The Tobacco Lords (or “Virginia Dons”) were Glasgow merchants who, in the 18th Century made enormous fortunes by trading in tobacco from Great Britain's American Colonies.
In 1707, the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England gave Scottish merchants access to the English overseas territories, especially in North America. Glasgow’s position on the River Clyde, where the Trade Winds first hit Europe gave its merchants a two to three week advantage over other ports in Britain and Europe. This position was enhanced by the French monarchy granting it a monopoly for the importation of tobacco into French territories, (1747) and, later, by the deepening of the Clyde in 1768. Moreover, Glasgow ships were American built specifically for the Atlantic crossing and were generally bigger than those of other ports. However, the main advantage of the Glasgow merchants seems to have been their extensive and personally supervised networks across Britain, Europe and the Americas.
The tobacco trade was part of the trade linking exports of consumer and manufactured goods from Britain and Europe to the North American and Caribbean colonies, who supplied tropical goods, including tobacco, sugar and rum in return. Later, a third leg on the transatlantic trade was added by English merchant carrying slaves from West Africa - thus establishing the so-called Triangular trade.
Glasgow merchants made such fortunes that they adopted the style of aristocrats in their superior manner and in their lavish homes and churches. Their Calvinist background made sure, however, that display was always of rich but sober materials - black silk clothes, (though startlingly set off by scarlet cloaks), black three-cornered hats, silver- (or even gold)-tipped ebony canes, mahogany furniture, and classical architecture for their domestic and public use. Their mansions were laid out on the western boundaries of the 18th century city, where they gave their names to later streets in what is now called the Merchant City section of modern Glasgow. Other streets recall the triangular trade more directly - Virginia Street and Jamaica Street especially. Among the important Tobacco Lords whose mansions gave their names to streets were Andrew Buchanan, James Dunlop [1], Archibald Ingram[2], James Wilson, Alexander Oswald [3], Andrew Cochrane[4] and John Glassford[5]. The Virginia Mansion of Alexander Speirs[1] gave Virginia Street its name, and Alexander gave his surname to Speirs Wharf in Port Dundas.
An idea of the grandeur of the Tobacco Lords’ houses - which often dramatically punctuated the ends of the streets named after them - can be seen in the Gallery of Modern Art whose kernel is the grand mansion built, at a cost of £10,000, for William Cunninghame in 1780. A more modest "Tobacco Merchants House" (by James Craig, 1775) is being restored at 42 Miller Street. St Andrew’s Parish Church in St Andrew’s Square, built 1739 - 1756 by Alan Dreghorn was the Tobacco Lord’s ostentatious parish church, in a prestigious area being laid out by such merchants as David Dale, (David Dale was not involved in the Tobacco or 'Triangular' Trade). In the same area was the grand house of Alexander Speirs.
The American War of Independence (1775 - 1783) may have brought an end to the tobacco trade, but the canny Glasgow merchants merely switched attention to other profitable parts of the triangular trade, particularly cotton in the British West Indies.