468 



GLASGOW. (COMMERCE.) 



initiation to purchase it, for Uie use of the professors 

 uiul students of their theological seminary. It has 

 been accordingly transferred to that body. 



The Dilettanti Society was instituted in 1828, by a 

 few scientific gentlemen, with a view to encourage 

 and promote the study of the fine arts, particularly 

 painting, architecture, and engraving. Its members 

 chiefly belong to one or other of these departments. 

 The dilettanti society rooms are situated iu Buchanan 

 Street, where an exhibition of paintings is opened 

 annually. 



Commerce and inland navigation. The first species 

 cf trade in which the inhabitants of Glasgow seem 

 to have embarked, was the curing and exporting of 

 salmon and herring caught in the Clyde. In 1201, a 

 society of fishers was formed, the members of which 

 inhabited a row of houses fronting the river, called 

 the Fishergate. After the Stockwell street bridge 

 was built in 1345, this row of houses was called 

 Bridgegate. Salt for curing the fish being sold near 

 the east end of tlie Fishergate, gave rise to the Salt- 

 market. In 1420, we find one merchant, Mr Elphin- 

 ston, exporting a considerable quantity of cured fish 

 to France, and in 1567, no less than 20,400 barrels 

 of herrings were sent from Glasgow to Rochelle. 

 " The origin of foreign trade in this great city," says 

 Mr Pennant, " is extremely worthy of attention. A 

 merchant, of the name of Walter Gibson, first laid, by 

 an adventure, the foundation of its wealth ; about 

 1(368, he cured and exported in a Dutch vessel, 300 

 lasts of herrings, each containing six barrels, which 

 he sent to St Martin's in France, where he got a 

 barrel of brandy and a crown for each. The ship 

 returning with brandy and salt, the cargo was sold 

 for a good sum. He then launched further into 

 business, bought the vessel and two large ships be- 

 sides, with which he traded to different parts of 

 Europe, and to Virginia ; he also first imported iron 

 to Glasgow, for before that time it was received from 

 Stirling and Borrowstounness, in exchange for dyed 

 stuffs, and even the wine used in this city was brought 

 from Edinburgh." In 1674, a whale fishing com- 

 pany was established at Glasgow, consisting of nine 

 shares of 1500 each. With this sum they equipped 

 five vessels, one of which, built at Belfast, carried 40 

 guns, and was of a burden of 700 tons. They built 

 a soapwork at the head of Candlerigg street. They 

 also erected a range of buildings at Greenock, called 

 the royal closs, for the purpose of curing fish, but 

 this speculation did not succeed. The employment 

 of such a large capital by one company, is sufficient 

 to show that the commerce of the town, at this time, 

 must have been considerable. Indeed, so early as 

 1656, Glasgow possessed of shipping, twelve ves- 

 sels of 957 tons, and in 1692, the number had 

 increased to sixty-six vessels. Although this ship- 

 ping belonged to Glasgow merchants, yet from 

 the shallowness of the Clyde, the vessels were not 

 loaded and unloaded at the city. The shipping har- 

 bour in 1653, was at Cunningham, in Ayrshire, but 

 the land carriage being expensive, the magistrates 

 endeavoured to contract with the magistrates of 

 Dumbarton, for ground to build a harbour near that 

 town, but this, as well as a like attempt, made about 

 the same time, to establish a harbour at Troon, 

 proved abortive. In 1656, the burghs of Dum- 

 barton and Renfrew joined that of Glasgow, and 

 deepened the river by cutting away several fords, 

 and thus rendered the Clyde navigable for small flat- 

 bottomed boats up to Glasgow. At a period of six 

 years after this, the city of Glasgow purchased 

 thirteen acres of ground, on the site where Port- 

 Glasgow now stands, where a harbour was speedily 

 erected, as also a dry-dock, the first in Scotland. At 

 this harbour the Glasgow vessels continued for many 



years to be unloaded, the cargo being brought up tt' 

 the town by small boats, and by land carriage ; nor 

 was there any quay formed at Glasgow before the 

 y'ar 1688. 



Eleven years later than this brings us to a period 

 of great calamity to Glasgow, in the loss which Mi^ 

 sustained by the expedition to Darien. many of her 

 merchants having been deeply concerned in that un- 

 fortunate enterprise. 



The union of Scotland with England forms an 

 important era in the history of the commerce and 

 manufactures of Glasgow, as by that event all the 

 colonial ports were laid open to her merchants, who 

 embarked eagerly in trade, and chartered vessels 

 from Whitehaven to Virginia and Maryland, sending 

 goods of various kinds, and bringing back tobacco in 

 return. This trade increased to a great extent, so 

 that in a few years, Glasgow became the principal 

 seat in the British empire for the importation and 

 manufacture of tobacco. This success soon excited 

 the jealousy of the English merchants, and, in 1717, 

 the traders of Bristol presented a petition to the com- 

 missioners of customs of London, praying them to 

 check the trade of Glasgow ; but so satisfactory was 

 the answer of the Glasgow merchants, and so clearly 

 did they overturn all the false accusations that had 

 been laid to their charge, that the petition was dis- 

 missed. In 1721, the merchants of London, Liver- 

 pool, and Whitehaven, combined and presented a 

 similar petition, which met with a similar fate. The. 

 invidious attacks of the English merchants did not 

 terminate here ; in the year following, they pre- 

 sented a like petition to the house of commons, a 

 house at no time remarkable for its indulgence to 

 Glasgow. The house sent a commission of inquiry 

 to Glasgow, hi 1723, the result of which was the 

 institution of a set of complex and vexatious excise 

 regulations, the impossibility of observing all of 

 which involved many of the merchants in expensive 

 lawsuits, and for a time caused a great depression in 

 trade. 



Besides embarking largely in trade with the Ame- 

 rican continent, the Glasgow merchants, after the 

 union, made several attempts to open a trade with 

 the West Indies, and in 1732, a connexion seems to 

 have been formed between some of the merchants here, 

 and the West India proprietors. This gradually in- 

 creased, so that in 1775, we find the imports from the 

 West Indies alone were, of sugar 4621 hhds., 691 trs. ; 

 rum 11 54 puncheons, 193 hhds., and of cotton 503 bags. 

 The commerce of Glasgow extended to almost all 

 the countries of Europe and America at this time, 

 although her shipping did not all arrive at her own 

 port. Many of her vessels were loaded and unloaded 

 at London, and the exports included almost every 

 species of English manufacture. The manufactures 

 of Scotland were as yet in their infancy, and did not 

 constitute above one-fourth of the exports of the 

 Glasgow vessels. The tobacco imported from Vir- 

 ginia was almost all exported to the continent ; and, 

 to such an extent did this branch of trade arrive, 

 that, in the year last mentioned, forty-nine thousand 

 hogsheads were imported by Glasgow, a quantity 

 equal to one-half of all that was brought that year 

 to Great Britain. Of this tobacco about 6000 hhds. 

 were retained for home consumption. 



Factors were kept at different stations in America, 

 who received merchandise from Glasgow and remit- 

 ted tobacco; and so lucrative did this line of business 

 become, that, before the commencement of the war, 

 the factors were enabled, on their own account, to 

 enter into extensive speculations with the planters. 



The tobacco trade, while it continued, engrossed 

 nearly the whole capital and commercial enterprise 

 of Glasgow ; and any manufactures that were car- 



