Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, port cities on multiple continents expanded rapidly as hubs for maritime trade, including slaving voyages, colonial commodities, and Indian Ocean goods. Cities such as Liverpool and Nantes grew wealthy largely through investment in transatlantic slaving voyages, while Lisbon and Cadiz handled colonial silver and goods, and Surat and other Indian Ocean ports managed textile and spice exports. These cities developed specialized docks, warehouses, insurance markets, and merchant communities that became permanent features of global commerce.
Relevance to Trade History
The growth of specialized port cities created lasting commercial infrastructure and merchant institutions that underpinned expanding global trade networks.
Read the full story in our article Ports and the Growth of Commercial Cities.
Source: World History Encyclopedia. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.