Trade and traders in Plantation Ulster, c.1600–c.1650

Abstract

The Ulster Plantation of the early seventeenth century introduced to that province not only new markets and marketplaces, but also a new community interested in buying and selling the goods now on offer there. The Ulster port books for 1612–15 not only offer a great deal of information regarding the products being bought and sold in the province, but also provide us with the names and activities of the merchants and the captains entrusted with the transportation of these goods. This essay investigates the traders themselves, their activities and the conditions under which they operated during this unsettled period.