James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape

James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, GCSI, GCMG, KCIE (11 September 1852 – 23 May 1932), known as Sir James Mackay from 1894 to 1911, was a British businessman and colonial administrator in India who became Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ("P&O").

Mackay was the second son and fourth child of James Mackay of Arbroath, a well-to-do shipmaster and his wife, Deborah Lyle. On his eighth birthday, Mackay's father took him on a flax run between Montrose and Archangel in Russia; thereafter he never "missed an opportunity to converse with captains in port."

After employment as a scrivener in Arbroath, Mackay joined a firm of rope and canvas makers where his employer recorded: "Jeemie is no bad laddie, but he's a damned sicht [sight] ower-ambitious".

Mackay's parents died when he was twelve, whereupon he inherited a substantial sum from his father. £2,000 of the bequest was invested in East India shipping, which provided an income of £100 per annum. In 1871, he secured employment with the shipbrokers and agents Gellatly, Hankey and Sewell, who were involved with the newly founded British-India Steam Navigation Company (BI).

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which shortened the journey from London to Bombay by 4,000 miles (6,400 km), created a surge in trade between Europe and India. As a result, BI's Calcutta agents, Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co., asked their London based counterpart, Gray, Dawes & Co., for a new shipping assistant to handle the increased workload. Mackay got the job despite being the third choice, arriving in India in 1874. With the development of inland transport throughout the sub-continent, export opportunities in indigo, coal, tea, jute and wrought iron abounded and saw Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co. enjoy a steady increase in business. The collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in October 1878 proved a disaster for BI's Bombay agents, Nichol and Co., but allowed Mackay to establish a new branch of Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co. in the city. At the age of 26 he became a partner in the Bombay firm and received a 10% share of the profits, increasing to 15% by 1884. As Mackay later recalled:

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