East India Patronage and the British State
Subtitle: The Scottish Elite and Politics in the Eighteenth Century
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Published: June 10, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781845116613
Subjects: British & Irish history: c 1700 to c 1900; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; History; History - General History; History: World; United Kingdom, Great Britain; Europe - Great Britain - General; Modern - 18th Century; History / Modern / 18th Century
Description: "The Act of Union in 1707 brought with it a new 'Great Britain'. How did the English bind the Scottish elites to the new British State, ensuring the stability of this new power in the face of possible Jacobite and international threat? From 1725 a patronage system existed in Britain enabling government ministries to use posts in the East India Company and its shipping to secure political majorities in Scotland and Westminster. Scots went to India as Company servants, ships' crews, soldiers and free-merchants, bringing back exceptional wealth to a land starved of money and providing for commercial and industrial advances throughout Great Britain. The importance of the system of patronage which enabled so many Scots to go to the East has not hitherto been recognised and cannot be overestimated. It bound the Scots with their English neighbours in business, political management and empire, with consequences going far beyond the eighteenth century."--Bloomsbury publishing.