IV.

History

In the 10th century Bristol was a flourishing commercial port. By the early 11th century it had become a centre for the wool trade with Ireland. Cloth-making was introduced in the 14th century, and Bristol merchants soon developed a prosperous cloth trade with much of Europe and the Near East. From the port of Bristol in 1497, the Italian navigators John Cabot and his son Sebastian Cabot sailed to the mainland of America. During the English Civil War Bristol was taken by the Royalists in 1643 but fell to the Parliamentarians in 1645.

The city's cloth trade diminished in the 18th century, but Bristol prospered from the slave trade, the West Indies trade, and newly established industries, primarily the processing of metals. In the early 19th century, the abolition of slavery and competition from the growing port of Liverpool sent Bristol into an economic decline. Trade revived with the arrival of the railway in 1841. With the expansion of its port facilities in the late 19th century, the city again became one of England's leading seaports. The port has undergone extensive reconstruction and development in recent years. Bristol has a Crown Court and is the headquarters of the Avon and Somerset police force.