Tobacco Lords

The Tobacco Lords (or “Virginia Dons”) were Glasgow merchants who in the 18th century made enormous fortunes by trading in tobacco from Great Britain's American Colonies. Many became so wealthy that they adopted the lifestyle of aristocrats, lavishing vast sums on great houses and splendid churches. Many suffered severe losses during and after the American Revolution.

In 1707, the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England gave Scottish merchants access to the English overseas territories, especially in North America. Glasgow's position on the River Clyde, where the trade winds first hit Europe, gave its merchants a two to three week advantage over other ports in Britain and Europe. This position was enhanced by the French monarchy granting it a monopoly for the importation of tobacco into French territories (1747) and later by the deepening of the Clyde in 1768. Glasgow ships were American-built specifically for the Atlantic crossing and were generally bigger than those of other ports. However, the main advantage of the Glasgow merchants seems to have been their extensive and personally supervised networks across Britain, Europe and the Americas.

The tobacco trade was part of the trade linking exports of consumer and manufactured goods from Britain and Europe to the North American and Caribbean colonies, who supplied tropical goods, including tobacco, sugar and rum in return. Later, a third leg on the transatlantic trade routes was added by English merchant carrying slaves from West Africa - thus establishing the so-called triangular trade.

From 1710 Glasgow became the focus of an economic boom which lasted nearly fifty years. This was the age of the Tobacco Lords, the nouveau riche of the mid-eighteenth century. Arguably the greatest of these merchants was John Glassford, who entered the tobacco trade in 1750 and soon made a success of his venture, with a fleet of vessels and many tobacco stores across New England. Celebrated in his lifetime, Glassford was the most extensive ship owner of his generation in Scotland, and one of the four merchants who laid the foundation of the commercial greatness of Glasgow through the tobacco trade. Tobias Smollett wrote of a meeting with Glassford in 1771:

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