Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Contributors
- Foreword
- List of Abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction: ‘Beyond Coal and Class’: Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500–1800
- 1 Church Leaseholders on Durham Cathedral's Estate, 1540–1640: The Rise of a Rural Elite?
- 2 Durham Ox: Commercial Agriculture in North-East England, 1600–1800
- 3 Fluctuating Fortunes: The Bowes Family and Lead Mining Concessions, 1550–1720
- 4 Material Matters: Improving Berwick-upon-Tweed's Urban Environment, 1551–1603
- 5 Work before Play: The Occupational Structure of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1600–1710
- 6 Maintaining Moral Integrity: The Cultural and Economic Relationships of Quakers in North-East England, 1653–1700
- 7 Shipping on the Tyne: The Growth and Diversification of Seaborne Trade in the Eighteenth Century
- 8 From Carboniferous Capitalism to Complementary Commerce: Coastal and Overland Trade between North-East England and Scotland, 1580–1750
- 9 Provincial Purveyors of Culture: The Print Trade in Eighteenth- Century Newcastle upon Tyne
- 10 Parish, River, Region and Nation: Networks of Power in Eighteenth-Century Wearside
- Bibliography
- Index
- Volumes Already Published
10 - Parish, River, Region and Nation: Networks of Power in Eighteenth-Century Wearside
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps, Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Contributors
- Foreword
- List of Abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction: ‘Beyond Coal and Class’: Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500–1800
- 1 Church Leaseholders on Durham Cathedral's Estate, 1540–1640: The Rise of a Rural Elite?
- 2 Durham Ox: Commercial Agriculture in North-East England, 1600–1800
- 3 Fluctuating Fortunes: The Bowes Family and Lead Mining Concessions, 1550–1720
- 4 Material Matters: Improving Berwick-upon-Tweed's Urban Environment, 1551–1603
- 5 Work before Play: The Occupational Structure of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1600–1710
- 6 Maintaining Moral Integrity: The Cultural and Economic Relationships of Quakers in North-East England, 1653–1700
- 7 Shipping on the Tyne: The Growth and Diversification of Seaborne Trade in the Eighteenth Century
- 8 From Carboniferous Capitalism to Complementary Commerce: Coastal and Overland Trade between North-East England and Scotland, 1580–1750
- 9 Provincial Purveyors of Culture: The Print Trade in Eighteenth- Century Newcastle upon Tyne
- 10 Parish, River, Region and Nation: Networks of Power in Eighteenth-Century Wearside
- Bibliography
- Index
- Volumes Already Published
Summary
Sunderland was always about more than coal. Though the shipping of coal to the continent, London and the rest of the country dominated the economy of the River Wear, it was the development of other skills and the exploitation of other relationships that made that development possible. The argument here is that without the development of a distinctive local culture, above all in political organisation and exploiting contacts and patrons, both regionally and nationally, the economy at the mouth of the River Wear could not have developed so successfully between 1700 and 1800. It required a cohesive local business and landed class, participation in the political networks of County Durham and the region with regard to handling the problems of the coal trade and industrial disputes, and the passage through parliament of many enabling pieces of legislation. The integration of the place and its leaders into local and national politics was fundamental to the economic development of the river and port. The communities at the mouths of the Rivers Wear and Tyne, though growing rapidly between 1660 and 1800, did not form an incorporated town or parliamentary borough. Yet the course of the River Wear was deepened through the powers of the River Wear commissioners set up by an Act of Parliament in 1717, and many other improvements were made by the powers granted in subsequent legislation. The Wear became the other coal-exporting river along with the Tyne, vital to London's growing need for coal, and providing at least the possibility of competitive prices. Its national importance, however, could not be taken for granted, and it was the formation of personal and political links that made it possible.
The area widely known as ‘Sunderland’ was not a single place or, officially, a community, but rather, three parishes, one ancient ecclesiastical borough, one major industry (though with others competing for space and attention) and one river. There was no civic authority that encompassed all the people at the mouth of the river, nor a single form of representation to the county or the nation. The challenge is how to make sense of a town without formal civic government which was, nevertheless, able to operate effectively at all the levels of parish, river, region and nation.
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- Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500–1800 , pp. 230 - 249Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018