Saturday 24th May 2014

History Books

Here are outlines of the books and articles I have written and published on aspects of the Company and on returned nabobs.
Included are short excerpts taken from descriptions of each major title (and from the articles/chapters) to provide flavour.

Guardian of the East India Company: The Life of Laurence Sulivan (London, I. B. Tauris, 2006)

"A biography of a seemingly forgotten yet singularly important eighteenth century figure, this book includes revealing insights into the business and political landscape of his day, and explores both his professional and personal life, essential for histories of Britain and the Empire.

Laurence Sulivan embodied the East India Company. He lived at the Company’s heart in the city of London and controlled a vast commercial and political empire during Britain’s ‘Commercial Revolution’ in the late eighteenth century, and rise to superpower status and supremacy in India and South and Southeast Asia. He was ‘kingmaker’, politician, manipulator and negotiator, deeply involved in British and Indian affairs, friend and confidant of Chatham, Clive, Burke and Pitt the Younger and – very importantly – protector of Warren Hastings."

"George K. McGilvary paints a vivid and convincing picture of a supremely influential and colourful business figure as he controlled the most powerful private company of his day – at the centre of the eighteenth century public-private nexus in business and government."

http://www.amazon.com/Guardian-East-India-Company-International/dp/1850438560/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1400958733&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Guardian+of+the+East+India+Company

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=George+K+McGilvary

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East India Patronage and the British State: The Scottish Elite and Politics in the Eighteenth Century (London, I. B. Tauris, 2008)

 "This book seeks to establish that from the 1720s to the late 1770s a well-defined patronage system was instituted by ministries, allowing a disproportionate number of Scots to fill positions in the East India Company and its shipping. By virtue of this patronage, which became available through Company connections, grateful governments were able to proffer positions to selected individuals and families forming a large part of the Scottish elite; doing so in exchange for political support and votes. It helped governments of the day to deflect much of the Jacobite threat.
Such posts promised enormous riches to individuals who survived the voyage and ravages of the Indian climate. In turn, the wealth from this source that flowed into Scotland was to be the salvation of many landed families. It increased largesse all round and contributed considerably to agricultural, commercial and industrial expansion north of the Tweed. Probably, through the mixture of social ease, security and sense of freedom from internal strife that was produced, it also encouraged, to some extent, factors that enabled the mid-century Scottish Enlightenment to flower.

It is argued that above all the development of this patronage went a long way towards securing the political management of Scotland. Such eagerly sought favours helped ministries to control Scotland politically, as well as ensuring governmental dominance in the Westminster arena. The riches that accompanied Scots on their return, was of immense, perhaps vital importance to the survival and viability of the new state of Great Britain that had come into being with the Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707. There is the distinct possibility that without these favours and the spin-off from this patronage, the new realm might have become unstable and possibly foundered.

The inflow of funds originating in India, convinced a great many Scots that they should set aside the unpopular events of the years from 1707 to the 1720s. In particular the politically powerful elite: the aristocracy, landed gentry and lawyers, became reconciled to being part of Britain long before the end of the eighteenth century – and they in turn helped develop general acceptance of the idea of a British state."

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/East-India-Patronage-British-State/dp/1845116615/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400872866&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=George+K+McGilvary

http://www.amazon.com/East-India-Patronage-British-State/dp/1845116615/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400873571&sr=1-3&keywords=George+K+McGilvary

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These two monographs are under the control of the publisher, I. B. Tauris. This firm has placed an extortionate price on these, and still controls the rights over printed and e-book versions.
[While there is nothing unusual in such high prices for work that consumed many years of my life to produce, unfortunately, to this very day, I have received nothing in payment for my efforts.]
Because the printed volumes are so expensive, the cheapest way to read them is by ordering an e-book of each. (Use Amazon links above).

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Apart from a deep study of the workings of the EIC and those involved (especially Laurence Sulivan MP (1713-86) I have also developed a particular interest in the spread of Scottish commercial entrepreneurship - to London and South-East England by 1700, and also to India, the rest of South-East Asia and China - throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This is reflected in the articles/anthology chapters that follow:

                               History Articles/Anthology Chapters

At present, four articles/book chapters have been published.
Here are the titles, descriptions and reference that appertain:

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Cencrastus, Summer 1990, pp.30-33

Post-Union Scotland and the Indian Connection
Patronage and Political Management

George K McGilvary

"From the 1720s it was realized that the East India Company could be used to unlock political capital, that India patronage could serve the ends of Scottish political management. The recipients of India favours, that is, families from the right rank in Scottish society with electoral support to offer in return, quietly secreted away such advantages. They were never something boasted about, such was the nature of the agreements that made them possible. Yet those involved included heads of Government, political managers in Scotland, the most powerful men in the East India Company and Scottish business exiles in London."
[No longer published. Copy can be obtained from the author]

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‘The Scottish Connection with India 1725-1833″ Études écossaises, “Empire; Recherches en cours/Research in Scottish Studies”, no. 14, (Éditions littéraires et linguistiques de l’université de Grenoble, 2011): 13-32.

The Scottish Connection with India 1725-1833

George K. McGilvary, University of Edinburgh

"Without in any way forgetting “The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies” incorporated in 1695, the Scottish connection with India really began in and around 1725. As is explained below, the reason why Scots were going to India in numbers from that date had more to do with the good government of Scotland, from Westminster’s point of view, than it did with anything else. And yet, this Scottish attempt in 1695 to push into the markets of the Indies, challenging the powerful English, French and Dutch East India Companies, can be regarded as a symptom, a part of something much larger exploding on the Scottish scene. This was nothing less than the Scottish elite commencing an expansionist drive in the field of mercantile and banking activities that began to build from the 1660s.
Scots merchants had been trading for centuries throughout the Baltic lands and Europe. However, this commerce had deteriorated, particularly in the last two decades of the seventeenth century. The English Navigation Acts, shrinkage of trade with European countries like Poland and the plundering of Barbary corsairs all took their toll. Nevertheless, just at this most inopportune time, members of the elite wanted to be involved alongside traditional traders. They wished to join with those middling class of merchants operating the length and breadth of the Scottish east coast and now forging new transatlantic ventures alongside their West Coast of Scotland brethren."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/%C3%89tudes-Ecossaises-14-2011-Empire/dp/2843101913/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399743273&sr=1-16&keywords=%C3%89tudes+%C3%A9cossaises%2C

[Copy also available from the author]

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‘Return of the Scottish Nabob 1725-1833’, in, Back to Caledonia: Scottish Return Migration from the Sixteenth Century to the Present, (ed.) M. Varricchio (Edinburgh, Birlinn, June 2012), pp. 90–108

Return of the Scottish Nabob 1725-1833

George K McGilvary

"Introduction
This paper concentrates upon Scots returning to Scotland from South-East Asia – and not to England (or Britain, as is so often casually written); nor is this an examination of how they lived in the East.
In Asia the Scottish nabob was a sojourner; he went on his own and was always intent on coming back. Like his fellow man, love of homeland and a wish to return was instinctive. The goal was always to get rich and perhaps demonstrate his success back in Scotland.
Of course, Scottish nabobs also flourished in London: in the East India Company (EIC), in the City, in Parliament. They populated London, dwelt in estates surrounding the metropolis and have to be viewed as part of the nabob mainstream of southern England. They were open to the judgement of contemporaries in the south, a different experience (as demonstrated below) to that faced by the returned nabob in Scotland.
The essay also aims to demonstrate, briefly, how Scottish nabobs secured both fortunes and reputations over such a long period of time, how these fortunes were remitted to Scotland, and it provides an indication of the figure they cut in Scottish life.
The exceptional service of Scottish nabobs to the development of Empire, trading networks and overseas commerce in general is also relevant, because this knowledge, of what they had achieved and the high regard in which they were held, accompanied them home. There, they might appear egotistical and smug – much of this came from a sense of attainment. They were transformed by the Indian experience and would set about altering the Scottish world to which they had returned."
See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Back%20to%20Caledonia%3A%20Scottish%20Return%20Migration%20from%20the%20Sixteenth%20Century%20to%20the%20Present%2C%20

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Caledonia-Scottish-Migration-Sixteenth/dp/1906566445/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400875357&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=%E2%80%98Return+of+the+Scottish+Nabob+1725-1833%E2%80%99%2C+in%2C+Back+to+Caledonia%3A+Scottish+Return+Migration+from+the+Sixteenth+Century+to+
the+Present%2C+%28ed.%29+M.+Varricchio

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Douglas  Hamilton, & Allan I Macinnes, Jacobitism, Enlightenment and Empire, 1680-1820 (Political and Popular Culture in the Early Modern Period), [eds (Chatto & Pickering, 1 Apr 2014), pp. 141-158 

John Drummond of Quarrel, East India Company Patronage and Assimilation of Scottish Jacobites 1725–1780

George K McGilvary

"The participation of Jacobites in the affairs of the Honourable East India Company (EIC) began midway through the 1720s, that is, thirty years after the events of 1688 that saw the removal of the Stuart dynasty. A few privileged Scots, tainted with Jacobitism, would become Proprietors, while others, or their sons, became EIC employees, crew on board EastIndiamen or free merchants trading in the east.

Why this was so, how it came about and was used to reintegrate Jacobites into mainstream Scottish life are analysed in what follows. The study embraces the crucial initial role of the Scot, John Drummond of Quarrel in these developments; and an assessment of how far EIC patronage was helpful overall, for erstwhile followers of the House of Stuart, and allowed leading Scottish Jacobite members to escape from the predicament they found themselves in. Also gauged is how far Britain benefited from what was achieved."
 See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-

http://www.amazon.com/Jacobitism-Enlightenment-1680-1820-Political-Popular/dp/1848934661/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400875550&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Douglas+Hamilton%2C+%26+Allan+I+Macinnes%2C+Jacobitism%2C+Enlightenment+and+Empire%2C+1680-1820+%28Political+and+Popular+Culture+in+the+Early+Modern+Period%29%2C+%5Beds+%28Chatto+%26+Pickering%2C