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The Stirling Tract Enterprise was established in 1848 by Peter Drummond (1799-1877) to publish religious tracts. Peter Drummond wrote and initially acted as editor for these publications, and some of the tracts were the prize winning essays from the competitions that they organised. Peter Drummond was born at Coney Park, Cambusbarron, Stirlingshire, the eldest son of the second marriage of William Drummond, who had established a seed business in the Bannockburn area around 1760. When his father died in 1824, Peter Drummond and his brother William (the eldest brother from the first marriage) took over the business. Peter Drummond was involved with religion from an early age and taught in Sunday School, and, following the Disruption in 1843, he became a member of the Free Church. Drummond later became an elder of the Free North Church (now St Columba's), Stirling and a lay preacher.In 1848 Drummond joined in the local condemnation of Sabbath breaking in the nearby village of Cambuskenneth and published a tract which he distributed at Cambuskenneth and the Stirling races. His involvement in tract publishing expanded until by 1852 he began to work at it full time. That year he launched the ""British Messenger"", a monthly evengelical newspaper, which continued until 1962. In 1856 a shop had to be rented to accommodate the business and in 1862 they moved to premises in King Street, Stirling. The Enterprise was then employing 26 staff, and it took advantage of the introduction of a special book-postage in 1859-60 to access a wider market. However not everyone had a high opinion of Drummond. In 1861 he was accused of fraud and to counter these allegations he set up the Drummond Trust (1863) to run the Tract Enterprise. He retired from active business in 1872. By 1888 the business again had to expand into larger premises in Dumbarton Road. By 1957 this publishing enterprise had distributed over 845 million items. The tracts were distributed worldwide and were translated into Gaelic and most Western European languages. They also published three periodicals which were aimed at different target audiences - the young, the old and the general public. Publishing costs were covered by donations and the tracts were intended in the main to be free. However changing attitudes after the Second World War and the rising costs of publication and distribution forced them to rethink their approach, and from 1979 the Drummond Trust has used its invested capital to finance biennial lectures at Stirling University, essay competitions and to contribute to the publication of suitable religious works. The Stirling Tract Enterprise closed completely in 1980.
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