Trade Forms (1 results)

Small folio, pp. 196 of pre-printed shipping manifest forms, of which 137 completed in ink; contemporary flexible vellum-backed marbled paper boards with ink-lettered label to upper board; corners bumped and spine a little chipped. Fine documentation of the maritime trade from the harbour of Trapani in Sicily. The manifest gives bills of lading from January 1840 to March 1849. The pre-printed manifests are completed in ink giving the name of the freight ship and its captain, the destination and then details of its freight, i.e. type and quantity of merchandise, names of senders and recipients. Trapani boasts some of Europe's oldest salt marshes and salt extraction has been a major business for centuries, which still flourishes to the present day. By the nineteenth century Sicilian sea salt was exported to European countries as far away as Norway and Russia. These shipping manifests document that it was sent to destinations as far afield as Constantinople, Abo, Stavanger, Carlscrona, Stockholm, Bergen, Odessa, Reval, and Riga. Clearly some of the shippers acted on their own account, being both captains of the ship and shipper, whereas others acted on commission. The shipping routes went through Russian waters, which explains the accounts kept by the Russian Vice Consulate.