing. The size of this trade doubled between 1492 and 1516, and then increased about threefold between 1516 and the 1540s. The scale of the export trade in cloth indicates the existence of significant textile industry in southeast Ireland that was capable of producing up to 125,000 yards of cloth a year for export to Bristol: TNA E122 21/10. Since three quarters of Ireland's overseas trade was carried on Irish ships and was in the hands of Irish merchants, the profits of this business would have remained primarily in Irish hands. While these findings may seem surprising in the context of the existing studies of Irish overseas trade, they marry better with David Edwards' recent study of County Kilkenny in southeast Ireland. He reveals that the region was becoming more politically and economically integrated during the early sixteenth century and he notes that the importance of the woollen textile industry to this part of the country (Edwards 2003, 42-9).

The Project: Aims and Methodology

The aim of the project was to extend the analysis of the Bristol customs accounts to throw light on the extent, nature and timing of southeast Ireland's economic development during the sixteenth century. Although this data relates to only one region of Ireland's highly fragmented economy, this was the most economically advanced part of Ireland, having long been distinctive for its level of Anglicisation, urbanisation, industrialisation and settled agriculture. The analysis of the customs accounts provided the quantitative backbone to this study. Twelve annual 'particular' customs accounts survive from Bristol for the period 1503-1552: TNA E122 series. Six E122 accounts cover either imports or exports for the period 1553-1564. Following the introduction of the Port Books (E190 series) in 1565, more accounts cover the last decades of the sixteenth century. Together, the Bristol customs accounts provide the best evidence of Ireland's overseas trade across the sixteenth century. This is because no comparable set of customs accounts have survived from Ireland or any Continental port for this period and it is only after 1565 that the quality and value of customs accounts from other English ports, such as Chester, start to match those of Bristol. Nevertheless, since it is widely accepted that England was Ireland's principal trading partner (Longfield 1929; Childs 1982, 8-10; Connoly 1998: 442; Lyons 2000; 1) and that Bristol was the main port for the Anglo-Irish trade until the end of the sixteenth century, the data from Bristol's surviving customs accounts can be used to study, in detail, the characteristics of what was the largest branch of Ireland's overseas trade. This data is invaluable because most of Ireland's own records for this period were destroyed by fire during the Civil War of 1922-1923. As a result, no other economic records of equivalent value to the Bristol customs accounts survive in Ireland, or elsewhere. The Bristol customs accounts thus constitute the best source that exists for examining Ireland's economic development before the Elizabethan conquest and they continue to provide valuable information on how the economy of southeast Ireland was effected by the political disruptions of the late sixteenth century. The data collected by the project will form the only hard set of quantitative data that will exist, or probably even can exist, for investigating the economic development of any part of Ireland across the course of the sixteenth century. The project's data and analysis will therefore form the touchstone for any future research into Irish economic growth in this period.

The analysis of the Bristol customs accounts was supplemented by research into both English and, where available, Irish qualitative sources. English sources included records in The National Archives (esp. SP 1, 12, 15, 60-3 and HCA papers), the British Library (esp. Add Ms and Cotton Ms) and the Bristol Record Office (many of which have been published by the Bristol Record Society). The Irish archives, unfotunately, proved less productive, with either the most obvious achives, such as the Waterford City Archive and the National Library of Ireland having little relevant material for this period.

To facilitate a detailed exploration of Ireland's overseas trade, the computerisation of the 1516/17 account was completed and six further Bristol customs accounts from the sixteenth century were inputted into a computer database. These supplemented the three customs accounts from the 1540s that had already been put into such a database by Dr Jones. As the project progressed, electronic versions of the data, including that from the 1540s accounts, were published on the project's website in the form of EXCEL worksheets. On completion, the complete spreadsheets were deposited in the Bristol Repository of Scholarly Eprints (ROSE) and the UK Data Archive. By taking such a multi-strand approach to the publication of the data, the project sought to ensure an awareness of the project in the short term as well as the long-term availability of the data to future researchers.

The project involved the full computerisation of the Bristol customs accounts / Port Books for the following complete accounting years: 1503/4, 1516/17, 1525/6, 1550/1, 1563/4, 1575/6 and 1594/5, 1600/1 (TNA E122 & E190). Although some of the data in the accounts relate to Bristol trade to the Continent, about four-fifths of the individual item entries in the particular accounts relate to the Irish trade. Since there are links between the Irish and Continental branches of Bristol's trade and since the Irish trade is best understood in the context of Bristol's overall trade, all the data from the customs accounts was inputted. A subsidiary advantage of doing this was that it should greatly enhance the utility of the database to future researchers, who may be more interested in the Continental trade, rather than the Irish trade. Together with the existing computerised accounts from the 1540s, the customs accounts inputted by the project enable a detailed and sophisticated analysis to be made of the changes in the Bristol-Ireland trade across the sixteenth century. The project's studies can now also be compared to the findings of Wendy Childs, who has worked on the Bristol customs accounts of the period 1479-1492, as well as the work of Ada Longfield, whose study of Ireland-Bristol trade was based almost exclusively on the 1503/4 account: Longfield 1929, 213-19; Childs 1982, 17-20. In addition thedatabase also opens the door to investigations of aspects of Irish life that are not purely economic - such as changes in consumption patterns in Ireland, which are currently being investigate by Ms Susan Flavin.

The project's findings have been disseminated through a number of channels. In 2008 the project team presented their findings at a two-day conference in Bristol: .The Celtic Sea World, 1400-1700' (September 2008). This provided a venue for the project's findings and offered an opportunity to reassess more broadly the development of Ireland in this period. In addition, Dr Jones and Ms Flavin presented papers at the Economic and Social History Society of Ireland Annual Conference (Dublin, November 2007), the Fifth International Congress of Martime History (Greenwich, June 2008). The general public have been engaged through press releases and publicly available lectures and seminars at the University of Bristol. Now that the project is over, Dr Jones and Ms Flavin are writing articles on the project's findings . In addition, the complete customs data have been prepared for publication in printed form, as: Susan Flavin & Evan T, Jones (eds.), Bristol’s Trade with Ireland and the Continent: The Evidence of the Exchequer Customs Accounts (Dublin, forthcoming July 2009) ISBN 978-1-84682-0. This volume includes an extensive introduction and is accompanied by maps and glossaries.

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