28 . Glasgow Business January/February 2013


LOOKING AND FOR


This year marks the 230th birthday of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce – the oldest of its kind in Britain. Glasgow Business looks at how it was established and how far it has come in the years since


A


s we setle into 2013, the Glasgow we look on now is a far cry from the city it was


230 years ago in 1783 at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Tat year saw the end of the American War of Independence, and the commercial prospects of Glasgow were gloomy to say the least. Te great Virginia Trade,


which for a long series of years employed the largest share of the city capital, was now lost. Coton spinning, with its accompanying industries, was yet unknown. Indeed, aside from a growing traffic with the West Indies and the manufacture of a few domestic fabrics, the trade of the town was


extremely limited. To the people of Glasgow, it


became apparent that a means of opening up new sources of trade and commerce was a pressing necessity. Glasgow’s Lord Provost


Patrick Colquhoun, who served between 1782 and 1784, hosted eager discussions in the city, and, in January 1783, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce was established, with rules and a constitution draſted by Colquhoun. Colquhoun was born near


Glasgow in 1745, and moved to America at the age of 16 to work in the lucrative commercial trade in Virginia. When he was 21, Colquhoun moved back to


Scotland to setle in Glasgow, going into business on his own in the linen trade. Ten years later, at the outbreak


of the American Revolution, Colquhoun sided against the rebels and, along with 13 other local businessmen, assisted in funding a Glasgow regiment to contribute to the government’s war effort. Colquhoun was widely recognised by the people in Glasgow as innovative and bold, and, in 1979, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Glasgow. Te Chamber was the first


institution of its kind to be founded in Britain, and the rest of Britain quickly followed. Now, there is a Chamber of Commerce in every major centre of business on both sides of the border, as well as on both sides of the Atlantic. Te first meeting of the


Chamber was held in the Glasgow Town Hall in George Square on 1 January 1783. Patrick Colquhoun submited a plan of the proposed constitution, which provided that the Association should be established on the most liberal and equitable foundations, and should include in its membership the merchants of the principal towns in the West of Scotland. Later in the same year, a Royal Charter was granted by King George III and is still displayed in the Chamber Boardroom today. Te Chamber’s early priorities


were to raise the quality of goods produced and to lobby the Government to lower taxes, reduce


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