This is a past event
Dr Andrew Mackillop
Despite its status as one of Scotland’s most important burghs, Aberdeen is not considered a telling example of the high profile role played by other Scottish ports and cities – most obviously Glasgow – in the British Empire in the century or so after 1707. Although Aberdeen may have lacked large-scale, direct involvement in the colonial trades, this did not prevent Aberdonians from the town and the shire actively participating in British expansion. Using the example of John Forbes of Newe (1743-1821), a hugely successful merchant in Bombay, this paper explores how North East families and kin networks successfully exploited Britain’s eastern empire, garnering significant imperial wealth which was reinvested across Aberdeenshire and in major civic projects within the town itself. In this way Aberdeen’s status as an imperial burgh, although less obvious than that of Glasgow, was no less real.
- Venue
- Town and County Hall Town House, Union Street, Aberdeen