Clyde Firth

The Firth of Clyde is a wide inlet on Scotland's western coast, opening toward the North Channel and divided by islands and peninsulas. The River Clyde leads inland toward Glasgow, but its shallows long prevented large ships from reaching the city. Greenock and Port Glasgow consequently served as outports for merchants trading across the Atlantic. After the union of the Scottish and English parliaments in 1707, the tobacco trade expanded greatly; by the middle of the eighteenth century Clyde ports were major centres for importing and re-exporting the American crop.