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ONE of the results of the
Burgh Reform movement, which began to gather force in
Scotland about the beginning of the present
century, was the abolition of the exclusive trading privileges which had
been so long enjoyed by the merchant and craft guilds throughout the
country. Owing to peculiar local circumstances, the reform agitation was
carried on with intense vigour in Aberdeen, and no class of the
community took a more active share in it than the different bodies of
craftsmen. They expected to reap many advantages from the opening up of
the burghs; they little anticipated that the reform they so anxiously
sought for would pave the way for the " disestablishment " of their own
particular associations so far as their trading monopolies were
concerned. They fondly hoped that, under a reformed system of local
government, they would enter on a new era of extended trading privileges
and increased powers for regulating the trade and industries of the
town. But the reform movement, which they were so active in promoting,
did not stop exactly where they expected it would. In its onward march
it overtook their own particular trading privileges, and in one " fell
swoop" swept away privileges and monopolies which they had enjoyed for
nearly seven centuries.
[As a curiosity we give a
copy of one of the last petitions presented to the Magistrates in
reference to the exclusive privileges of the craftsmen of Aberdeen:-
Unto the Honourable the
Magistrates of Aberdeen The petition of James Clyne, Shoemaker in
Aberdeen, present Boxmaster of the Shoemaker Trade, a Incorporation of
Aberdeen, for himself, and as representing said Trade,
Humbly Sheweth,
That the said Trade have
the exclusive right and privilege of carrying on the Shoemaker Trade of
the Burgh of Aberdeen; that notwithstanding thereof Alexander Ritchie
and William Ritchie, Shoemakers, Schoolhill, Aberdeen, carrying on
business under the firm of Alexander and William Ritchie, Shoemakers,
Schoolhill, Aberdeen; George Burgess, Shoemaker, Union Street, Aberdeen,
and carrying on business under the firm of George Burgess and Company,
Shoemakers, Union Street, Aberdeen; and George ,Melvin, Shoemaker,
Woolmanhill, Aberdeen, have been earring on said trade for sometime past
within the Burgh of Aberdeen without being freemen, whereby they have
become respectively liable to said trade and petitioner as Boxniaster
foresaid in damages and expenses, and in respect they persist in
carrying on said trade it Is necessary to present this petition for fine
and interdict.
May it therefore please
your Honar to appoint this petition to be intimated to the said
Alexander Ritchie, William Ritchie, and Alexander and William Ritchie,
as a company ; George Burgess, and George Burgess and Company ; and to
the said George Melvin, on a short inducio, and with or without answers
to fine and amerciate them in the sum of ten pounds sterling each in
name of damages and expenses payable to the petitioner as Boxmaster
foresaid, and as representing and for behoof of said trade. Also to
prohibit and discharge them from carrying on said trade or any part
thereof within Burgh, under the penalty of ten pounds sterling each
toties quoties in all time coming, or until they become members of said
trade, and also to find them liable in the expense of this application
and procedure to follow thereon. According to Justice drawn by (Signed)
ALEX. ALLAN.
Aberdeen, 10th April,
1840.—Appoints the said Alexander Ritchie, William Ritchie, and
Alexander and William Ritchie as a company; George Burgess, and George
Burgess and Company ; and George Melvin to lodge answers to the
foregoing petition, if they any have, with the Clerk of Court within
three free days after they are respectively served with a double of said
petition and of this deliverance by an officer of Court with
certification. (Singed) J. URQUHART.
A full double served on
you the said George Melvin, this tenth day of April, eighteen hundred
and forty years, by me, WILL WALKER, Town Sergeant.]
When the reform movement
sprang into active life in Aberdeen about 1816, the affairs of the town
were in a deplorable state. The Town Council was one of the "closest" in
the country; the corporation funds were in a mess; and all classes of
citizens united in moving for a radical change. In 1817 the retiring
members of the Town Council issued a manifesto stating "that they were
compelled to leave the affairs of the burgh in a state of embarrassment,
which, as it has been a source of much vexation and distress among
themselves, must still prove one of considerable difficulty to those who
may be destined to succeed them unless immediate steps are taken to
redeem the credit of the corporation." The members of the Council
themselves were of opinion that the existing "mode of election of the
Town Council and management of town's affairs are radically defective
and improvident, tending to give to any individual or party who may be
so inclined an excessive and unnatural preponderance, and to foster and
encourage a system of concealment under which the most upright and best
intentioned magistrates may not be able to acquire a thorough knowledge
of the situation of the burgh; "and it was felt that nothing short of a
complete change in " the manner of electing the Council, and an
effectual control given to the citizens over the expenditure of the
town's office-bearers, would effect any good."
The Trades appointed a
special committee to look after their interests, and numerous were the
petitions forwarded by them to Parliament praying for a radical change
in the mode of electing Town Councils, and for a redress against what
they considered were encroachments by the merchant burgesses on their
special privileges.
But when the Burgh Reform
Bill of 1833 was introduced, the merchant guilds and craft
incorporations throughout the country began to see that their own
privileges were to be curtailed. In the form in which the bill passed
the House of Commons, the right of deacons of guild and deacon-conveners
to sit in the Town Councils was to be swept away; but, mainly we believe
through the efforts of the Glasgow Trades House, the bill was amended in
the House of Lords, and the deacons and conveners were allowed to remain
constituent members of the Town Councils. [The Deacon-Convener In
Aberdeen, unlike those in several other towns, had no seat at the Town
Council. He had merely a seat at the Police Board before the
amalgamation of the Municipal and Police Departments.] An important
clause was also introduced in this bill providing—"That nothing herein
contained shall be held or construed to impair the right of any craft,
trade, convenery of trades, or guildry, or merchant house, or trades
house, or other such incorporation severally to elect their own deacons,
or deacon-conveners, or deans of guild, or directors, or other lawful
officers for the management of the afihirs of such crafts, trades,
conveneries of trades, or guildries, merchants or trades houses, or
other such corporations, but that on the contrary the said several
bodies shall from and after the passing of this Act be in all cases
entitled to the free election in such forms as shall be regulated by
them of the said several office-bearers, and other necessary officers
for the management of their affairs, without any interference or control
whatsoever on the part of the Town Council thereof."
The abolition of trading
privileges took place under an Act passed in 1846, the preamble of which
sets forth :"Whereas in certain Royal and other Burghs in Scotland the
members of certain Guilds, Crafts, or Incorporations possess exclusive
privileges of carrying on or dealing in Merchandise, and of carrying on
or exercising certain Trades or Handicrafts within their respective
Burghs, and such Guilds, Crafts, and Incorporations have corresponding
rights entitling them to prevent persons not being members thereof from
carrying on or dealing in merchandise, or from carrying on or exercising
such trades or handicrafts within such burghs; and whereas it has become
expedient that such exclusive privileges and rights should be abolished,
be it enacted, &c." Then follows the enacting clause declaring " that
from and after the passing of this Act all such exclusive trading
privileges and rights shall cease." [For full text of this Act see
Appendix.]
What is known as the
Dunlop Act, which was passed in 1860 for amending the law relative to
the legal qualification of councillors and the admission of burgesses in
Royal Burghs in Scotland, and under which burgesses can be created on
payment of twenty shillings, also provided that "such admission by
minute of Council shall not per se be held to give or imply any right of
title to, or interest in, the properties funds, or revenues of any of
the Guilds, Crafts, or Incorporations of the burgh, or any
mortifications or benefactions for behoof of the burgesses of such
Guilds, Crafts, or Incorporations or their families, or any right or
management thereof in any of the said Guilds, Crafts, or
Incorporations."
Under a subsequent Act
passed in 1876 for the assimilation of the law of Scotland to that of
England respecting the creation of burgesses, it was also enacted that "
nothing herein contained shall interfere with any law or legal usage by
which burgesses are now created or admitted in any burgh, or give or
imply any right or title to or interest in any merchants house or trades
house or any patrimonial lands, commons, or other properties, funds or
revenues of any guild, burgesses of guild, crafts, or incorporations of
the burgh, or to or in any burgess acres, or any grazing rights
connected therewith, or any mortifications or benefactions for behoof of
the members of such guilds, burgesses of guild, crafts, or
incorporations, and of their families, or any right of management
thereof."
The only special
privileges that remained to the craftsmen in Aberdeen after the
abolition of exclusive trading privileges, above those enjoyed by
ordinary citizens, were a preferential claim for the admission of their
sons to Robert Gordon's Hospital, exemption from the Bell and Petty
Customs, and a right to vote for the election of Harbour Commissioners.
But even these have gradually disappeared; and a free craftsman is now,
so far as any special rights of citizenship are concerned, practically
on the same platform as an ordinary residenter or ratepayer. |
