Another branch of maritime enterprise which attracted the attention of the merchants of Liverpool was privateering, which, during the latter half of the 18th century, was a favourite investment. After the outbreak of the Seven Years' War with France and Spain, in 1756, the commerce of Liverpool suffered severely, the French having overrun the narrow seas with privateers, and the premiums for insurance against sea risks rose to an amount almost prohibitive. The Liverpool merchants took a lesson from the enemy, and armed and sent out their ships as privateers. Some of the early expeditions proving very successful, almost the whole community rushed into privateering, with results of a very chequered character. When the War of Independence broke out in 1775 American privateers swarmed about the West India Islands, and crossing the Atlantic intercepted British commerce in the narrow seas. The Liverpool merchants again turned their attention to retaliation. Between August 1778 and April 1779, 120 privateers were fitted out in Liverpool, carrying 1986 guns and 8745 men. See W. Enfield, _Hist. of Leverpool_ (1773); J. Aikin, _Forty Miles round Manchester_ (1795); T. Troughton, _Hist. of Liverpool_ (1810); M. Gregson, _Portfolio of Fragments relating to Hist. of Lancashire_ (1817); H. Smithers, _Liverpool, its Commerce_, &c. (1825); R. Syers, _Hist. of Everton_ (1830); E. Baines, _Hist. of County Palatine of Lancaster_, vol. iv. (1836); T. Baines, _Hist. of Commerce and Town of Liverpool_ (1852); R. Brooke, _Liverpool during the last quarter of 18th Century_ (1853); J. A. Picton, _Memorials of Liverpool_ (2 vols., 1873); Ramsay Muir and Edith M. Platt, _A History of Municipal Government in Liverpool_ (1906); Ramsay Muir, _A History of Liverpool_ (1907). (W. F. I.) LIVERSEDGE, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 7 m. S.S.E. of Bradford, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern, and London & North Western railways. Pop. (1901) 13,980. The industries are chiefly the manufacture of woollen goods, the making of machinery, chemical manufactures and coal mining.