Guiana's sugar & slave merchants' influence on the wider slave economy, 1790-1840.

From slavery and apprenticeships, to indentured labour and colonialism, one British enterprise stands out for its
longevity, it's reach and its mercantile and political influence, that of the Demerara sugar and slave traders, who became
known as Sandbach Tinné & Co. Though largely overlooked in historical circles, this study explores how these primarily
Scottish, West India plantation, slave and sugar merchants, based in Glasgow and Liverpool (with extensive plantations
in Guiana and Grenada), developed one of the most influential commercial enterprises of the late 18th, 19th and 20th
centuries. As well as financing many of Britain's slave traders, their massive accumulation of wealth, endowed some of
the most prestigious academic institutions, pioneered technological inventions to industrialise sugar cultivation, financed
churches, established banks, insurance companies, shipping lines, postal distribution, news networks, distilleries and the
nascent steam powered railways of the empire, thus fuelling the industrial revolution. Their business model became the
foundation of the modern banking system, the profits from which, their descendants still enjoy the privilege of today. The
question arises therefore, Why does nobody know about them? This study uses genealogy as a new methodological
historiographic tool, which will allow for a unique and 'collective biography' of this merchant family's business and social
interests to emerge, which might otherwise be invisible.