Trade and Shipping: Lord Inchcape, 1852-1932

The creation of Inchcape dates back to the early expansion of commerce with India by a group of Scottish merchants. In 1847 a meeting took place in Calcutta between William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, two merchants from Campbeltown, which led to the formation of their general merchanting partnership, Mackinnon Mackenzie & Company. Realizing the benefits of combining trading with ocean transport, especially with the gold rush to Australia in 1851, the business expanded and diversified. The partners obtained further contracts to support a fleet of coastal steamers carrying mails around the Indian coast with extensions to the Persian Gulf and Singapore. Originally employing small private firms in local ports of call as agents, they eventually replaced them with firms within the Mackinnon complex. James Lyle Mackay, named Lord Inchcape in 1911 left Scotland & worked in the customs department of Gellatly, Hankey and Sewell. Then joined Mackinnon Mackenzie & Company's Calcutta office in 1874, where he would become the heir to the Mackinnon businesses after the death of Mackinnon in 1893.These all came under the control of the senior partners and ultimately under Lord Inchcape himself. To separate the trading businesses from the shipping line, the Macneill & Barry partnership was developed to take over the extensive tea and merchanting operations that Lord Inchcape had acquired in 1915.