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The Merchant Company
The
Merchant Company has its principal place of business at the South
end of Hanover Street, Edinburgh (just round the corner from the New
Club). I, on behalf of the Scottish Academic Press, once maintained an
office here in the Merchant Companies building.
The Merchant Company has many members who can also be found at Edinburgh’s New Club and in ‘The Royal Company of Archers’.
The Merchant Company has many members who can also be found at Edinburgh’s New Club and in ‘The Royal Company of Archers’.
The Merchant Company’s
original purpose was to protect trading rights
in the City of Edinburgh. Rules were drawn up for better regulation of
trade and for punishing offenders.Then, as now, the term merchant covered a wide field but all Members, including a few women, shared common interests and purpose. Issues discussed included the city’s water supply, smuggling, taxation, Sabbath observance and postal services. From its earliest days, the Merchant Company was involved in educational and charitable work. As a result, when the monopolies of trade guilds were ended by the Trading within Burghs Act 1849, the Merchant Company continued to flourish and play an important role in the life in the city.
For long had it been Castle, Court and Parliament which had drawn people and trade to Edinburgh. But in 1603 the King had left for the south and the important nobles had followed. By the end of the same century, Parliament too would soon be gone. The Castle and all it stood for would remain, but its role would diminish.
What held the city together and gave it its continued identity was Trade. This the merchants of Edinburgh guarded zealously, as they had always done.
Before the Reformation there was a Guild of Merchants which maintained an altar in St Giles' Cathedral dedicated to the Holy Blood. In 1505 James IV became a member of this confraternity.
Early in the sixteenth century the craftsmen formed themselves into the Incorporated Trades, and demanded an ever greater share in the running of the City. The bickering between those who made and those who sold reached such heights that in 1583 James IV found it necessary to issue his 'Decree Arbitral' whereby the Incorporations Deacons became councillors and the Council was composed of seventeen merchants, sixteen craftsmen and a Lord Provost. This was very much in favour of the merchants, as in effect it gave them control of the Town Council. Henceforth the Provost, the four Bailies, the Dean of Guild and the Treasurer were all chosen from the Merchant class. This continued until 1830.
A burial in St Giles' Cathedral was a much coveted privilege and purchase of sites by the Incorporations was extensive, as many as ten for each of them was the average in 1553. This may account for the fact that some are located under the pulpit.
In the late 1670s the merchants felt it necessary to consolidate their position. The King was petitioned, and by a Charter granted by King Charles II in 1681 the Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh came into corporate being. Gratitude was shown to King Charles II, his equestrian statue in Parliament Square was largely the gift of Sir George Drummond, the first Master.
In its early days the Company concerned itself with such matters as the city water supply and expressed regret that too many trading premises are being turned into 'brandy shops' or 'tippling places'. As a result of the growing importance of the Company, charitable trusts were left to them to be administered, so that over the years the Company assumed many responsibilities, relating mainly to the young, the poor and the elderly.
One of the Master's responsibilities until recently was that of the Chairman of the Trustees of the Harbour of Peterhead, and Chairman of the Managers of the Feuars of Peterhead.
In 1788 the Company built its first Hall in Hunter Square but in the 1870s this was found to be too small, when the offices of the City of the Glasgow Bank came on the market due to the failure of the Bank, the Company purchased these and it is these premises which are the headquarters of the company today.