Although Glasgow was an important player in transatlantic trade from the mideighteenth century, before that, statistical evidence is difficult to find. Research on Scottish transatlantic connections in the ‘first’ British Empire c. 1600–1800 has paid much more attention to the eighteenth century than to the seventeenth. Even in studies specifically covering the eighteenth century, most have covered the post-1750 era. The involvement of Scots in the late seventeenth century has been described as ‘relatively piecemeal’. The c. 1680–1730 study period is thus an important ‘bridge’ between the pioneering transatlantic involvement of Scots and the beginnings of recognizable Scottish mercantile networks from the mideighteenth century.

Despite Glasgow's connections with North America, the first British colonial success was in the Caribbean, in the transatlantic staple of sugar, not tobacco. This chapter considers the role of Scots, not in Scotland, but from the Caribbean side of the Atlantic, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. There, some exceeded the more recognizable role of merchant and settled as planters. Although Glasgow's trade could not have occurred without contacts in the Americas, the role of planter is much more elusive than the familiar home-based merchant. Finding and explaining the origins of early Scottish sugar planters is difficult, not least because we are dealing with small numbers, with few identifiable sources, running the risk of being dismissed as untypical.