In the eighteenth century, Glasgow and its outports became the dominant force in the highly lucrative tobacco commerce from the Americas to Europe.

This prize-winning book explains why such remarkable success came about against fierce international competition, provides a detailed assessment of the merchant community which made it possible and analyses the close relationship between the tobacco business and the Scottish pathway to a new industrial society. The Tobacco Lords also fully demonstrates the decisive impact of these Scottish traders on the plantation economy and society of colonial North America in general and Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina in particular.

First published in 1975 this pioneering book was acclaimed by reviewers and is still considered the seminal work on the subject.