Abstract
In this momentous work, Andrew Mackillop offers the most significant and wide-ranging study to date surrounding the relationship of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with Asia during the long eighteenth century. Focusing on Scots, Irish, and Welsh connections with the English East India Company (EIC), Mackillop convincingly argues that the comparatively ‘finance-“poor”’ (p. 25) provincial societies of the British and Irish Isles utilised human mobility and social capital as highly productive pathways into global empire and expansion. By looking beyond simply financial capital, Mackillop demonstrates that the movement of metropolitan provincials within (and beyond) the company’s hemisphere in Asia formed an alternative, yet crucial, investment and development strategy, resulting in a mode of wealth exchange in which human capital was deployed to achieve financial return. Through comparative analysis of the divergent trajectories of Scottish, Irish, and Welsh participation in Britain’s pre-1815 eastern empire, Mackillop systematically charts the full cycle of human mobility from mobilisation to realisation. This is a meticulously researched study that provides a deeply original and compelling examination of the under-appreciated role of human capital in shaping European colonialism and global expansion.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 535-537 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Scottish Historical Review |
Volume | 103 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 30 Nov 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Dec 2024 |
Keywords
- human capital
- financial capital
- Scottish history