This work examines the effect that mid 19th century steamship development had on long distance trade and communications between Britain and Australia. It takes a holistic approach, drawing together a number of diverse but related themes and using much previously unseen material to challenge many former assumptions. The role of steamships is revealed as engines of imperial ambition with the British Government operating a perfidious double-edged policy; publicly espousing free trade but in practice stifling it with subsidies to favoured steamship companies. This practice was designed...