Pottery was required in such large quantities that even before Emperor Claudius’s invasion in 43 AD, it was Britain’s most imported item, above food and all other products. However, the trade of actually making pottery was always smaller than many others, such as the wool trade. Roman pottery could be quite difficult to break – hence the large quantities of it found in modern archaeological digs.
The Britons did not make much pottery before the Romans came, although it was produced in small quantities. Most of the pottery they used was imported from Gaul. The home-produced British pottery, such as there was, was generally of lower quality than that of Gaul, so little was exported.