Acknowledgements
During my ten-year Glasgow-West India sojourn, I have accumulated many debts. This body of research would not have been possible without an Economic and Social Research Council PhD scholarship awarded by Economic and Social History subject area at the University of Glasgow in 2010 (ES/I902414/1). Funding from the Annie Dunlop Endowment (Scottish History), and a small grant in History, helped support research trips to the United States of America and the Caribbean. A Royal Society of Edinburgh grant allowed a month-long trip to Trinidad in 2016. Postdoctoral employment in the History (2015–19) and Scottish History subject areas (2019–ongoing) at the University of Glasgow allowed me to develop this monograph. Working on the ‘Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow’ report (2018) was a seminal moment in my development as an historian, transforming my understanding of Atlantic slavery and British capitalism, and how merchant capital continues to influence modern society. This research has contributed to illuminating both the institution and city’s historic connections with Atlantic slavery.
My greatest intellectual debt is to my two doctoral supervisors, Simon Newman and Allan Macinnes. The expertise provided by the cross-institutional arrangement (2010–14) embodied the connections between the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde as well as the connections between Scotland, America and the Caribbean. My external examiner at an enjoyable viva in February 2015, Phillip Morgan, and internal examiner, Mike Rapport, provided excellent advice which shaped the transition from thesis to monograph.
Some of this material has previously been published. An earlier version of Chapter 3 ‘A Glasgow-West India house’ was published as ‘A Glasgow-West India merchant house and the imperial dividend, 1779–1867’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, xxxiii, 196–233. A portion of Chapter 2 ‘Trade and commerce’ was published as ‘The great Glasgow-West India house of John Campbell, senior, & Co.’, in T. M. Devine (ed.), Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past: the Caribbean Connection (Edinburgh, 2015), 124–45. A portion of Chapter 7 ‘Trinidad’ was published as ‘John Lamont of Benmore: a Highland planter who died “in harness” in Trinidad’, Northern Scotland, ix, 44–66. I am grateful to Edinburgh University Press for permissions and I am also grateful to NatWest Archives for permission to quote their materials.
Any work developed over many years is dependent upon the generosity of fellow scholars. The intellectual culture and various groups and activities at the University of Glasgow are an important part of scholarly development: I value the advice and comradeship of Ewan Gibbs, Michael Hopcroft, Craig Lamont, Chris Miller, Michael Morris, Arun Sood, Jelmer Vos and Valerie Wright. I appreciate the collegiate support and friendship shown by many scholars of Scotland after I relocated to Scottish History in 2019, especially Dauvit Broun, Catriona M. M. Macdonald and Martin Macgregor. Discussions about the repatriation of capital from the East and West Indies with Andrew Mackillop, in Tennents and elsewhere, improved me as an historian.
I am fortunate to have met several generous scholars in Great Britain, North America and the Caribbean. Eric Graham was an important source of advice as I embarked on a PhD. Mark Freeman was an early mentor and friend: those classes on Mayhew worked better than I thought they would. I am grateful to Nicholas Draper for many discussions since 2010 about slavery, the Atlantic trades and merchant capital. These discussions transformed how I approached this monograph. David Alston is one of the most collegiate historians I know, sharing expertise freely. Karly Kehoe has offered sound advice over several years. John Cairns is a gentleman-scholar, and I am grateful for advice and materials. I thank Tom Devine and Anthony Cooke for transformative works on Glasgow’s colonial entrepreneurs. Even if our conclusions do not always align, I learned a great deal from their work. The Royal Historical Society and Institute of Historical Research have put together a superb format in the New Historical Perspectives Series. I am grateful for the feedback and constructive criticism from Penny Summerfield, Alex Murdoch and Nicholas Draper at the initial workshop. This gave me more to think about than I had anticipated but transformed my thinking and ultimately improved this monograph. I am especially indebted to Natalie Zacek, who read each chapter thoroughly and provided great advice, mentoring and friendship as I developed the work.
A project of this nature simply could not be possible without archivists and the generosity of fellow scholars while at home and abroad. Irene O’Brien and all at Glasgow City Archives hold a remarkable and underutilized collection. Staff at the University of the West Indies Mona and St Augustine campuses provided wonderful advice and hospitality for a visiting researcher. In Jamaica, James Robertson of UWI Mona was a superb host and improved my approach to archival work on the island. I was very fortunate to have been introduced to the Ranstons, who became my family in Jamaica. I spent a wonderful time with Emma Ranston in the archives and libraries of greater Kingston and Spanishtown in 2014. In Grenada, John Angus Martin provided much information. I value his polymath’s knowledge of the history of the Spice Isle. In Trinidad, I am grateful to Selwyn Cudjoe: my understanding of the modern Caribbean was transformed as we walked and talked in Arima, Port of Spain and Tacarigua. Friends at home have offered unstinting support over many years, and I offer my gratitude in return to Martin Boyle, Paul Cogan and Vincent McGovern.
My greatest debt is to my family: my parents, Stevie and Sylvia. Stephen and Jade, Juliette, Willow Rose and Annabelle Meg have watched this book develop over many years with interest. Over the course of this work, all our lives changed with the passing of my father, Stevie, in February 2016 and grandfather, James Scott, in February 2022. Both taught me a great deal in life, some of which I did not appreciate at the time. Finally, I met my wife, Jade Halbert, at the University of Glasgow, a transformative place, and time, in both our lives.