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Trade, Commerce & Industry

David Dale

David Dale

Born the son of a grocer in Stewarton, Ayrshire, in 1739, David Dale was to go on to become a renowned philanthropist and to revolutionise industrial practice throughout Great Britain and the world. After an initial apprenticeship as a weaver in the town of Paisley, Dale started a business importing and selling homespun linen from the continent which prospered, and before long the fortune he made allowed him to marry into an influential family and buy a large house in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh which had been designed by Robert Adam. He was also appointed as the very first agent in Glasgow for the Royal Bank of Scotland (his wife being the bank Director's daughter). His interest in the textile trade remained, however, and he set up a factory manufacturing Turkey-red dye and several cotton mills in New Lanark, on the banks of the Clyde.

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