Very little is known about the conduct of Irish trade in the sixteenth century and pre-existing analyses are based primarily on the ‘particular’ accounts, which, while very useful in many respects, are quite limited in detail. The ‘particular’ accounts (to 1565) record the port of registration of a ship and whether the ship was entering or exiting the port, but they have little to say in terms of the performance of specific Irish ports or the activities of merchants. This chapter is based on the analysis of the ‘port books’ (1565 onwards), which include additional information including the exact port from which ships were arriving from or departing to, the approximate tonnage, and the name, domicile and occupation of each merchant. This additional information is utilised here to establish the geography of changing consumption patterns in Ireland in the latter half of the century. In particular, the inclusion of merchant domicile combined with the specific port of arrival of ships in Ireland opens up an entirely new line of investigation, indicating the probable diffusion of goods after their arrival on the Irish coast, shedding light on the commercial relationship of the Irish coast and its hinterland and on Anglo-Irish mercantile connections and networks.

Goods and ports

Examining the relative importance of Irish ports in the sixteenth century presents a challenge. Pre-existing work on the activity of specific ports has been based solely on the information in the ‘particular accounts’, which, as already noted, record only the port of registration and not the port of arrival or departure of vessels. Given that there was always a tendency for merchants to use ships of their own locality, analysis of the port of registration does provide some indication of the relative activity of the Irish ports servicing the import trade. Nevertheless, using the port of registration as a means of examining the performance of ports can produce misleading results. For example, in the case of Cork, it has been noted that Cork’s involvement in the trade with Bristol had dropped significantly by the 1540s, when ships registered there carried only 3 per cent of the trade. The port books present a much clearer picture of Cork’s role in the import trade.