- All Timelines
- Britain - Changing Lives
- c.1066 |Medieval Manor
- c.1180 |Medieval Minds
- c.1250 |Medieval Towns
- c.1320 |Monastic Life
- c.1348 |The Black Death
- c.1420 |Yeoman England
- c.1520 |The Reformation
- c.1588 |Shakespeare's World
- c.1612 |Pendle Witches
- c.1775 |Iron and Industry
- c.1785 |Factories and Machines
- c.1810 |Urban Slums
- c.1834 |Tolpuddle Martyrs
- c.1853 |The Vision of Titus Salt
- c.1875 |Cities Transformed
- c.1910 |A Golden Age?
- c.1984 |Death of Industry
- Britain - Rulers & Ruled
- c.1066 |Norman Conquest
- c.1170 |Church & Crown
- c.1215 |Magna Carta
- c.1280 |First Parliaments
- c.1381 |Peasants Revolt
- c.1470 |The Pastons
- c.1528 |Henry VIII & Church
- c.1649 |Civil War
- c.1658 |The Wheel of History
- c.1688 |"Glorious" Revolution
- c.1789 |Rights of Man
- c.1819 |Peterloo Massacre
- c.1842 |The Chartists
- c.1867 |Dawn of Democracy
- c.1893 |Rise of Labour
- c.1903 |Votes for Women
- c.1919 |Century of Change
- Britain - Nations & Empire
- Smallpox Through Time
- c.1045BC |Face of a Pharaoh
- c.1562 |Arsenic and Old Lace
- c.1617 |Smallpox in America
- c.1711 |Child Pox
- c.1721 |Experiment in Newgate
- c.1758 |The Speckled Monster
- c.1796 |Jenner's Breakthrough
- c.1800 |The Vaccine Triumphant
- c.1806 |Ox-faced Boys
- c.1853 |Public Health & Protest
- c.1896 |Epidemic on Camera
- c.1967 |Global Action
- c.2010 |Smallpox Today
- The American West
- Britain - Changing Lives
- This Module
- This module explores the history of Atlantic Trade in the 18th century. It describes the British love affair with trade goods - coffee, tea, sugar and tobacco - and it tells the story of the Glasgow merchants who grew rich on the tobacco trade. But the module also reveals this flip side of this prosperity, showing how merchants maximised profits by shipping African slaves to the Americas.
- Credits
History of Britain - Nations & Empire
- 4.Atlantic Trade
-
1761
A hunger for trade goods leads to the birth of the British Empire and the tragedy of the slave trade. (4.75 mins)
Chapter Breakdown
- 1. Glasgow's "Merchant City" - built on the profits of 18th century trade.
- 2. Trade goods in the late 18th century: tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco.
- 3. The Act of Union opens English trading ports to Scottish merchants - and Glasgow cashes in.
- 4. Slavery: the human cost of Atlantic Trade.
Picture Viewer
Location details
The first half of the module was shot in Glasgow Merchant City - an exciting part of Glasgow boasting wide straight streets and squares, and classical villas developed by Glasgow's tobacco lords in the 18th century. It's now buzzing with independent shops and bars.
From there we moved to Greenock, on the Clyde, west of Glasgow, where sugar and tobacco arrived from America in the decades that followed the Act of Union of 1707.
Greenock was Scotland's major port on the west coast throughout the 18th and 19th century, and declined only recently.
DVD
DVD Coming Soon!
We hope to release a new DVD pack containing all the video modules for the British timelines including 'Changing Lives', 'Rulers & Ruled', and 'Empire & Nations'.
