Thread by @mat8iou

Perhaps the real story that people should be looking at with regards to Bristol is who the Merchant Venturers are and how in today's world they have the power to overrule the democratically elected government of the city?

Because they are the ones that have blocked most attempts to do things with the Edward Colston statue in the past.

They are a livery company like the more famous ones in the City of London, but get far less attention while seeming to control a lot of things long after their period of being integral to the city's business has passed.

As a kid I lived around the corner from Merchant Venturers Hall - a vast mansion in the edge of the Downs.
They funded stuff in the city for hundreds of years - including Cabot's expedition to Newfoundland.

They have done a lot of charitable work and administer a lot of other charitable endowments (including most of the ones associated with Colston). They were responsible for putting the statue up.

But it seems that they were also the ones who blocked the council's proposed rewording of the plaque on the statue. This isn't Victorian times. We need to know who they are and how they come to these decisions and seem to bypass the official channels that everyone else follows.

And believe me, they still have fingers in a lot of what goes on in the city.
From Academy school contracts:
theguardian.com/uk/2007/apr/18…

To a veto on pretty much anything that happens to the 412 acre green space bordering the suburb of Clifton known as The Downs:
bristolpost.co.uk/news/controver…

And of course the plaque on this statue:
telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/2…

It's also noteworthy that Edward Colston was also a member of the society - although I suspect that in those days if you wanted to run a big business in the city, not being a member was probably not really an option for consideration:
merchantventurers.com/who-we-are/his…

Now - I'm not disputing that they do a lot of good things (as well as a fair few bad ones) during their long history. But the question is, should a secretive committee that is not that representative of the city as a whole have so much power in the city?
merchantventurers.com/who-we-are/his…

Perhaps this quote from Venue Magazine best sums up the situation:
1 - "The Merchant Venturers control 12 charities and 40 trust funds, & also a private unlimited company, SMV Investments, that has major investments in defence contracting, tobacco, GM agriculture"

2 - "and the petroleum industry. Merchant Venturers serve on the boards of many local charitable and cultural organisations, and are guaranteed seats on the University of Bristol Court and the Downs Committee."

3 - "It quotes Paul Burton of the University's School of Policy Studies as saying, 'they exert quite a bit of influence and we, the people of Bristol, don't know much about them and can't hold them to account'."
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_o…

As a quick simplistic illustration of their wealth / power as an organisation, this is their headquarters building in Clifton. It was built relatively recently - after their heyday.

And here are some maps from the mid 18th century of some of the organisations land holdings (in red).
The first is Clifton in Bristol. The second is the Manor of Locking near Weston Super Mare, the third is the Manor of Beere near Cannington in the Somerset levels.

The map of Clifton is particularly interesting - before the area was fully developed, they owned huge amounts of what is now one of the most expensive suburbs in the UK outside London.

These maps all came from this site - well worth a read of you want to find out more about the history of Slavery in Bristol, some of the people involved (because believe me Colston wasn't the only one) and a bit on the Merchant Venturers.
discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/

Also... Ewww... Hair and fingernails...

https://twitter.com/beardedjourno/status/1269914352951451659?s=19

Also, don't imagine that this is just a Bristol thing. There are more of these groups about in the old cities if the UK than most people realise.

https://twitter.com/JesmondDavid/status/1269919742438961152?s=19

A few extra details from their own FAQ:
1 - "Can I become a member - Membership is by invitation. The Society looks for individuals who are interested in making a contribution to one or more of the activities of the Society: education, care for older people, social enterprise, "

2 - "charitable giving or the management of the Downs. Membership is drawn from individuals who have been successful in their chosen area of business and who are already actively involved in voluntary activity across the greater Bristol area."

On influence on politics - I guess it all depends on how you define politics:
"The Society is an apolitical organisation and has no influence whatsoever over Bristol politics. Of course, each member has their own views, but the Society itself has no political bias."

On wealth come from the slave trade?
"The Society itself has no wealth derived directly from the slave trade. Although, during this period in the eighteenth century, individual Bristol merchants who were members of the Society at that time, may have profited from the slave trade"

That last one feels very carefully worded. In terms of what is done by the company and what is done by its members.
Also - "may have" really does need to be replaced with "did" imho.

To go back to the original story, perhaps the best way to see the influence that they had is in the wording of the plaque.
The original 1895 plaque reads:
"Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city AD 1895"

A new additional plaque was proposed that highlighted more graphically all aspects of Colston's. career.
The new plaque got the go-ahead in 2018 - although in the meantime someone added their own (later removed).

The wording of the new plaque is in the image below.
Now - while it does the job, I can see flaws in it's statement - it goes into a lot of detail in specific areas, but omits a lot - the man did bad things, but not everything he did was bad.

But the key objections came from a local Tory Councillor and the Merchant Venturers.
Other proposals were produced, but there was no clear agreement.
Eventually the Merchant Venturers proposed this new wording.

I was going to do a comparison in Word on the different versions - but they are essentially entirely different texts, so you'll have to make the comparisons yourself.
To me, what is more important than what is added (which is all true) is what is removed.

In particular it removes mention of the amount of the slaves shipped who were children and the fact that he had been a Conservative MP.
The Bristol post has done a good job documenting this story - this is one of their early posts.
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

Followed by the decision to proceed with the new plaque:
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

And then the controversy over the changes to the wording:
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

And this is the point at which it reached a stalemate - the new wording was unacceptable to the council and the project ground to a halt.

And one final addenda - this long but interesting read gives a good idea of how members of orgs like the MV interact with the council - at a time when the then mayor was a member of the MV, but had to resign his post on being elected.
thebristolcable.org/2016/04/bristo…

And these same people could be the very ones to benefit if the Port of Bristol at Avonmouth (this is the modern port referred to by the term) becomes a free port post Brexit.
business-live.co.uk/ports-logistic…

One final thing - if anyone is intrigued by what livery companies do today and still thinks this story is a bit of an anomaly to Bristol, watch this and the subsequent fascinating video on how the City of London operates - believe me, it's far stranger.

Second part of the above video about how elections work in the City of London and the role of the Livery Companies (spoiler alert - people get less votes than companies do):

Someone pointed me to this 1995 documentary about the Merchant Venturers- as you see from the intro they're hiding in plain view. They operate from a vast mansion & are very influential, yet at the same time few people even nearby have even heard of them.

One final addendum to this thread.
Heaps of people have asked if there are similar organisations in the place where they live.
Some on this list may be similar, others less so. It's a good starting point though and includes some examples mentioned to me
cityandlivery.co.uk/the-city-expla…

Someone just directed me to this podcast on the Merchant Venturers and Edward Colston.
It covers things in a lot more detail than I did - and more amusingly.
Well worth a listen. Starts 47 minutes in.

https://twitter.com/BrizTransformed/status/1270035087623626752?s=19

Some further reading.
First a thread on the cult of Colston - something that is inextricably tired to the Merchant Venturers.

https://twitter.com/mat8iou/status/1270619242342363136?s=19

And a thread about some of the other names in Bristol who perhaps we should not be holding in quite the reverence that we do:

https://twitter.com/mat8iou/status/1270324328912097280?s=19