Scottish engagement in eighteenth-century overseas trade—whether American, Asian, or African—was a complex phenomenon, one fostering ethnic identities varying with time and place but given unique focus by the political, territorial, economic, and confessional dimensions of Whig-Jacobite rivalry. Such is the guiding theme of this volume, skillfully developed in twelve stimulating, highly readable essays by prominent scholars—contributions that synthesize the latest research, provide new insights, and, with some qualifications, enjoy a unity and coherence not usual in multi-authored works.
The editors, Allan Macinnes and Douglas Hamilton, open with an intellectually scene-setting introduction, placing the essays in their historiographical context, explaining how they complement and reinforce each other, and identifying the major issues they address. They also emphasize that from first to last Jacobitism was a military phenomenon—a point sometimes overlooked. Thus despite the high political intrigues involved, any possible restoration of the exiled Stuarts inevitably entailed the serious use of armed force necessary for challenging and dislodging the dynastic settlement of 1689. This aspect is examined in depth by Daniel Szechi (chapter 1)—a well-known Jacobite authority—via the military performance of James III against the background of dynastic hostilities (1706–27). Countering the traditionally negative view of James as commander, Szechi emphasizes his extensive precombat military education and subsequent respectable service in the armies of France between 1708 and 1711. He also argues persuasively that James had the tactical skills required for senior command and that only his unavoidably late arrival in Scotland, together with chronic factionalism within his officer corps, offset James's potential and prevented the Stuart conspiracy from coming to fruition. Here Szechi reiterates a conclusion from his earlier work, 1715: The Great Rebellion (2006), a conclusion that is arguably over optimistic given the myriad other obstacles to success, including, inter alia, resource mobilization difficulties, the chronic shortage of needed funds, unpredictable foreign support, and vigorous government counter measures (see my essay, “Jacobitism and the Historian: Some Neglected Sources on the Jacobite Insurrections of 1715 and 1745,” in the Canadian Journal of History [Winter 2013]).
Although chapter 2, written by Nicola Cowmeadow, offers interesting sidelights on female involvement with Jacobite issues in a case study of Margaret, Lady Nairne—a titled woman with wide Tory and Whig connections—it does little to relate this feminist focus to the central themes of the volume at large. Traditionally females, even those of noble status, may have been consigned “to the periphery of the Jacobite movement” (29). Yet one counter example hardly invalidates the so far prevailing tendency in eighteenth-century highland historiography. Jacobitism may have exerted a formative influence on Lady Nairne's evolving persona, but this does not necessarily have dramatic implications for Jacobitism per se, or at least none demonstrated in this chapter. Though generally well written and researched, perhaps chapter 2 should have been placed in a journal or book-length anthology highlighting feminist-driven issues, topics, and agendas. Somewhat peripheral, too, are chapters 3 and 4, whose authors, Thomas McInelly and D. Jeffrey Stephen, respectively, explore the ecclesiastical politics of Scottish Catholic clergy in the 1700s and 1800s, and clarify the political motivations underlying the Toleration Act of 1712, but signally fail to integrate their conclusions with the Scottish Enlightenment thrust of the book as a whole.
Expanding on other recent innovative research (see John McKenzie and T. M. Devine, eds., Scotland and the British Empire [2011]; L. H. Roper and B. van Ruymbeke, eds., Constructing Early Modern Empires: Proprietary Ventures in the Atlantic World, 1500–1750 [2007]), in chapter 5 Jeffrey Stephen questions the Anglocentric view of the Caribbean colonies and challenges the prosaic depiction of Scottish (and Irish) settlers and traders as victims of, rather than dynamic actors, in the formation of mercantile policy. With compelling new evidence the author, Sarah Barber, argues it is far too simplistic to consider Scotland as somehow in a quasi-colonial relationship with the central and dominant English power: both Scots and English interacted in complex, multilevel patterns of partnership ultimately giving rise to the British “world system.” The Atlantic especially served as a “conceptual space” in which ideas and knowledge were produced, defined, refined and influenced by global “networks of exchange” of ideas, people and commodities. This symbiosis accordingly influenced political creeds—Jacobitism included—redefining the movement through a new vision of patriotism, patria henceforth being grounded in neo-Stoic and humanist teaching rather than merely dynastic loyalty, creating an impetus that spread nationally as well as to the constituent territories of the British Empire.
Expanding commercial networks by way of imperial connections are further explored in chapter 6, via Scotland's tradition of migration, military service, and trade to New Zealand, Holland, and the Southern Netherlands. Here Esther Mijers documents the adaptable spirit of Scottish entrepreneurs—inculcated by education, religion, and cultural heritage, qualities that have also been recently cited to explain their remarkable success in other areas of the globe (see Scotland and the British Empire). In chapter 7, Stuart Nisbet elaborates this by showing how the distinctive nature of Scotland's institutional life sustained vital intellectual and disciplinary developments that were unique during periods both of integration and migration.
The decades immediately following the Act of Union (1707) were marked by turbulence: recessions, riots, and endemic rebellion throughout much of the Scottish community and strife embodied in the Jacobite challenge. Ultimately the situation was stabilized not primarily through official coercion or repression but, as convincingly demonstrated in Allan Macinnes's contribution (chapter 8), by Scottish participation in the burgeoning imperial system of patronage, speculation, and profit—overseas ventures becoming a pragmatically effective means of reintegrating, if not rehabilitating leading Jacobite dissidents, therefore helping to consolidate pro-Union sentiment, certainly among the upper class. The importance of patronage in providing access to empire is symbiotically confirmed in chapter 9, by George McGilvary. On the basis of in-depth research, he clarifies the involvement of key Jacobite figures in East India Company affairs from 1720 to 1780 with special concentration on the supporting role of John Drummond of Quariel working in close association with Sir Robert Walpole and Scottish political manager, Archibald Campbell (3rd Duke of Argyll). The remaining chapters, 10–12, illustrate, in complementary fashion, how by mid-century, patriotism became a driving force that helped redefine Jacobitism in Scotland, Scottish identity being reshaped and articulated though neo stoic humanist discourse unlike, earlier, dynastic symbols and associations.
All in all, Jacobitism, Enlightenment and Empire is a valuable, thought-provoking overview of themes that are but beginning to receive their deserved share of attention and as such provides a superb point of departure for further investigation and debate.
