Department of History
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About the department
Research
Lifelong Learning
Dr Richard Stone
Seminar Tutor
Contact details
Email: Richard.Stone@bristol.ac.uk
Research Interests
My research uses statistical analysis of the surviving Port Books and Wharfage Books to reconstruct Bristol's seventeenth-century overseas trade. Dispelling suggestions that it was in decline, I have found that Bristol's trade was expanding rapidly prior to the Civil War. I have also examined Bristol's commerce after the Restoration, showing that its Atlantic trading network was already well established before the city commenced its engagement with the slave trade in 1698. Most recently I have explored the rise of the American trades, showing that these branches of Bristol's commerce underwent a rapid expansion between 1638 and 1655.
Teaching
- Introduction to Medieval History
- Approaching the Past
- Introduction to Early Modern History
- Smugglers City (Special Field)
- Cabot Project - Schools Group
Publications
Richard Stone, ‘The Overseas Trade of Bristol before the Civil War’, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 23 No. 2 (December 2011)
Review of: G. A. Metters (ed.) The Kings Lynn Port Books 1610-1614 in Archives, vol. XXXV no. 123 (October, 2010), pp. 79-80.
Review of: Alan F. Williams; W. Gordon Handcock and Chesley W. Sanger (eds.), John Guy of Bristol and Newfoundland: His Life, Times and Legacy in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Vol. 26 No. 2 (Spring 2012)
Review of: J.A. Harlow (ed.), The Ledger of Thomas Speed, in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, (forthcoming) Vol. 130 (2012)
Review of: R. Gorski (ed.), Roles of the Sea in Medieval England, in Southern History, (forthcoming, 2013)
Review of: W.B. Stephens, The Seventeenth-Century Customs Service Surveyed, in Economic History Review (forthcoming, 2013)
Papers Presented
‘Bristol’s American Revolution’, at ‘New Researchers Session’s’ (Economic History Society, annual conference, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, April 2012).
‘Bristol’s American Revolution’ at 'The Archaeology of Mercantile Capitalism' (Society for Post Medieval Archaeology, annual conference, Douglas, Isle of Man, September 2011).
‘The overseas trade of Bristol before the slave trade’ at 'New Research in the Arts and Humanities' (University of Bristol, May 2011).
‘Bristol and the Atlantic World, 1560-1689’ (History Department Research Seminars, University of Bristol, November 2010).
‘Bristol’s trade before the Civil War - a Reinterpretation’ at 'A Second City Remembered’ (University of the West of England conference, July 2010).
‘The overseas trade of Bristol before the Civil War’ (Renaissance and Early Modern Seminar, University of Bristol, December 2009).