Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Contributors
- List of Tables
- Introduction: Identity, Mobility and Competing Patriotisms
- 1 Jamie the Soldier and the Jacobite Military Threat, 1706–27
- 2 Simply a Jacobite Heroine? The Life Experience of Margaret, Lady Nairne (1673–1747)
- 3 Missionaries or Soldiers for the Jacobite Cause? The Conflict of Loyalties for Scottish Catholic Clergy
- 4 English Liturgy and Scottish Identity: The Case of James Greenshields
- 5 ‘Let Him be an Englishman’: Irish and Scottish Clergy in the Caribbean Church of England, 1610–1720
- 6 Scotland, the Dutch Republic and the Union: Commerce and Cosmopolitanism
- 7 Clearing the Smokescreen of Early Scottish Mercantile Identity: From Leeward Sugar Plantations to Scottish Country Estates c. 1680–1730
- 8 Union, Empire and Global Adventuring with a Jacobite Twist
- 9 John Drummond of Quarrel: East India Patronage and Jacobite Assimilation, 1720–80
- 10 William Playfair (1759–1823), Scottish Enlightenment from Below?
- 11 The Visionary Voyages of Robert Burns
- 12 ‘Defending the Colonies against Malicious Attacks of Philanthropy’: Scottish Campaigns against the Abolitions of the Slave Trade and Slavery
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
7 - Clearing the Smokescreen of Early Scottish Mercantile Identity: From Leeward Sugar Plantations to Scottish Country Estates c. 1680–1730
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Contributors
- List of Tables
- Introduction: Identity, Mobility and Competing Patriotisms
- 1 Jamie the Soldier and the Jacobite Military Threat, 1706–27
- 2 Simply a Jacobite Heroine? The Life Experience of Margaret, Lady Nairne (1673–1747)
- 3 Missionaries or Soldiers for the Jacobite Cause? The Conflict of Loyalties for Scottish Catholic Clergy
- 4 English Liturgy and Scottish Identity: The Case of James Greenshields
- 5 ‘Let Him be an Englishman’: Irish and Scottish Clergy in the Caribbean Church of England, 1610–1720
- 6 Scotland, the Dutch Republic and the Union: Commerce and Cosmopolitanism
- 7 Clearing the Smokescreen of Early Scottish Mercantile Identity: From Leeward Sugar Plantations to Scottish Country Estates c. 1680–1730
- 8 Union, Empire and Global Adventuring with a Jacobite Twist
- 9 John Drummond of Quarrel: East India Patronage and Jacobite Assimilation, 1720–80
- 10 William Playfair (1759–1823), Scottish Enlightenment from Below?
- 11 The Visionary Voyages of Robert Burns
- 12 ‘Defending the Colonies against Malicious Attacks of Philanthropy’: Scottish Campaigns against the Abolitions of the Slave Trade and Slavery
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Although Glasgow was an important player in transatlantic trade from the mideighteenth century, before that, statistical evidence is difficult to find. Research on Scottish transatlantic connections in the ‘first’ British Empire c. 1600–1800 has paid much more attention to the eighteenth century than to the seventeenth. Even in studies specifically covering the eighteenth century, most have covered the post-1750 era. The involvement of Scots in the late seventeenth century has been described as ‘relatively piecemeal’. The c. 1680–1730 study period is thus an important ‘bridge’ between the pioneering transatlantic involvement of Scots and the beginnings of recognizable Scottish mercantile networks from the mideighteenth century.
Despite Glasgow's connections with North America, the first British colonial success was in the Caribbean, in the transatlantic staple of sugar, not tobacco. This chapter considers the role of Scots, not in Scotland, but from the Caribbean side of the Atlantic, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. There, some exceeded the more recognizable role of merchant and settled as planters. Although Glasgow's trade could not have occurred without contacts in the Americas, the role of planter is much more elusive than the familiar home-based merchant. Finding and explaining the origins of early Scottish sugar planters is difficult, not least because we are dealing with small numbers, with few identifiable sources, running the risk of being dismissed as untypical.
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- Information
- Jacobitism, Enlightenment and Empire, 1680–1820 , pp. 109 - 122Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014