Thanks to all who responded. I received several great places to look. Some of which I have already read. Some I will need to locate. What I am trying to get a "handle on" is the who and how an emigrant would interact with the business side to better understand what an emigrant might chose for their passage and what obstacles they might have encountered. This is what I have been able to piece together and am wondering if I have interpreted the information correctly. For example. How where the shipping lines organized? I have discovered that there were basically two types of shipping lines: Manufactures' lines and Commercial lines. The manufactures' lines were lines that where owned and operated by the ship builders. They sometimes had agents employed directly and sometimes the Captain or owner would contract with an agent or a shipping firm known as shipping houses. Commercial lines either purchased ships from a ship builder or contracted with the owner or Captain of a ship. Until about 1848 the lines went in both directions across the Atlantic. In 1848 a New York businessman started a "one way line." When you are reading information about the shipping business several terms pop up. For example: The term runner. In most of the articles about emigration from Liverpool they focus on Irish emigrants. Runners are portrayed as con men. However there appears to be two types of runners. Those out to con emigrants and those that actually worked for shipping houses. Shipping houses seem to be a sort of middle man between individual emigrants or other businessmen who would book groups of emigrants for passage. For example a German businessman who was a Commission Merchant in London had an emigration business in Liverpool. His business was referred to as a "line." However, he did not own any ships nor would he contract directly with a ships owner or Captain, but would only work with a few "houses" in Liverpool because of there reliability. Today if I wanted to book passage to say England on a ship I might go through a travel agent or directly with the cruise line. The process in the 19th century appears to be more complex with multiple layers that an emigrant might have encountered. Ann In a message dated 05-Dec-14 15:25:33 Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: On 12/5/2014 1:47 PM, AGilchrest via wrote: > Hello, > > I am wondering if anyone knows of a source that gives a brief description > of the Emigration business. Specifically in the 1850's time frame. I am > looking for the structure of the business, the players if you will. > > Thank you, > Ann Gilchrest > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >