The Port Books of Boston, 1601-1640

The Boston Port Books make available in a clear and useful fashion the materials for a study of foreign trade of Boston in the first half of the 17th century. At one time the port of Boston was second in importance only to London, but by the 17th century its trade was much smaller than Hull’s. The great inland area once served by Boston had come to depend on the rivers of Humber and Thames, and Boston now exported mainly the produce of a limited hinterland, and imported goods apparently for local consumption. These port books, displaying what is indeed a negligible proportion of the total trade of the United Kingdom, are therefore a contribution to the economic study of Lincolnshire. This does not necessarily mean that they are only of local value. If the merchants of Boston in their relatively small trade were subject to the same influences as the merchants of greater ports, to study the trade of Boston is in some sort to study a national trade in miniature.
Adapted from the Preface.