The rise of Liverpool, from a small fishing village consisting of a few wattle and daub houses around a muddy creek on the north-west coast of England to the second city of the British Empire, began in 1207 when King John granted Liverpool its charter. His aim was to use Liverpool as part of his plans to conquer Ireland. Development was slow and Chester remained the principal port in the area up until the seventeenth century. However, with the combined effects of the silting up of the River Dee on which Chester stands, the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and the opening up of North America, Liverpool found itself in an important strategic position within the ‘triangular trade’ in slaves, sugar and cotton. In 1730 Liverpool employed 15 ships in the slave trade: in 1751 that number had increased to 53, in 1760 it was 74, in 1770 it was 96, and in 1792 it was 132.

During the nineteenth century Liverpool consolidated its position as a major port and began to enjoy the spectacular growth which in 1804 led Dr James Currie to describe the town as ‘busy, noisy, smoky, money-getting Liverpool’. Capitalizing upon the rapid developments brought about by the Industrial Revolution, Liverpool's merchants imported the raw materials that fed the newly developed industrial towns of the north and the midlands, and subsequently exported finished manufactured goods. Stephenson's opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway in 1830 acted as a catalyst for even more spectacular growth, both geographically and commercially. As Paul Johnson notes, with

In this symbiotic relationship, Liverpool's merchants grew even richer under the conditions granted in the charter of 1207, which allowed them to charge a tariff on goods moving through the port.