Built on trade with Europe, Bristol was England's 'second city', after London, from about 1300 to the 1750s. For about 150 years after 1700, Bristol's trade was almost entirely geared to the Americas and the West Indies through slavery and sugar. After slavery ended in 1838, Bristol merchants looked to new markets world-wide.

Viking sailors from Scandinavia occupied Newfoundland in about AD 1000. Bristol's first connection with this area was in 1497, when sailors on John Cabot's voyage of exploration established the first English claim on Canadian land, leading to a Bristol-led settlement in 1610.

Trade expanded as colonial settlement spread, and in the late 1800s imports of Canadian wheat into Bristol increased hugely. Bristol and Eastern Canada established a special trade relationship after the celebrations to mark Cabot's 400th anniversary in 1897.