St Nazaire in 2006 is at the forefront of modern shipbuilding, but its history and connections with Nantes and the Loire River Estuary date back thousands of years and only relatively recently has it been a European heavyweight shipbuilder. Nantes, originally known as Portus Namnetum, was a transit point in the 2nd century. Merchandise arriving there would be distributed on small river boats, the majority of its traffic being tin, but other commodities included vegetable oils from Iberia and Italian wines.
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