Scotland in the nineteenth century

15. Transport

Section 15.9: Shipping

"appointed ... to enquire into the local charges levied on ships, or on goods carried in ships, in the ports of the United Kingdom ..."

The local charges on ships and shipping levied in the Scottish harbours were found to be either port dues on goods or ships and created by grants from the Crown, or they were dues expressly created by Acts of Parliament. Many of the Acts were constituted to reflect Scottish law and, therefore, were different from the system used in England. In Scotland, harbour dues collected had to be used for harbour purposes.

However, the general law was not strong enough to ensure the best use of harbour dues and, therefore, additional acts were sought for harbour conservation.

Appendix A: Dues charges in Scottish ports, pp. 1-226.

The Committee were especially interested in the change from sail to steam and the problems of opening up trading on an equal footing between all counties. They found that a great deal of the coal trade, even coasting, had moved to steam ships and that British shipping was leading the world in steam. John Burns, a Scottish shipowner, speaking for the Shipowners' Association of Glasgow, pointed out the advantages of steam (pp. 152-166). A sailing clipper would take three to four days to sail from Glasgow to Liverpool whilst a steamer could manage it in sixteen hours.

Allan Gilmour, a shipowner from Glasgow, gave evidence on sailing ships and the timber and cotton trade between Scotland and America.