The Consolidation and Reconfiguration of ‘British’ Networks of Science, 1800–1970

Abstract

Prior to the 1850s scientific networks in the British Empire functioned through a patchwork of institutions and personal contacts that developed out of the patronage politics of Britain’s old regime. John Gascoigne’s chapter, ‘Science and the British Empire from its Beginnings to 1850’, suggests that prior to the middle of the nineteenth century the old regime ‘had been tardy in assuming a direct partnership with science’. What government funded science existed — most often related to agriculture, botany, mapping, and exploration — functioned through a framework of patronage dominated largely by Sir Joseph Banks.1 The functioning of most scientific networks across the British Empire often relied upon private monies, long-distance correspondence, and amateur interests. A culture of ‘scientific colonialism’ and agrarian and Christian notions of ‘improvement’ provided the justification and the reason for independent exploration and expansion, such as the Pacific endeavors of the London Missionary Society or Bank’s collection voyages to the southern hemisphere.2 Only as the polity of the British Empire expanded in the early to mid nineteenth century, and new state functions arose in response to changing notions of governance and a growing economy, did these scientific networks become increasingly formalized within permanent institutions related to the British state, including the Colonial Office and the India Office.