Conclusion

Summary

The initial aim of this work was to survey the Catholic community's economic involvement in the British economy in the long eighteenth century. When this project started in 2011, Gabriel Glickman had just re-opened the debate on Catholic integration, further challenging the widely held perception of a marginalised community. As this research progressed, the focus shifted to the mercantile community where a much wider picture started to show. Further inspired by the works of Trivellato, Haggerty, and Zahedieh, this work aimed to contribute to a much broader debate on religion, trade, and national identities, allowing for a deeper understanding of British Catholics in the early commercial age. One of the initial goals of the project was to dispel the myth of Catholic marginalisation and of the lack of entrepreneurial skills among the Catholic community, in turn refuting Max Weber's theory of how Catholicism clashed with capitalism. Although much debated, Weberian stereotypes long outlived his narrative, and there came a need to further discuss his interpretation. However, as this research progressed, the material also offered an opportunity to understand how the Catholic community was offered inclusion by the new commercial economy which eventually secured their widespread social integration. Catholic merchants challenged the prevailing models of segregation and decline, and like Hancock's Citizens of the World, they were successful in winning commercial success and social acceptance. Furthermore, Colley's work invited a reflection on the place of Catholics in the nation. Perhaps, like Weber’s, even Colley's work could now be deemed outdated; undoubtedly, though, her work still invites historians to consider the nature of British national consciousness. The case of the Aylwards suggests that the contribution of Catholics to the emerging fiscal-military state ultimately earned them a place in the empire – and in the nation.

This book offers a link between two narratives: one around Catholicism in the British Isles, and the other centred on merchant communities in Atlantic–Mediterranean trade. It enriches the most recent findings on the involvement of Catholics in the economy and as entrepreneurs. Recent historiography has moved away from the theory of Catholicism in the British Isles as being a marginalised faith. Glickman has introduced the Catholic gentry as a group that reinvented itself.