The rise and fall of the Pollok-Gilmour empire

One of the major shipping firms of early nineteenth-century Glasgow was Pollok, Gilmour & Co., which commenced operations around 1804 and ceased operations in 1873. Its main cargo was timber from Britain’s North American colonies, a commodity much in demand in Great Britain, where it was protected from foreign competition by controversial tariffs. Pollok-Gilmour operated through a network of colonial-based sub-firms managed by junior partners. It differed from earlier, less sophisticated timber importers in becoming directly involved in colonial production. These operations depended on a complex, tenuous credit structure and assiduous guidance by the senior partners. Pollok-Gilmour was very successful in its first four decades and developed a private fleet of timber ships with an unmatched cumulative tonnage of forty thousand tons. It built most of these vessels in the shipyards of its colonial branch houses, helping to develop the colonies’ economic potential. It was especially influential in the small colony of New Brunswick, where its Miramichi house became heavily involved in local politics and in a heated rivalry with the Cunard brothers. The company’s success depended greatly on the herculean efforts of a few men, particularly Allan Gilmour Sr., whose bitter 1839 departure it never quite recovered from. In later years, despite cultivating other trades like cotton and guano, it suffered from inferior successors. The branch houses became increasingly, autonomous, though none made the leap to independence or survived past 1880. Only its Liverpool house, which developed a newer type of business, continued into the twentieth century.

Advisor / supervisor

Jackson, Gordon, 1934-

Resource Type

Master thesis

DOI

10.48730/kccc-hj21

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The rise and fall of the Pollok-Gilmour empire

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