2. Building the Docks
Financing the Docks

In the period up to 1830 the private companies which financed the building of the docks consisted mainly of merchants or people with a direct interest in trade.

The West India Dock Company is a good example. In August 1799 at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate, 123 West India merchants took shares in the new company providing £500,000 to pay for the building of the West India Docks.

They aimed to make a profit by charging for unloading and storing goods but also wanted the dock facilities for the benefit of their own trade.

In later dock construction there was a tendency for entrepreneurs who had no direct interest in trade to become involved.

These were people with money to invest who wanted to make a profit from the operation of the docks. Sir Samuel Morton Peto and Sir Thomas Brassey were two such men.

These men were encouraged to invest in the docks as Britain's industrial revolution raced ahead and Britain became the 'workshop of the world'.

Britain's trade with all parts of the world expanded enormously and a vast range of goods poured in from the colonies of the British Empire.

The growth in the number and size of steamships in the second half of the nineteenth century opened up the world for trade and brought fresh activity to the Port of London.