In the year this picture was published, the first steam vessel to ply its trade on the Mersey arrived in the river. A year earlier, in 1814, the city began to trade with India when John Gladstone's 516 ton Kingsmill returned from the sub-continent laden with exotic cargo. The number of visiting mariners was reflected in the number of gin shops and ale houses amounting to about one for every forty residents. Indeed, there were more breweries in Liverpool at this time than any other port.

Image details: Drawn and engraved by William Daniell, published 1815