A Very Scottish Mercantile Grand Tour? The Significance of Diversity in Early Nineteenth-Century Continental Travel

A case study of a land-based journey around the Baltic coast in 1817 by two young middle-class merchants from Fisherrow (Musselburgh) and Shetland primarily illustrates the diversity of Grand Tours by the early nineteenth century. It also argues that exploring the dynamics of diversity can further understanding of the role of agency in transition and change, beyond class and status alone. On the one hand, the men’s journey extended their commercial education, using family trading networks to build functional skills and knowledge (‘cultural’ capital), rather than accumulating social status (‘symbolic’ capital) as had been the case for many aristocratic Grand Tourists. On the other, they instigated and planned the journey themselves, travelling without supervision, individualising their journey and making it more imaginative, characteristics encapsulated in a specific understanding of the German term Bildungsreise. Finally, their socio-economic circumstances and their expectations, as well as those of their parents and mentors, differed considerably, so they were forced to negotiate the ratio of business to pleasure and personal development, each man to a differing degree. The resulting compromise not only made their journey different to earlier, aristocratic Grand Tours, but made the two men’s experiences themselves unique. Their case demonstrates how focusing on diversity, and exploring the interplay of the processes, forces and contexts involved, can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of nineteenth-century transformations in continental travel.