History of Glasgow Part 2
The Reformation proved to be a major influence on the future of the city. By
1560 James Beaton (the city’s last R.C. Bishop) had removed himself to France,
with the Churches hold on the city diminishing the Merchants of the city along
with Tradesmen began to take more civic control on how Glasgow would evolve.
Glasgow now began to flourish through foreign trade from the mid 1500’s onwards.
The City was now beginning to grow rapidly over the next 100 years and Glasgow
was now nearly as large as Edinburgh and with good access to the Capital City
Glasgow picked up a good amount of passing trade from the west Highlands of
Scotland and Ireland.
By the 1680’s onwards Glasgow had become a major port for the import and selling
of Tobacco from the New World along with sales of natural assets, this was just
the beginning of the city’s rapid rise to being a major centre of trade through
out what became the British Empire. There as yet was no official population
count for this time, but it could have ranged between 10,000 and 20,000.
