Trading Places - a history of Liverpool Docks

Africa

Liverpool has imported many goods from Africa including palm oil, ivory, cocoa and timber.

Docks involved

• Old Dock
• Wapping Dock

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In The Beginning

A few voyages from Liverpool to West Africa took place in the late 17th century in small, wooden ships. At this time Liverpool mainly traded with North America, Europe and Ireland.

The main trade with West Africa in the 18th century was the slave trade. A few ships also traded directly with Africa for ivory and gold. After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 the main cargoes were palm oil, cocoa, timber and ground nuts.

The Palm Oil Trade

Palm oil was very important to Liverpool [image, new window]. It comes from the nut of the Oil Palm tree. Liverpool's trade in palm oil grew rapidly:

• 1800 - Liverpool was importing very little palm oil.
• 1815 - 52% of Liverpool's imports from West Africa were palm oil.
• 1830 - Liverpool was Britain's main palm oil dealer, handling 96% of all imports.

Palm oil was very important in the growing towns of industrial England. It was used in the following ways:

• To lubricate machines.
• To moisturise wool which was processed in local mills.
• To make candles - Merseyside was the centre of candle making in England and used palm oil in production.
• To make soap. The soap industry on Merseyside was growing quickly (it was used to wash cotton in Lancashire's mills). Salt from Cheshire mines was also used. Some firms, e.g. Elder Dempster, took processed cotton to West Africa and then brought back palm oil.

The Vessels

The first voyages to West Africa took place in small, wooden full-rigged ships of about 200 tons. As trade grew so did ship size but they stayed the same shape. Some of these ships were still used well into the 20th century.

From the 1850s, steam ships became very popular on the African routes. They did not need winds and currents like sailing ships so could easily move along the coast and work to regualr timetables. The main company voyaging to Africa was the Elder Dempster Line [image, new window].

The ports of West Africa were quite shallow and could only be used by boats with a small draught. The south docks at Liverpool were also shallow so boats from these docks were ideal for visiting African ports.

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Old Dock & Africa

Old Dock was involved in Liverpool's early trade with Africa. Cargoes such as palm oil and ivory would have been brought to the dock.

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Wapping Dock & Africa

Wapping Dock was primarily a passage to other docks. However its warehouses did deal with deep-sea vessels coming from West Africa.

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