Merchant Trade

Portsmouth enjoyed a flourishing merchant trade of both national and international repute, based around the Camber, during the 1700 and 1800s. Ships from other British ports mixed with those from France, the New World, the Baltic, Portugal, the Middle East and India. The cargoes they brought included livestock, cloth, coal, cheese, timber, fish, soap, brandy, tobacco, bullion and a vast array of spices. The local community consequently became one of the most cosmopolitan in the British Isles with the townspeople daily rubbing shoulders with sailors from all over the known world.