Although some textile printers utilized engraved copperplates prior to the eighteenth century, copperplate printing did not become popular until the 1750s, after Irish printer Francis Nixon developed a thickening agent that expedited printing on cotton and linen with mordants. In England, the widespread interest in printed textiles corresponded to broader societal interest in print culture, including works on paper and ceramics, in the late eighteenth century. Common to this aesthetic was the printing of designs in a single color, as seen in this textile. The textile's imagery, which includes a scene of traders at port, reflects the contemporary interest in commercial exploration and trade.