ABSTRACT
In its commercial variety, Darlington differed both from other Tees towns and much of the rest of the North-east region.5 Despite its own lack of natural resources, it held the key to opening up mineral deposits in the Tees valley,
thanks to a financial structure which was by 1800 relatively sophisticated.6 Central to this were banks that had developed as sidelines of two Quaker textile businesses, the Pease bank from worsteds, and Backhouses' from linens.7 Much of the finance which transformed the region by means of the Stockton and Darlington railway, though, came from outside, from investors who were part of an extended Quaker kinship network. It is these relationships which the chapter will investigate.
