Industry, Agriculture and Trade in Days Gone By

Ever since humans moved beyond their hand to mouth existence as hunter gatherers, they have needed to find ways to store food and other items safely. Today, we have warehouses and storerooms all over the country for our many consumer goods. But how did they do things in the past?

Egyptian grain silosThe ancient Egyptians relied heavily on bread as a staple part of their diet. They generally stored their grain underground, often in huge communal grain pits or silos that would be able to feed whole communities. Many of these pits would have been simple affairs – little more than holes dug into the ground. In Egypt’s dry climate grain would have kept underground for a long time without spoiling. Some of the most impressive underground grain pits in Egypt were at the Pyramid at Sakkara. These enormous pits were initially thought by archaeologists to be tombs, but they are far too large. They are also all connected by a walkway, which tombs would not have been, so it is thought that they were used for storing grain for the city.
Roman grain storesLike the Egyptians, the Romans relied heavily on bread as a major part of their diet. Like the Egyptians, they needed to find a way of keeping their grain well stored for months on end, without it going bad. They were also in a much wetter climate than the Egyptians, so keeping grain dry was important. They built granaries in every city and fort, and went to great lengths to ensure they were safe from potential invading enemies. As with everything they built, the Romans used their knowledge of engineering to build their granaries. To keep the grain dry, they built them with raised floors on pillars, which allowed air to circulate underneath. An example, from the Roman fort of Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall, can be seen here:
British port warehouses Although not ancient, the warehouses that sprang up in British port cities during the industrial revolution were the first large scale developments of warehouses. Although ports and canal-sides would always have had some means of storing goods in and around them, the warehouses that grew up in nineteenth century Britain were on a different scale to anything seen before. Many are still standing, often converted into flats and offices, in what are now desirable locations. Then, they were a central part of a period of history that hugely changed the way the world lived, and a symbol of the new age of urbanisation and industrial development. Reaching many storeys high, warehouse in port cities such as London and Liverpool would store goods and raw materials from all over the world brought in by ship. They would also hold goods manufactured from those raw materials ready for export back to other parts of the world – an essential part of the growing system of global trade.

Rachel is a history blogger who has covered everything from tea parties in Regency England to the changing nature of warehouse space.