Coal and Tobacco. The Lowthers and the economic development of West Cumberland, 1660-1760

Notes:

Scholarly account. Deals with the development and importance of coal extraction and trade, much to Ireland, and to a much lesser extent the short lived tobacco trade with North America, in the economic development of Cumberland and in particular the role of the landowning and aristocratic Lowther family, later Earls of Lonsdale, and notably Sir John Lowther, 1642-1706, and Sir James Lowther, 1673-1755, in this process. Argues that the tobacco trade was carried on independently of tobacco trading and that profits from it were not ploughed back into coal extraction but went into other industries and only from the 1740s. Chapters include: 'The Lowthers - landowning entrepreneurs'; 'Coal - monopoly and competition'; 'Coal - the structure of trade and industry'; 'The expansion of trade'; 'The development of industry'; 'Communications'; 'Creating new towns - urban growth' - ie Whitehaven. Appendices include Lowther family tree; analysis of James Lowther's portfolio investments; Lowther land transactions; statistics re individual colliery output and profits