The chapter outlines and commercial and legal context for the subject matter of the book. Pivotal to the context of commercial law during the period to book covers was Britain’s dominant role in international trade and finance for a significant part of it. Commodities traded in the organised markets in London and Liverpool often set world prices. International trade was financed through London-based banks. Trading firms in Britain or with links to it imported raw materials to Europe and distributed exports. The law furnished a broad framework within which this commercial and financial activity took place. During the period state regulatory law was at a minimum and parties and markets were free to engage in private law-making. Lawyers and the courts were kept at bay, with the bulk of disputes being dealt with through private dispute settlement in the form of arbitration. When courts were involved, n the main they lent support with principles of party autonomy, a clear preference for certain and predictable rules and a supportive disposition. When legal difficulties were encountered, these were fairly readily surmounted by contractual or private arrangements. Overall, the law cast few shadows over profit making.

Britain was home to international commodity markets in London and Liverpool in the nineteenth and first part of the twentieth centuries. There was a rising volume of international trade as Britain became the first industrial nation, a major importer of these commodities for its own needs, an entrepȏt, and a centre for organising distribution elsewhere. The London and Liverpool markets facilitated distribution through time with forward dealings. Futures contracts went a step further: actual delivery was not contemplated, and trades were settled by paying price differences. The markets and the trade associations whose members worked in them engaged in private law-making - the way that the markets were constituted and governed; the controls over those using them; the system of rules for transactions on them and how these were cleared and settled; the standard form contracts used for dealings; and the arbitration procedures for dispute settlement. State law intervened in only the most egregious cases of market abuse attracting public condemnation and threatening confidence. Until the twentieth century, lawyers were not regularly engaged in formulating the rules and contracts of the London and Liverpool commodity markets or in advising on how disputes were to be settled or arbitrated.