Papers presented by Robert Dawson Scott since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"Whose public interest? An 18th century banker faces up to regime change"

Abstract:

This paper builds on the renewal of interest in techniques of microhistory, not least in management and business history (Decker 2015), by examining the diary of an 18th century Scottish banker who found himself in the midst of a constitutional crisis. The diary was kept by John Campbell, chief cashier of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1745 – 1777 (Campbell 1995). In the autumn of 1745, Campbell was asked to redeem £6,676 of Royal Bank of Scotland notes in gold or specie. Although a substantial sum (around £1m at today’s values) this would, in normal circumstances, have been a routine transaction. However the circumstances were far from normal. A few days earlier, the city had been seized by an army led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, aka 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', whose stated purpose was the overthrow of the British crown. There could have been no doubt that the cash was to pay the Prince’s army, then encamped in one of the city’s parks following a resounding victory over forces loyal to the Crown a few days earlier. What was Campbell to do? Most of his directors had left town. Was it in the public interest to honour the notes and maintain the credibility of the bank and its notes – a matter of considerable contemporary public concern as sources show. Or should he deny the obligation on the bank's notes, find a way of avoiding payment and so frustrate the purpose of the invading army? To concentrate his mind, the garrison of Edinburgh castle, within which the Bank had stashed its assets and which had not fallen to the rebel army, was, “in scenes unexampled in the modern history of these islands” (Buchan 2007 p49), strafing the main street of Edinburgh with canon and grapeshot. Why Campbell and the remaining directors determined to honour the notes remains an open question to this day. References: Buchan, J. (2007) Capital of the Mind. Edinburgh: Birlinn Campbell, J. (1995) "The diary of John Campbell". Edinburgh: RBS Decker, S. (2015). "Mothership reconnection". In P. G. McLaren, A. J. Mills, & T. G. Weatherbee (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Management and Organizational History (pp. 222-237). Basingstoke: Routledge.

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