Human Capital and Empire: Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British Imperialism in Asia, C.1690-C.1820 - Paperback

by Andrew MacKillop (Author)

Human capital and empire compares the role of Scots, Irish and Welsh within the English East India Company between c. 1690 and c. 1820. It focuses on why the three groups developed such distinctive and different profiles within the corporation and its wider colonial activities in Asia. Besides contributing to the national histories of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, it uses these societies to ask how 'poorer' regions of Europe participated in global empire. The chapters cover involvement in the Company's administrative, military, medical, maritime and private trade activities. The analysis conceives of sojourning to Asia as a cycle of human capital, with human mobility used to access a key sector of world trade. As well as providing essential new statistical information on Irish, Scottish and Welsh participation, it makes a significant contribution to ongoing debates on the legacies of empire.

Back Jacket

Human capital and empire is a comparative analysis of how Scotland, Ireland and Wales participated in the English East India Company between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries.

It explains the increasing involvement of individuals and networks from these societies in the London corporation that controlled contact between the British and Irish Isles and one entire hemisphere of world trade. Scottish, Irish and Welsh evidence is used to consider wider questions on the origins, nature and consequences of the early modern phase of globalisation, sometimes referred to as 'proto-globalisation.' It contributes to such debates by analysing how these supposedly 'poorer' regions of Europe relied on migration as an investment strategy to profit from empire in Asia. Using social network theory and concepts of human capital, it examines why the Scots, Irish and Welsh developed markedly different profiles in the Company's service. The analysis explores a previously underappreciated cycle of human capital that involved departure to Asia, the creation of colonial profits, and the return of people and their fortunes to Britain and Ireland.

By reconceptualising the origins and the consequences of involvement in the Company, the study will be of interest to historians of early modern Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Britain, the East India Company, and the early phases of British imperialism in Asia.

Author Biography

Andrew Mackillop is a Senior Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow