the cathedral precincts to its own building in the High Street. After 1870 the university attained international stature. The university's teaching quality was assessed in 2009 to be among the top 10 in Britain, along with its reputation as a "research powerhouse." Trade and the Industrial Revolution Atlantic trade By the 16th century, the city's trades and craftsmen had begun to wield significant influence, particularly the Incorporation of Tailors, which in 1604 was the largest guild in Glasgow; the merchant and craft guilds accounted for about 10% of the population by the 17th century. With the discovery of the New World and the trade routes it opened up, Glasgow was ideally placed to become an important trading centre with the Clyde providing access to the city and the rest of Scotland for merchant shipping. Its path to success was not to be easy, however: in 1651, the English Navigation Acts were passed, making it illegal for non-English ships to trade with English colonies. Non-English ships were also banned from carrying goods from outside Europe to the Kingdom of England or its colonies. Scotland's first attempt at transatlantic trade had failed in 1629, when the Anglo-French Wars led to the loss of Scotland's fledgling colony of Nova Scotia. A second attempt at a Scottish colony, the Darien scheme, ended in disaster, bankrupting the country in 1700. They were not deterred, continuing small-scale smuggling with English colonies until the Act of Union in 1707. Access to the Atlantic Ocean allowed the import of goods such as American tobacco and cotton, and Caribbean sugar, which were then traded throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. These imports flourished after 1707, when union with England made the trade legal. By 1760, Glasgow had outstripped London as the main port for tobacco in the Kingdom of Great Britain. The American War of Independence put an end to most American trade, leading to financial ruin for some; trade turned to sugar, which largely came from the Caribbean. Glasgow's transformation from a provincial town to an international business hub was based originally on its control of the 18th-century tobacco trade with the Thirteen Colonies. The trade was interrupted by the American Revolutionary War, and never recovered to even a fourth of its old trade. The tobacco merchants grew rich as their stocks of tobacco soared in value; they had diversified their holdings and were not badly hurt. Merchants