Union and Empire

Abstract

The making of the United Kingdom in 1707 is still a matter of significant political and historical controversy. Allan Macinnes here offers a major interpretation that sets the Act of Union within a broad European and colonial context and provides a comprehensive picture of its transatlantic and transoceanic ramifications that ranged from the balance of power to the balance of trade. He reexamines English motivations from a colonial as well as a military perspective and assesses the imperial significance of the creation of the United Kingdom. He also explores afresh the commitment of some determined Scots to secure Union for political, religious and opportunist reasons and shows that rather than an act of statesmanship, the resultant Treaty of Union was the outcome of politically inept negotiations by the Scots. Union and Empire will be a major contribution to the history of Britain, empire and early modern state formation.

Between Empires and Cultures: Scots in New Netherland and New York

“…Early Scottish imperial aspirations had found a powerful backer in King James VI & I and there were many, now long-forgotten, British projects in the 1620s which were Scottish-led. 41 The Scottish legal position was protected by their post-nati citizenship, a policy championed by James VI & I and upheld in the courts of law in 1608 in Colvin's case, granting common nationality to all those born in Britain since the Union of the Crowns. 42 The fact that Scotland failed to capitalise on these early advantages has been explained by a number of factors: (1) Faced with international pressure, Charles I purposely sacrificed Nova Scotia, and Scotland's colonial interest in general, to that of England, thus creating a long-lasting precedent; (2) Following James VI's move to England, Scotland lacked a strong executive directive; and (3) most importantly, it did not have the human capital necessary to colonise effectively.…”

“…46 Like their English counterparts, the majority of Scottish migrants did not go to New England, but to Virginia, Barbados and the Leeward Islands. 47 They often arrived not directly from Scotland, but via Ulster or the Continent. Usually, the involuntary nature of their migration and their servitor colonialism are highlighted, such as the Scottish prisoners of the Cromwellian and Restoration regimes who were shipped to the Caribbean and the indentured labourers employed in New York and the middle colonies and the Caribbean.…”

“…The growing deterioration of Anglo-Scottish relations in the 1690s and the increase in Scottish tramp trading and other illegal activities was accompanied by a legal war over the place of Scots in the Stuart empire. 154 The clannishness of the Scottish merchants, combined with the extent of their international networks and the damage done to the English economy by their high levels of illicit trading, were all significant contributing factors in the lead-up to the Union of 1707. To what extent the Scottish-Dutch networks proved robust enough to withstand the pressure from the new, ironically enough, Anglo-Dutch regime, remains to be uncovered in more detail.…”

Chapter 1 The Issues Facing Scotland in 1707

“…In both respects, physically able, Protestant Scots fitted the bill admirably. 80 But if containing the Scots and harnessing Scottish resources were considerations for England, such objectives were not necessarily to be achieved through union. English Tories looked askance at the prospect of a closer relationship, dominated as Scottish society was (in the eyes of Englishmen who had been fed with a decade and a half's Episcopalian propagandising), by fanatical, ranting Presbyterians, unforgiving in their belief in predestination.…”

The misuse of loyalty? James Dundas and the faculty of advocates’ letter to Queen Anne of 1711

“…Interestingly, given the reference above to Stuart Britannic empire, the Scottish grievances which Dundas cites are all interpretable within a narrative of English imperialism, what Allan Macinnes has identified as the triumph of a Gothic Revolution settlement which saw Scots ‘disadvantaged in both the British Isles and the colonies’. For example, Dundas accuses William III of having contributed to the failure of the Scottish imperial venture at Darien (a scheme symbolic of Scottish aspirations for a separate colony ‘under the protection of the Stuart dynasty’ but not dependent on England) by commanding the colonists to be ‘starv'd’. Dundas is scathing, also, of the preferential treatment offered by England to Irish linen manufacturers.…”