In 1775 Erskine was appointed British consul for Gothenburg, Marstrand, and the other port cities on the West Coast of Sweden. As such, he wrote regular reports to the British government, including reports on the Swedish contraband trade with France during the revolutionary wars. This position also enhanced his social position in Gothenburg. He was one of the 20 (at the time unmarried and for the largest part British-born) founding members of the Royal Bachelors' Club, an English-type gentlemen's club established in 1769 mainly in order to circumvent a ban on the playing of billiards at public establishments.