East India Patronage and the British State: The Scottish Elite and Politics in the Eighteenth Century (International Library of Historical Studies)

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?

This book covers the new "Great Britain" created after the Act of Union in 1707. McGilvalry takes a critical look at how the English bound 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 onward, 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.The importance of the system of patronage which enabled so many Scots to go to the East has not hitherto been recognized and cannot be overestimated. It bound the Scots with their English neighbors in business, political management and empire, with consequences going far beyond the Eighteenth Century.