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ABOUT NRHG TROWSE TRIANGLE NATURAL HERITAGE GEOGRAPHY INDUSTRY PEOPLE FOR SCHOOLS NEWS 
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River trade and traders Norwich became a trading place and a port far back in its history; the rivers were highways for trade with the European mainland from before the Norman Conquest. In those days, seagoing vessels made the journey up the Yare from its broad estuary right into the city, but by the 14th century the channel had silted up from both natural and human activity, and cargoes had to be off-loaded at Yarmouth on to keels, and later on to wherries for the rest of the way. Merchants and manufacturers grew rich over the years from the trade with Europe that the rivers carried.
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The city became prosperous and powerful - in the 16th century it was second only to London as a centre of trade.
Imports at that time included sugar, syrup, currants, prunes, raisins, spices, Rhine and French wines, London beer, oil, vinegar, and salt, as well as raw materials: metals, madder and alum for the dyers, and wool for the weavers. The finished product from the weavers' work was the main Norwich export: cloth of all kinds. Wherries went on plying up and down to Norwich till well on into the 20th century, though by then specially built seagoing vessels were able to bring their cargoes up into the port of Norwich. and they went on doing so till the late 1980s.
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