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The town walls or ditch still divided the English and Scots planters inside the city from the Irish Catholics outside. The Irish population tended to gather close to the western walls on what are now Mill Street and Lower Divis Street, building the first Catholic chapel here, to this day a core of Catholic population.
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The 1700s established many of the geographic patterns that are evident
in modern Belfast. The first mill was built on the Farset in West Belfast,
a region that eventually developed into an industrial suburb. Toward the
end of the century, the town experienced rapid growth due to industrialization.
The first product to be manufactured on a large scale was cotton, brought
to the city as a project for the idle hands of children in the Poor House.
With improved transportation methods, the Lagan Valley became an important
travel route to interior Ulster in the West and Dublin in the South. Trade
was growing in this decade; linen, butter, bacon, pork, and tobacco directly
traded with the American colonies were the most important exports. Belfast
retained importance as a market through the 1700s with new ones built on
the reclaimed land along the bay.