{
  "id": 15789112,
  "title": "A Vast New Database Shows How Britain Built a Global Empire by Trading Goods Like Coal, Wine and Wood Closer to Home",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/a-vast-new-database-shows-how-britain-built-a-global-empire-by",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-20T18:34:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-vast-new-database-shows-how-britain-built-a-global-empire-by-trading-goods-like-coal-wine-and-wood-closer-to-home-180989717/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Using AI to comb through hundreds of thousands of handwritten pages of port records, historians have constructed an interactive map of Britain’s maritime trading routes. Even as it expanded in Asia and the Americas, Britain's commerce with Europe remained overwhelming",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}