Trade expansion 1600 -1800

London's expanding port and the growth of mercantile wealth between the 16th and 18th Centuries are the focus of this gallery.

The formation of trading companies such as the East India Company, Muscovy Company and the Africa Company are explored here, as are the 'Legal Quays' established by Elizabeth 1 in 1558, for the collection of customs dues on cargoes.

Pocahontas

Displays include the building of London's first wet docks at Rotherhithe for the whaling trade; the landing of East India cargoes at Blackwall; shipbuilding and related riparian industries; together with displays on visitors from overseas such as Pochohantas and Prince Lee Boo. A touch-screen journey to China aboard the East Indiaman Falmouth introduces the concept of world trade, navigation and the perils of merchant voyages.

The growth of commodity exchanges, marine insurance brokerage and ship-owning are the topics of discussion played out in a dramatised video production of business being conducted inside a typical 18th century London coffee house.

Visitors are led through a recreation of a Legal Quay (pictured right) typical of that visualised by Samuel Scott in his painting of Bear Quay c1760, whilst overhead, the shouts of men inside a tread wheel crane - specially recreated in the gallery - can be heard. Displays exploring the proliferation of organised crime on the river surprise visitors with an iron Gibbet cage (left) suspended as if from a riverside wharf - a ghoulish reminder of the punishment meted out to pirates.