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History of the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise
The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise was set up as a voluntary constituted body and officially recognised in 1848.
Two similar organisations existed prior to the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise: the first was the University, composed of senior citizens and was responsible, among other things, for the importation and storage of grain at a time when piracy was rife in the Mediterranean. Leading businessmen were members of this institution. The second came into being shortly after the arrival of the British in Malta in 1800. Referred to as the “Commercial Rooms”, it was housed in the premises later occupied by the Lyceum and now the Arts and Design Centre in Merchants Street, Valletta. Detailed minutes of the meetings of the “Commercial Rooms” have been preserved at the Chamber’s offices and give a clear picture of trading conditions at the time.
In the early Nineteenth Century there was heavy shipping traffic between Britain and Malta and the Island served for the redistribution of British products, chiefly to the Barbary States and the Adriatic ports.
In 1848, the Governor of the Island was Sir Richard More O'Ferrall, who took a keen interest in commerce. It was due to his strong desire to make Malta a spearhead of British trade in the Mediterranean that the reorganisation of the commercial community arose and the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise was born.
Sir Richard found great help in the person of Sir Agostino Portelli, K.C.M.G., a leading merchant who was also a politician and who held a seat in the first Council of Government of Malta. Sir Agostino became the first President of the Chamber.
The Chamber was represented by nomination in the various Councils of Government that followed. The first self-governing Constitution in 1921 gave the Chamber the right to elect two senators. Incidentally, the first Prime Minister under the 1921 Constitution, Comm. Joseph Howard, O.B.E., was also a former President of the Chamber.
In 1857, the Exchange Buildings, constructed on its present site in Republic Street, Valletta which was granted to the Chamber in perpetual lease by the Government, was inaugurated. A commemorative tablet today exists in the Courtyard of the Exchange Buildings.
The Chamber celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 1998. To commemorate this important occasion, the Chamber published a book entitled "The Malta Chamber of Commerce 1848-1979 - An Outline History of Maltese Trade" by Dr. Carmelo Vassallo. It is available for sale from the
Chamber Secretariat.
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Role
Through the years, the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise has kept a close watch on developments in the field of commerce, giving advice to Government on commercial legislation and related matters and intervening in the interest of its members and the nation whenever necessary.
For example, when the British authorities found it expedient to extend the Malta Dockyard, the Chamber used its influence to see that the facilities in the Grand Harbour were extended at the joint expense of the local and Imperial Governments and that the New Port at the inner end of the Harbour was cleared and made suitable for commercial shipping.
The status of the Council of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise was recognised by the Government in 1857 by Ordinance XII. It declared that the Chamber represented the mercantile body of the Island and that the transactions at The Exchange determined the official rate of monetary value, the current price of merchandise, and the current rate of insurance premiums and freight. It also granted the Chamber the privilege of issuing licences to brokers.
The rate of exchange was, at the time, a matter of great importance for the commerce of the Island because the pound sterling was not the only legal tender but was in use concurrently with Sicilian, Neapolitan and Austrian currency. It is clear that, under these conditions, the Exchange Buildings, with the Bank of Malta and the Anglo Maltese Bank on the ground floor, separated by a central courtyard, were a veritable beehive of activity in banking and other business. At the corner of the present courtyard there still exists the bell which was used to announce the fluctuations in exchange, premium, rate of freight and prices of commodities.
Far-reaching economic and political changes took place in Malta after the Second World War and particularly since the achievement of independence from Britain in 1964. The function of the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise during this process of change has remained much as it has always been, although it has introduced new techniques enabling it to better fulfil its role.
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