We only controlled a quarter of the world's land surface and we did a lot of trade with the bits we didn't control as well. Clippers, designed for speed above carrying capacity or economy of operation, were built for the China tea trade, for example.
I don't think that the advent of steam affected the decision to build the Suez canal. The idea had ben explored by the Venetians in the 15th century and the French in the 17th and 18th, as a way to avoid having to transit the treacherous seas around the Cape of Good Hope. Steam probably made a difference as to whether it could be built though, as most of the original modern canal (the Pharaohs had one) was dug by machine.