This chapter investigates the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board efforts to maintain the Port, which necessarily involved operating like a business. The chapter details various threats to the shipping industry in Liverpool, such as the predatory presence of the railways, which the Board combatted by turning their focus to coastline trade. It also evaluates the upgrades to Clarence and Central docks, and ultimately concludes that the Great Depression and the Great War were disastrous to Liverpool Shipping and that no action undertaken by the Board could have predicted.
