The impulse to research and write this book came partly from my curiosity about the commercial links between my native city and the New World in the early modern era, and partly from an interest in Colonial American History acquired when I was an undergraduate at the University of Leicester. A study of Bristol's Atlantic Trade in the eighteenth century brought these dual interests together very well. In carrying out the project, I have been fortunate in gaining financial support from various quarters. My initial research for an Oxford doctorate was funded by a Major State Studentship from the Department of Education and Science. Archive work in the United States and Australia was made possible by the award of various fellowships. The United States–United Kingdom Educational Commission offered me a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship for the 1978/9 academic year, which enabled me to study at the University of Pennsylvania. This was topped up by an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies plus a shorter summer fellowship at the same Center in 1981. An Archie K. Davis Fellowship from the North Caroliniana Society enabled me to research relevant manuscript sources in the tarheel state. A Samuel Foster Haven Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society gave me time and resources to gather much of the material for chapter 3. A visiting Fellowship in the Economic History Department at the University of Melbourne was invaluable for incorporation of essential material from the Bright Family Papers. The Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford and the Staff Research Fund at the West London Institute of Higher Education also provided some financial aid.