The table below summarises data collected from the Post Office Directories for Glasgow in 1861 and 1881, which listed businesses alphabetically in their main section. Business type refers to the form that the businesses took in terms of ownership. In broad terms, we differentiate:

• sole traders, with one person identified as the principal owner of the business
• partnerships of two or more people
• co-partnerships, where several people owned the business, and held private shares that reflected their financial investment in it
• corporations, where shares in the company were publicly traded and directors controlled the company as part of a formal management board.

                                                      Glasgow business activity in 1861 and 1881

Corporations are dominant in today’s economy, but in this period corporations and copartneries comprised less than 5% of the total number of Glasgow businesses. Their numbers were rising, but they were not the main form of large businesses, even in a city second only to London in its commercial importance.

Many sole trader businesses often running smaller, local shops, engaged in small scale manufacture or providing services are to be expected. What really stands out is the number and variety of partnerships. We explore these further in our publication The Incidence and Persistence of Partnerships in a British Industrial City: Glasgow, 1861-1881. 

Partnerships were an engine of growth. Bringing a second person into an enterprise was a way of accessing additional funds, resources, networks, and skills.