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Scottish Burgh Records 269
cathedral city itself, although vested with practically every
liberty of a royal burgh long before, only reached full burghal
status in 1611, and even then remained subject to reservation
regarding the election of magistrates
the last privilege of burghal
autonomy finally granted only in 1690 by William and Mary,
grateful for the part which Glasgow had played in furthering the
Revolution.
Long before that, however, it had acquired a complete preeminence
over all its neighbours, and become a centre of political,
commercial, and manufacturing influence. This gradual growth
is well shown by the combined annals which Sir James has
compiled, tracing year by year and collating the progress or
activities of each of the ports. Too chary of indicating general
causes, he yet by the particular episodes illustrates the force
of special features, whether of situation, equipment and resources,
or of personal enterprise in the inhabitants, which after long
struggle, against some by no means impotent rivalry, established
the place of Glasgow as capital of the Clyde.
For centuries Glasgow was well provided with grievances in the
oppressive action of some one or other burgh. At first Rutherglen
and Dumbarton it pressed hard, and all the court-influence of the
bishops was needed to check claims of toll and infringements of
exemptions on the river and at the markets. Renfrew took a
hand in the game too, although obviously foredoomed to futility.
Only one rival seems conceivable to us now, and we may still
ask how the golden apple of mercantile and maritime supremacy
fell to Glasgow and not to Dumbarton. Long the premier
harbour of the west coast of Scotland, Dumbarton started with
that high natural advantage in the race ; but it had only one side
of the firth and stood on the edge of the mountains. Glasgow
was in the plain, the river was fordable there, and great roads
branched from it : later the bridge set it astride of the river ;
it counted as a port in the beginnings of shipping, and the
foresight and energy of its citizens enabled it by engineering
science to redress the balance of nature against its inland site a
work which extends back to the sixteenth century. The modern
phase, however, began in 1759 with the first of the Clyde Trust
acts ; the twenty-seventh act was about to be passed when the
was launched in 1906.
If Sir James gives
his emphasis to Glasgow he not less patiently
traces the fortunes of the humbler burghs. Inveraray, raised to
'
Lusitania *
the rank of royal burgh in 1649, ^ s noticed among the others :