The first issue of the Glasgow Advertiser, as The Herald was first known, published 225 years ago this weekend, is a fascinating document, showing how the city's fortunes were locked into those of North America, continental Europe and India.

The first issue of the Glasgow Advertiser, as The Herald was first known, published 225 years ago this weekend, is a fascinating document, showing how the city's fortunes were locked into those of North America, continental Europe and India.

Trade with all three of these regions was vital to the city economy, but war and the rumour of war were depressing the markets. Famine across much of Scotland was not helping prospects either. But as the news unfolds - for it is placed in the paper in the order it was received - a new order emerges: Britain has concluded a peace with France and Spain, but its 13 American colonies have been lost. For Glasgow, this means the end of the Tobacco Lords, but a resumption of trade with the continent and the promise of trade - on far less fortunate terms - with the emerging country called America.

John Mennons, an Edinburgh printer who had learned his trade on the Courant newspaper there, moved to Glasgow in the winter of 1782, evidently convinced there was a market for his new newspaper and a business publishing almanacs. His challenge to the two established newspapers, the Glasgow Journal and the Mercury, was defiantly commercial in character and in name; its title was not about delivering news or opinion, it was clearly about advertising, chiming with the flourishing business class of his adopted city. His almanacs and jobbing printing business, too, were thirled to the mercantile ethos of Glasgow.

There is no news of Glasgow itself in the first issue, because everyone of importance in the town, which had a population of around 60,000, knew each other. But there was a great appetite for news from London and around the world, since these were the sources of raw material and the markets for finished goods.

This historical document provides a snapshot of a town on the brink of the industrial revolution, where its natural advantages of nearby coal and iron ore, its access to sea routes and - most importantly - a supply of ready capital (built up from the tobacco trade) would enable Glasgow to grab the chance to be the first industrial city in the world. As Scotland continues to grapple with the challenge of being the world's first post-industrial country, it is salutary to look back in fascination at the beginnings of a great city - and a great newspaper that continues to reflect its place in Scotland and in the world.

The following sections are a handy guide to reading the facsimile first edition presented in today's paper.

THE MASTHEAD
Page one
John Mennons's Glasgow Advertiser includes the arms of Glasgow, which show four of the miracles of the city's patron saint, Mungo, in the masthead, giving a quick visual symbol of the city.

In Mennons's postal address, and throughout the issue, he uses what is known as "the long s", which is easily mistaken for the letter "f" but lacks the full cross-stroke of that letter. The long s, which was in use until the middle of the nineteenth century, only appears in the middle of words, with the short s reserved for use at the end, or after a long s in words with a double s. The practice derives from ancient Greek, where there were two forms of the lower case letter sigma, one used within words and one used at the end.

THE DEDICATION
Page one
The prime position on the front page is given over to a dedication, rather as books did at that time. Mennons, who had recently arrived from Edinburgh, sensibly makes great play of showing his loyalty to the Lord Provost, magistrates and councillors of Glasgow. Patrick Colquhoun, the Provost, was a linen merchant who founded the Chamber of Commerce in 1783 and was its first chairman. He also founded the Thames River Police, to help stem losses from the London warehouses where his raw materials were stored prior to transit to Glasgow.

TO THE PUBLIC'
Page one
After paying his respects to the local council, Mennons turns to his readers and potential customers. He makes a promise, which has been made and re-made by all subsequent editors, that "he shall preserve his mind as free as possible from any prejudice, which, without meaning to impose upon the public, might lead him to partial representation of facts".

THURSDAY'S POST
Page one
The newspaper proper begins with a long section of national and international news culled from material received by post from London more than a week previously. Mennons seems to have typeset his pages in the order in which material arrived. This seems unusual to the modern reader, and shows how the "grammar" of news presentation has changed in 225 years.

The section begins with news reprinted from The London Gazette, the official publication of the Crown and government. The reference to "their majesties" is to King George III and his wife Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Following it is a miscellany of news relating to the American Revolutionary War, also known as the War of Independence, in which Britain's 13 American colonies, with the support of France, Spain and the Netherlands, were battling for their independence from London.

There is also news from Madrid, a discussion of religion and princes, the loss of the ship Centaur and an ironic epitaph for "Sir W H", Sir William Howe, commander in chief of the British forces, who resigned in 1778 and returned to Nottingham.

SATURDAY'S POST
Page two
The second batch of intelligence from London begins with the latest news from Paris, where negotiations to conclude the American Revolutionary War were taking place. Hopes were high for an imminent successful conclusion to the talks, and the Stock Exchange was, as they say, buoyant.

The report of Queen Charlotte's 39th birthday party has some interesting fashion notes. Queen Charlotte was the grandmother of Queen Victoria, and the great-great-great grandmother of the current monarch.

A round-up of miscellaneous naval news, including a letter from Plymouth, has more intelligence from the Americas. The post concludes with a letter from the students of Cambridge University asking the House of Commons to instigate reform of the voting system; pressure for a wider and fairer franchise continued until the first Reform Act was passed in 1832.

THE ADVERTISEMENTS
Pages two and four
The advertisements here, and the presumed late arrival on the back page, show a glimpse of the commercial life of Glasgow at the end of the eighteenth century. The two women dealing in medicinal herbs and in seeds are both widows carrying on their late husbands' businesses. The selection of books on offer shows the presence of an educated and cultured group in the community.

Those with more, shall we say, spiritual interests could be accommodated by John Paterson, Thomas Houston and the proprietor of the shop "above Bell's Wynd". The commercial notices, about a bankrupt and about plots of land for sale, show a developed and sophisticated business community.

SUNDAY'S POST
Page three
The title indicates that the post arrived every day of the week; in those days, it would arrive by fast horse, taking two or three days, or by coach, taking up to nine days, depending on the weather and the state of the roads. The foreign intelligence includes news of Russia and Austria bracing themselves for a war with the Ottoman Empire ("the Turks"), and a captured British ship being led into Amsterdam. The House of Lords gave themselves two days off, and the Commons discussed the case of a wayward secretary before postponing a debate on Irish affairs until the following day.

The news from London includes an inconclusive update from Paris, and more details of the debate on Irish affairs. It also features an account of the shipping between Britain and India, the battles raging there between the forces of the East India Company and the rebel troops of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, and the naval forces of Spain and France, which were allied to the American cause.

Tuesday's post Page three Tuesday's post has news of British ships in North America. A despatch from Lloyd's Marine List shows the great number of British ships - at a time when Britannia did surely rule the waves - in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and the dangers they faced from the French, the Spanish and the elements.

The post from Edinburgh tells of the famine in Dundee, where the local bank and various gentlemen contributed loans and donations to the relief fund. There is also a report from London, relating how the Scots mercenaries serving in the Dutch army would rather not be killed by British forces if there is to be a battle between the two countries. King George III, himself of continental stock, seems to have graciously reassured the men that their loyalty to him is understood (unless, presumably, they are facing each other along the length of a broadsword).

MONDAY'S POST
Page four
Mennons brings the reader into his confidence here, in a short paragraph explaining that new postal arrangements mean that Monday's post (which appears to be arriving by a shorter route through Dumfries) contains the material that is duplicated by Tuesday's post.

The foreign intelligence adds more news from the "Scotch brigade" in the Dutch army, and of the British ships fighting the Indian rebels. The short filler about a Dutch centenarian is typical of the newspapers of the time, and of much of the following century, presenting unsourced snippets that serve to amuse and intrigue the reader. It is one of the few pieces of information in the paper without any political or commercial importance to the people of Glasgow.

The news from London shows how close the Paris peace talks were to being concluded, and lists the territories that the British, French, Spanish and Dutch would return to the countries that had owned them before the outbreak of hostilities in 1775. Mr Oswald, who is mentioned as having returned from Paris to London, was Robert Oswald, a prominent Glasgow tobacco merchant and a friend of both Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, leading figures in the American rebel forces.

The remainder of Monday's post updates some earlier news, and contains a report of pirates from north Africa capturing 10 vessels from Malaga in south-east Spain in the previous eight months, and selling the European crew members into slavery.

GLASGOW
Page four
The most important news in the paper, which Mennons set in much larger type than the rest of the contents, was contained in a letter from Thomas Robinson, the second Lord Grantham and His Majesty's Foreign Secretary, to the Lord Provost of Glasgow. This was that Britain had signed preliminary articles of peace with both Spain and France, which concluded the American Revolutionary War and created America as an independent country.

There follows news from Edinburgh, where dragoons are in place to defend the city against a "meal mob", desperate for food in the face of a widespread famine. In Bo'ness (given in full as Borrowstouness), the shareholders in the proposed canal to link the town to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Grangemouth had a satisfactory meeting; they were not to know that the canal would be mostly completed, then abandoned in 1796 because of lack of funds.

After more shipping news, there is a report from Stirlingshire, where the gentlemen are keen to see a reform of the voting system. Finally, there is more news from the Caribbean and Dublin, and reports of the better off in Dumfries and Paisley contributing funds to help feed the poor during the continuing famine in those towns.

MARRIAGES AND DEATHS
Page four
These personal notices, which may have been reprinted from other local papers, show that Glasgow was well connected with the rest of Scotland, and that people from Aberdeen and Cranston, Midlothian, would want to know about the deaths of former ministers in these towns.

The celebrations for our 225th anniversary will continue this year. On March 14 we'll publish a free magazine - and in May there will be a dinner at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Over the summer there will be an exhibition of images and front pages from the archives. For details, call Alison Martin on 0141 302 7410.