The city of Glasgow prospered during the later part of the 18th century thanks to the lucrative tobacco trade between Glasgow and Virginia.
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another…”
The first few words of the American Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776 were to have far reaching effects on a Scottish town on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Scots had just emerged from one of the darkest periods in their history. The London and Edinburgh parliaments had become one but the benefits of trade promised by Daniel Defoe had yet to materialise
Union had swept away the English Navigation laws and the Scots were determined to take advantage of trading opportunities in the New World tobacco plantations.
Initially the expansion of trade was slow and although the Scots were eager to do business, much of it was already in the hands of the established London merchants.
The English who had entwined the planters in a web of debt from which they found it difficult to escape had already captured the lucrative markets of Maryland and Virginia.
Although by 1720 the Scots had a 10 percent share of the market, the demand for American tobacco was beginning to slow because the Europeans now grew their own. It seemed they much preferred the taste to that of the coarser colonial product.
Transatlantic trade remained stagnant for 30 years when fate in the shape of the French navy intervened. Britain and France were again at war and the French navy seized a convoy en route from the Virginia plantations to London.
The cargo was taken to the French channel port of Dunkirk and quickly sold at a fraction of its value.
It was only when peace was re-established that the real consequences of the French action became clear.
Tastes had changed and the number one choice of tobacco for the French, Germans, Dutch and others became Virginia.
Such was the appetite for the rough yellow chewing tobacco known as ‘Oronoko or ‘Kites Foot’ the London merchants could not cope with the demand.
Desperate for regular supplies the French turned to Glasgow to fill the gap.
Knowing that English ships sailing from London, Bristol and Liverpool could take over a year to bring one cargo back, the Scots seized their opportunity with ruthless efficiency.
Traditionally English skippers had on arrival in America swung idly at anchor in the tidewater for months waiting for hogsheads of tobacco being brought from the surrounding area.
The much shrewder Scots realising the inefficiency of this practice set up trading posts throughout the region. Not only did they gather and store the tobacco ready for collection they brought with them all types of goods needed by the planters and their families.
By 1775, most of the ships were owned by the tobacco companies, allowing for better planning and further reducing the stay in the country while loading.
Ship’s designs also changed. Old square riggers disappeared and were replaced with fore and aft sails allowing them to sail closer to the wind making journey times shorter.
New financial institutions were incorporated in order to handle the vast sums of money pouring into the city of Glasgow. They included the Glasgow Ship Bank and the Glasgow Thistle Bank which later became part of the Bank of Scotland.
In 1775, 45 million pounds of tobacco were imported, the trade had reached its zenith but events in America were soon to bring it all tumbling down.
In April of the same year, the first military skirmishes at Lexington and Concord heralded the start of civil war and the end of Glasgow’s domination of the tobacco trade.
