page_title: History of Glasgow
section_title: Atlantic trade
hierarchical_section_title: History of Glasgow / Trade and the Industrial Revolution / Atlantic trade
caption_attribution_description: City Chambers of Glasgow
context_page_description: See also Timeline of Glasgow history.
context_section_description: By the 16th century, the city's trades and craftsmen had begun to wield significant influence, particularly the Incorporation of Tailors, which in 1604 was the largest guild in Glasgow; the merchant and craft guilds accounted for about 10% of the population by the 17th century. With the discovery of the New World and the trade routes it opened up, Glasgow was ideally placed to become an important trading centre with the Clyde providing access to the city and the rest of Scotland for merchant shipping. Its path to success was not to be easy, however: in 1651, the English Navigation Acts were passed, making it illegal for non-English ships to trade with English colonies. Non-English ships were also banned from carrying goods from outside Europe to England or its colonies.Scotland's first attempt at transatlantic trade had failed in 1629, when the Anglo-French Wars led to the loss of Scotland's fledgling colony of Nova Scotia. A second attempt at a Scottish colony, the Darien scheme, ended in disaster, bankrupting the country in 1700. They were not deterred, continuing small-scale smuggling with English colonies until the Act of Union in 1707.
  Access to the Atlantic Ocean allowed the import of goods such as  American tobacco and cotton, and Caribbean sugar, which were then traded throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. These imports flourished after 1707, when union with England made the trade legal. By 1760, Glasgow had outstripped London as the main port for tobacco in the United Kingdom. The American War of Independence put an end to most American trade, leading to financial ruin for some; trade turned to sugar, which largely came from the Caribbean.
  Glasgow's transformation from a provincial town to an international business hub was based originally on its control of the 18th-century tobacco trade with America.  The trade was interrupted by the American Revolutionary War, and never recovered to even a fourth of its old trade.  The tobacco merchants grew rich as their stocks of tobacco soared in value; they had diversified their holdings and were not badly hurt. Merchants turned their attention to the West Indies and to textile manufacture.  The trade made a group of Tobacco Lords very wealthy; they adopted the lifestyle of landed aristocrats, and lavished vast sums on great houses and splendid churches of Glasgow. The merchants constructed spectacular buildings and monuments that can still be seen today, and reinvested their money in industrial development to help Glasgow grow further.
caption: Glasgow's City Chambers, mosaic ceiling of the ground floor Loggia
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD", "Image Model": "X-2,C-50Z", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "144", "Image YResolution": "144", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "28-1014", "Image DateTime": "2002:02:22 19:21:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "266", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 20, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7206", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6213", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/3", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2002:02:22 19:21:36", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2002:02:22 19:21:36", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "39/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "722", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}