ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the kind of cultural approach that could be utilised to examine the many hundreds of shipping companies that existed in nineteenth-century Britain. It looks at the networks of trust surrounding the Robinson Line of Boats, both in the private and public domains, during the transition from sail to steam. The key private network of trust, the religious network, centres on the significance and effects of the Wesleyan Methodist faith on the family and company. The religious network that centred on the Howard Street Methodist church, and later the Methodist Memorial on Albion Road, gave the Robinson family and their company a local network with common beliefs and ideologies that helped to increase and sustain their trustworthiness and credibility. The Methodist belief in general influenced the work and lifestyle of Captain Joseph, and his sons Joseph Jr and Nicholas J., despite their defection to other religions.
