42 . Glasgow Business April 2015
FREE TRADE AN IDEA FOR THEN - AND NOW
Glasgow Chamber Chief Executive Stuart Patrick makes the case for free trade T
he roots of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce lie strongly in issues concerning free trade. In the early years aſter its founding in 1783,
Glasgow Chamber spent much of its activity opposing the Corn Laws, which imposed tariffs on imported grain thus keeping prices high in order to favour grain producers in Britain. Tey were measures that hit populous cities
and benefited more rural areas and meant high prices for food for the people of Glasgow, employees of the businesses of Glasgow Chamber members. In the first six years of Glasgow Chamber’s
existence there were 45 mentions of the Corn Laws in the minutes and the first three printed reports issued by the body were all on that subject. Another bulwark against free trade was the
long-established monopoly of the East India Company, not merely in trade with India, but also with “territories beyond the Cape”. Tis was preventing Scotish companies from doing trade with what the Glasgow Chamber minutes of the day called “that extensive empire”. Glasgow Chamber campaigned for a change
to the East India Company’s ‘sole trader’ right in 1794, but was unsuccessful. It tried again 20 years later and the Company’s Royal Charter was amended with India being opened up to trade, but all other territories remained a monopoly. In 1831, it mounted a third effort under
the redoubtable Kirkman Finlay, a Chamber President for eight years and then a Glasgow MP. Ultimately it was successful – the East India Company’s 232-year-old Charter was changed. It was a huge triumph for the Glasgow
Chamber-led campaign and a change that created the conditions for a vast expansion of overseas trade. Te international landscape now is very
different from those times. Free trade is a much more established policy shared by many governments around the world. Te European Union/European Economic Area and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) exemplify it. Most countries are members of the multilateral trade agreements brokered by the World Trade Organisation. Since 1950, trade started becoming more
open and grew in scale, as did incomes around the world. Tere are no examples of countries that have risen in the global living standards rankings while being less open to trade. But free trade is a ‘house that is always
being built’ – it seems the merits of free trade need to be learned again and again in every
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