Statistics on cotton manufacture in Great Britain

Patrick Colquhoun (1745-1820), a native of Scotland, settled in Glasgow in 1766 after spending several profitable years engaged in business in Virginia. Because of his successful efforts to persuade the government in London to pass measures beneficial to Glasgow and Scotland as well as his other activities on behalf of local improvement, he was elected lord provost of Glasgow in 1782 and was re-elected in 1783. In 1783 he founded and became chairman of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. From 1785 to 1789 Colquhoun was very active in efforts to win legislation favorable to business not only in Glasgow but to British cotton manufactures as a whole. He traveled to Manchester to gather information on the cotton trade, which he presented to Prime Minister William Pitt in 1789.

Colquhoun moved to London in 1789. When the London police system was partially reorganized in 1792 he was appointed a police magistrate. Colquhoun published numerous works on the subject of the liquor trade, relief for the poor and police matters. His best known work is his Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, first published in 1795.