British Scholar: Bowen - "Elites, Enterprise & the Making of the British Empire"

Elites, Enterprise and the Making of the British Overseas Empire, 1688-1775
Huw Bowen (London: Macmillan, 1996), 257 pages

The point of Dr. Bowen’s book rests on testing the theory of “gentlemanly capitalism,” as posited by Cain
and Hopkins, in an eighteenth century setting. Bowen believes that the expansion of the British Empire
during the eighteenth century can be attributed to, first and foremost, the three categories of elites who
emerged after the financial revolution of the late seventeenth century. The financial incentives that
imperial endeavors brought to these three disparate groups united them in a common cause: the
continued expansion of overseas activity. Thus, the nascent taxonomy of “gentlemanly capitalists” can
only be understood in terms of finance and empire in the eighteenth century.

The “gentlemanly capitalists” who emerged in the 18th century were composed of three groups. The
original gentlemen came from the landed elites. This aristocratic class not only controlled almost all of the
wealth in England prior to the financial revolution, they also exercised a powerful grip over political power
in the country. The second set consisted of the mercantile elite. These men supervised and directed the
growth of overseas trade. The financial elite rounded out the Cain and Hopkins’ “gentlemanly capitalists”
classification. These financiers, heavily based in London, provided much of the capital and resources
needed to fund state and private enterprise at home and abroad. According to Bowen, the landed elites
looked upon the mercantile and financial elites with suspicion prior to 1720 because the latter groups
appeared threatening to the aristocratic power base. The merchants and financiers of eighteenth century
Britain, however, did not wish for an overthrow of the aristocracy. Instead, they purchased small tracts of
land to acquire the social prestige and political power that accompanied gentlemanly status. Moreover,
government controlled by the landed elites proved financially beneficial to merchants and financiers. After
all, this form of government meant stability, low taxation, a lack of government interference, and, as
discussed above, the prospect of upward social mobility. Taken together, these three groups slowly
evolved into the “gentlemanly capitalists” who stood at the forefront of British imperial expansion. As the
empire expanded, the collective wealth of these elites only continued to increase. Thus, the propagation
of the empire became the raison d’être of the “gentlemanly capitalists” by the end of the eighteenth
century.

Bowen’s book looks to establish a chronology for the development of the “gentlemanly capitalist” elite
during the eighteenth century. He convincingly demonstrates how their interests converged on British
imperial expansion to create a completely new elite social class. Bowen performs a great service to
scholars of British economic history by bringing the oft-neglected eighteenth century into the “gentlemanly
capitalist” equation. However, a great amount of work on the economic history of this period remains to be
done.