G. B. Livingston and Co.

G. B. LIVINGSTON & Co., Export Merchants and General Commission Agents, 5, Oswald Street, Glasgow.

    One of the most extensively connected and highly respected firms of export merchants and general commission agents to be met with in the great industrial metropolis of Scotland is, without doubt, the house whose trading designation stands at the head of this review.

    The principal of this rapidly developing concern, although not yet within the threshold of middle-age, has proved the vast mercantile capacity with which he is endowed by a progress in business as rapid as its results are phenomenal. After serving an apprenticeship in the well-known house of Messrs. A. and A. Crawford, Commission Agents, Leith, where his strict devotion to business gained him very high distinction, he at length entered upon the present enterprise, wherein his talents and energy have displayed themselves to conspicuous advantage.

    Messrs. G. B. Livingston and Co. occupy very commodious premises in Oswald Chambers, 5, Oswald Street, comprising handsomely appointed suite of offices with sample rooms and every accessory to the effective control of a vast export and home trade. The export department is perfect in organisation, a fact due, no doubt, to the capable administrative ability of Mr. Ben W. Campbell, who personally superintends this branch of the firm’s operations. Messrs. G. B. Livingston and Co. control a splendid connection throughout China, Burmah, India, South Africa, South America, and the West Indies, in each of which territories able correspondents are employed. The home trade has broad and effective ramifications throughout the Kingdom : a number of representatives being at all times employed, while in minor districts resident agents diligently watch the mercantile interests of the house.

    One of the important branches is their connection for brewers’ supplies, principally bottles, labels, stops, etc., etc. This department is under the charge of Mr. John Watson, who has recently been assumed as an active working partner. Messrs. G. B. Livingston and Co. represent, in Scotland, the following firms :- Messrs, Joseph Crosfield and Sons, Soap-makers, Warrington ; Messrs. Palmer and Co., Candle-makers, Stratford, London ; Messrs. Aspinall’s Enamel Co. (Limited), Hollydale Works, Peckham, London, S.E. ; Messrs. William Tulloch and Co., Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturers, Bermondsey, London ; Messrs. John Stephens, Son, and Co., Vinegar, Pickle, and Jam Exporters, Gloucester ; Messrs. Marshall and Co., Preserved Fish Packers and Exporters, Aberdeen ; and Nederveen and Co., Margarine, Manufacturers, Holland. The high commercial standing of these firms — most of them being pre-eminent in their special department of business — is a sufficient indication, not merely of the vast turnover which their Scottish firm of representatives must annually make, but also of the implicit confidence which the entire commercial world, as represented by its most influential factors, reposes in the house under review — a confidence as well deserved, we are sure, as it is calculated to redound to the best interests of all with whom G. B. Livingston and Co. hold mercantile intercourse and relationship.

Back to Index of Firms (1891)