GLASGOW BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2017
CONTENTS/PRESIDENT 6
Neil Amner, President
president@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Our Chamber’s historic pursuit of free trade
As we ponder the consequences of Theresa May’s hard-line negotiating stance on the UK’s exit from the European Union and President Trump’s position on international trade, we can delve back into our own Chamber history for a sense of perspective. The post-war European economic mission has been about the free movement of goods, services and people across borders, breaking down boundaries and harmonising markets. The quest for free trade has been a guiding principle of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce since its inception. It is embedded in this organisation’s DNA. “The Chamber has been the
8 17
invariable and uncompromising advocate of this great principle and has laboured zealously to procure the speedy, though gradual, removal of all the shackles with which the industry of the country is loaded,” said Dugald Bannatyne, a Chamber Director, in 1836. The pursuit of
20
News Agenda
City Roundup Member news Partner news New members
Events
Past and forthcoming events 18 Forthcoming training
19
International Trade: Make it in Manhattan
20 6
10 11 16 47
Features Intel Q&As
Glasgow Colleges’ Regional Board
Developing the Young Workforce – Glasgow
Glasgow economy
Cities Outlook findings Green Light Programme
Column BIG Talks
Cover image: Riverside Museum, Glasgow Harbour image courtesy of McAteer Photograph and Glasgow Life
free trade has not only been central to the Chamber’s role, but pivotal in trading conditions across the UK. Sir Robert Peel, the Conservative Prime Minister, whose statue stands on the corner of George Square in Glasgow, adjacent to our offices, expressed his gratitude to the Chamber on 30 April 1842. “I have this day had the honour
8 15
24 26 30 31
George Street development 34 46
of receiving the resolution of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures [sic] of the city of Glasgow, on the subject of the financial and commercial measure, which it has been my duty, on the part of her Majesty’s Government, to submit to Parliament.” At that stage, Peel was only
partially convinced about the full repeal of the invidious Corn Laws, imposed in 1815 to maintain bread prices and protect the land-owning aristocracy. Nonetheless, Glasgow’s citizens and the Chamber continued to agitate in the battle to have the Corn Laws repealed and free trade
instigated. It was a bitter Brexit-style campaign. “When I reflect that there is
probably no town or district in Her Majesty’s dominions which combined in an equal degree with the city of Glasgow and its dependencies, the interests of domestic manufactures and foreign commerce, and when I am assured that that body, which is the chosen guardian and organ of such interest, has expressed, without dissentient voice, its approbation of the general scope and outline of the measure that I have proposed,” said Peel in a letter to the Chamber. He praised the ‘enlightened’
members for their strongest sense of public duty. It took years of acrimonious
political argument and the tragedy and upheaval of the Irish Famines in the 1840s, before Peel’s U-turn and the Corn Laws were finally repealed in 1846, causing the collapse of his Conservative government. In 1883, the
Chamber’s centenary book, Progress of Glasgow, was able to report: “The great
expansion of our commerce since the introduction of free trade has fully proved the soundness of the principles which its supporters advocated, and many of its most bitter opponents live to acknowledge their error.’’ So we are not the only generation
who have travelled through uncertain trading times. The terms of our future
international trading relationships will not be apparent for some time yet. Your Chamber will continue to support our members and champion Glasgow’s interests, not least of which in respect of international trade and investment. We cannot, however, allow the
debate and conjecture about those outcomes (far less the mechanistic steps in the interim) to distract us from more immediate concerns. We must all (politicians included) not lose sight of the day job.
Glasgow Business . 3
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
