“Bulk passenger freight trades” is an ugly phrase but it serves as a useful collective to describe a number of trades which were of considerable importance in the period 1750-1870. All involved the transport of people - slaves, emigrants, convicts, indentured servants and contract labour. The scale of the principal trades and their essential roles in peopling new worlds has ensured the attention of generations of historians. In terms of the literature of individual trades, the slave trade has no rival and the emigrant and convict trades are also well-documented. On closer inspection, however, the initial impression of an overwhelming volume of research, of a field fully-explored, is not wholly correct. Most notably, for all the quantitative manipulation of recent years, statistics of the volumes of people moved are far from certain; whereas the shipping aspects, in terms of full records of clearances, vessels and tonnages, represent major lacunae.

This paper does not seek to remedy such deficiencies; rather its aim is to present an overall appraisal. Such a general survey might appear superfluous, yet the broad sweep may serve a useful purpose. Much past research has been compartmentalised, the product of historians focussing on specialised themes - medical, demographic, naval and administrative, to name but a few. More especially, these trades have never before been considered as a group sharing common characteristics, nor has their collective position and influence within the evolving pattern of modern international trade and maritime activity ever been assessed.

The focus of study here is British involvement in the bulk passenger trades, although some reference is made to other participating nations. This concentration, in part, reflects the weight of research, but more so, the fact that Britain was by far the leading exponent of bulk freight passenger trading. In the slave trade of the second half of the eighteenth century, Britain was the leading participant and in the transportation of convicts, she was second only to Portugal. Again, down to the mid-nineteenth century, Britain, together with Ireland, was the chief source of emigrants to North America and the sole supplier to Australia. Britain also pioneered the trade in contract labour. One further business involving passengers was trooping, in which Britain was heavily engaged during the war-torn century before 1815.