The Rise of James Watt

This chapter offers a re-appraisal of the life of James Watt (1736–1819) in Greenock and Glasgow in the formative period of his career. In the mid-eighteenth century, Greenock developed into a major seaport connecting Scotland to the Americas via the river Clyde. Upriver, Glasgow received imports of North American tobacco and Caribbean sugar. Travelling to Glasgow in 1754, Watt worked in a burgh on the cusp of industrialisation fuelled by commerce and enabled by the application of enlightened ideas. His embryonic career was ignited by his appointment as mathematical instrument maker to the University of Glasgow before leaving for Birmingham in 1774. This chapter uncovers the Watt family’s connections with transatlantic commerce and chattel slavery concluding the profits were instrumental in Watt’s rise. Through an Atlantic world lens, this chapter re-assesses Watt’s formative years which laid the foundations for one of the greatest careers of the industrial revolution.