This book uses original resources to uncover the valuable help given to Britain's leaders and her elite by the Scot, John Drummond of Quarrel. It reveals why he proved indispensable as a special consultant and counsellor to statesmen, nobles and businessmen, shows his devotion to the 1707 Union, and how he fed expansion of Britain's Empire while spying on her enemies. His professionalism, learned from the renascent culture of his beloved Scotland, benefitted commercial society in Britain and Holland. The volume argues that his contribution to a momentous, much discussed era was extraordinary, and his activities boosted exchange of global knowledge, to the particular benefit of Scotland.

This book uses original resources to uncover the valuable help given to Britain's leaders and her elite by the Scot, John Drummond of Quarrel. It reveals why he proved indispensable as a special consultant and counsellor to statesmen, nobles and businessmen, shows his devotion to the 1707 Union, and how he fed expansion of Britain's Empire while spying on her enemies. His professionalism, learned from the renascent culture of his beloved Scotland, benefitted commercial society in Britain and Holland. The volume argues that his contribution to a momentous, much discussed era was extraordinary, and his activities boosted exchange of global knowledge, to the particular benefit of Scotland.

A biography of an almost 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 confident 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 - and at the centre of the eighteenth century public-private nexus in business and government.

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 looks at the effects of the Act of the Union on Britain and its colonies. 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. 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 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.

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 confident 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 - and at the centre of the eighteenth century public-private nexus in business and government.

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.