et but picturesque old place, nestling about the
Cathedral and the College and two fine but sleepy streets, in which
carriers built their haystacks out before their door, it was carrying
on a trade which was even then cosmopolitan. The ships of Glasgow were
in all the waters of the world, and its merchants had won the lead in
at least one important branch of commerce, the West India tobacco
trade, and were founding fresh industries every year with the
greatest possible enterprise. The prosperity of Glasgow is a fruit of
the Union which first opened the colonial markets to Scotch
merchandise, and enabled the merchants of the Clyde to profit by the
advantages of their natural situation for trading with the American
plantations. Before the middle of the century the Clyde had become the
chief European emporium for American tobacco, which foreign countries
were not then allowed to import directly, and three-fourths of the
tobacco was immediately on arrival transhipped by the Glasgow
merchants for the seaports of the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the
North Sea.

As they widened their connections abroad, they naturally developed
their industries at home. They founded the Smithfield ironworks, and
imported iron from Russia and Sweden to make hoes and spades for the
negroes of Maryland. They founded the Glasgow tannery in 1742, which
Pennant thought an amazing sight, and where they employed 300 men
making saddles and shoes for the plantations. They opened the
Pollokshaws linen print-field in 1742, copper and tin works in 1747,
the Delffield pottery in 1748. They began to manufacture carpets and
crape in 1759, silk in 1759, and leather gloves in 1763. They opened
the first Glasgow bank--the Ship--in 1750, and the second--the
Arms--in 1752. They first began to improve the navigation of the Clyde
by the Act of 1759; they built a dry dock at their harbour of Port
Glasgow in 1762; while in 1768 they deepened the Clyde up to the city,
and began (for this also was mainly their work) the canal to the Forth
for their trade with the Baltic. It was obvious, therefore, that this
was a period of unique commercial enterprise and expansion. We can
easily believe Gibson, the historian of Glasgow, when he states that
after 1750 "not a beggar was to be seen in the streets," and "the very
children were busy"; and we can as easily understand Smith when,
contrasting Glasgow and Edinburgh among other places, he says the
residence of a few spirited