While John Bradby Blake was working in Canton (Guangzhou) and Macao, Captain Blake was an essential part of his son's international botanical network. Involved in the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Captain Blake connected John Bradby Blake's shipments of seeds and other botanical materials with botanists and merchants around the world. This included correspondence with John Ellis, whose designs for transporting live plants across the ocean are very similar to John Bradby Blake's, and Henry Laurens, a future signer of the American Declaration of Independence. It was also Captain John Blake who, with the help of Whang-y-Tong (also called Whang at Tong, Whang Atong, and Whang Yadong), compiled an archive of Bradby Blake's work and correspondence after his death. As well as their botanical interests, the Blakes were also involved to a degree in predatory lending practices based around the tea trade, something that led ultimately to a minor financial crisis and Britain's first embassy to China.