Sir Dudley North ‘In Loyal Principles Exceeding’: A Political Merchant in the First Age of Party

Abstract

This paper is one of the first academic studies of Sir Dudley North as a partisan Tory, both in his politics and his political economy. Previous examinations of North have either denied his political intentions or simply portrayed him as pawn of the Crown, and subsequently viewed him as liberal political economist whose ideas were overlooked due to his controversial political career. This study places him firmly at the heart of the developing Tory party. It provides a crucial understanding of what it meant to a Tory political merchant as the loyalist party was forming and demonstrates how such a Tory merchant would act in regards to both politics and the economy. This examination of North sheds further light on the issue of a Tory political economy addressed by Steve Pincus in 1688: The First Modern Revolution.