Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loch, David
LOCH, DAVID (d. 1780), writer on commerce, of Over Carnbee, Fifeshire, bred a sailor, rose to the rank of master in the merchant service, and afterwards settled at Leith, where he prospered as a merchant and shipowner. He was for some years a member of the annual convention of the royal burghs, was appointed in 1776 inspector-general of the woollen manufactures of Scotland, by the trustees for fisheries, manufactures, and improvements, and was afterwards inspector-general of the fisheries of Scotland. He died at his house in St. Anne's Yards, Edinburgh, on 14 Feb. 1780.
In the interest of the woollen industry, which he regarded as the staple of Scotland, Loch advocated in three forcible pamphlets the abolition of the duties on wool, by which the linen manufacture was then protected, and the encouragement by premiums of sheepbreeding. These were entitled: 1. 'Letters concerning the Trade and Manufactures of Scotland: particularly the Woollen and Linen Manufactures,' Edinburgh, 2nd edit. 1774, 4to. 2. 'Letters,' &c. (same title as preceding, but different matter), Edinburgh, 3rd edit. 1775, 4to. 3. 'Curious and Entertaining Letters concerning the Trade and Manufactures of Scotland: particularly the Woollen and Linen Manufactures,' &c., Edinburgh, 3rd edit. 1774, 8vo. Loch also published 'Essays on the Trade, Commerce, Manufactures, and Fisheries of Scotland. Containing Remarks on the Situation of most of the Seaports, the Number of Shipping employed, and their Tonnage; Strictures on the principal Inland Towns, the different Branches of Trade and Commerce carried on, and the various Improvements made in each; and Hints and Observations on the Constitutional Police, with many Articles never yet published,' Edinburgh, 1775, 8vo, 1778-9, 3 vols. 12mo, and 'A Tour through the Trading Towns and Villages in Scotland,' Edinburgh, 1778.
[Scots Mag. xl. 556, xli. 45, xlii. 110; Gent. Mag. 1780, p. 103. The Petition (to the Court of Session, 8 Dec. 1767) of James Muirhead, late writer in Edinburgh, and the Answers thereto; Cat. Adv. Libr.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]