Abstract

Business Form in a British Industrial City: The case of Glasgow 1861-1901

Economic history needs to come to terms with the ‘observed’ experience of businesses on the street in the great cities that comprise an economy (Checkland, 1964) but to date there has been little detailed historical work on how businesses populated cities. Our analysis of Glasgow in the second half of the nineteenth century provides an opportunity to understand business forms that appeared, persisted, and disappeared in that great city during an important period of its industrial growth, and challenges our current understanding of British city economies in the 19th century. By our period of analysis, Glasgow had attracted the label of ‘the great commercial emporium of Scotland’ as the mass consumerism revolution began, was seen as a migration destination as people moved to take advantage of positive employment opportunities and could arguably be considered the second city of the British Empire. Using trade directories, our analysis is the first study to consider the city as an economic unit of analysis and attempt to examine the prevalence of business forms (legal framework) and also business type (industrial sector) of all urban activity. We find that although the importance of the corporate economy was clear (and growing), the broad business foundation that supported commercial activity was complex, with sole traders and partnerships dominant. Our data on partnership numbers from the trade directories suggest they were more numerous in the late Victorian economy than suggested by other recent studies using census records. Furthermore, we find branching across the city became a noticeable feature for many business types during this period, note variation in the density of both business form and type within and across districts, and trace how agent structures were used to provide access to the market for different products and services.