Ports in west Cumberland developed in a remarkably similar way to those on Tyneside and Wearside. The coal trade was the staple, supplemented by a trading link with northern Europe. But they also differed: west Cumberland's trade to the Baltic did not match that of the north-east and neither did it develop coal-based industries on a significant scale. On the other hand Whitehaven took its place alongside Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow in the trans- Atlantic trade. For a while in the 1730s and 1740s this offset some of the imbalance which resulted from relying so heavily on a single economic function. However, just as Tyneside failed to sustain the momentum of its industrial development, so Whitehaven's new trade proved to be a short-lived phenomenon. Although west Cumberland continued to trade with areas well beyond Europe for the rest of the century, these new connexions never threatened to displace the economic underpinning provided by the coal trade. To quote the customs collector in 1820, ‘the business of this port continues in the same state it has for some years past, the principal trade being that of exporting coal to Ireland, the Isle of Man and foreign parts’. Nonetheless, the expansion of other trades should not be understated. New employment opportunities were provided and local manufacturing was stimulated, to cite but two of the effects. In addition, a merchant community emerged which took considerable interest in the further development of the region. This proved to be particularly important, simply because the Lowthers, or to be more accurate, Sir James Lowther, chose to concentrate on the coal trade.