Abstract
The economic history of early-modern Scotland has not received as much attention in recent years as its social history. The standard works on the Scottish economy remain those of Lythe (1963) for the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, and Smout (1963) for the later seventeenth century. There is a need for a reassessment of the broad pattern of Scotland’s economic development in the two centuries before the start of the Industrial Revolution. There is also plenty of scope for more detailed work, particularly research focusing on periods that fall between those covered by the two seminal works mentioned above, the middle decades of the seventeenth century and the years following the Union of 1707. Nevertheless, in the last two decades there have been important advances in our knowledge of many aspects of Scodand’s economic development, notably agriculture and the trends of prices and wages. We also have a far clearer picture of urban development, especially the economic activities of mercantile élites, and urban occupational structures. Moreover, there has been important work on specific industries such as coal, salt production and textiles.
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Further Reading
For general background see S.G.E. Lythe The Economy of Scotland in its European Setting 1550–1625 (Edinburgh, 1963) and
T.C. Smout Scottish Trade on the Eve of Union, 1660–1707 (Edinburgh, 1963),
S.G.E. Lythe and J. Butt An Economic History of Scotland 1100–1939 (Glasgow, 1975).
See also T.M. Devine and S.G.E. Lythe ‘The Economy of Scodand under James VI’, Scottish Historical Review, 50 (1971), 91–106.
Patterns of latemedieval trade are discussed by I. Guy ‘The Scottish Export Trade 1460–1599’, in T.C. Smout (ed.) Scotland and Europe 1200–1850 (Edinburgh, 1986), 62–81.
The proposals for Union after 1603 are discussed in B. Galloway The Union of England and Scotland 1603–8 (Edinburgh, 1986) For Government intervention in the economy in the late sixteenth century see T Goodare ‘Parliament and Society in Scodand 1560–1603’, unpublished PhD thesis, Edinburgh, 1989.
For urban-rural contrasts see R.A. Dodgshon Land and Society in Early Scotland (Oxford, 1981).
For Charles I’s fishery scheme see A. Macinnes Charles I and the Making of the Covenanting Movement (Edinburgh, 1991).
The rise of Edinburgh’s trade in the sixteenth century is discussed in M. Lynch (ed.) The Early-Modern Scottish Town (London, 1987).
For the capital’s merchant élite in the early seventeenth century see J.J. Brown ‘The Social, Political and Economic Influences of the Edinburgh Merchant elite 1600–38’, unpublished PhD thesis, Edinburgh, 1985.
For the effects of the Revolution on the Scottish economy see D. Stevenson ‘The Effects of Revolution and Conquest on Scotland’, in R. Mitchison and P. Roebuck (eds) Economy and Society in Scotland and Ireland 1500–1939 (Edinburgh, 1988), 48–58,
and T.M. Devine ‘The Cromwellian Union and the Scottish Burghs: the Case of Aberdeen and Glasgow 1652–60’, in J. Butt and J.T. Ward (eds) Scottish Themes (Edinburgh, 1976), 1–16.
For a reassessment of Glasgow mercantile activity in the late seventeenth century see T.M. Devine and G. Jackson (eds) Glasgow Vol.1 Beginnings to 1830 (Manchester, 1995).
For late seventeenth-century agricultural improvement see I.D. Whyte Agriculture and Society in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1979).
The Union continues to generate debate. For a recent set of essays see J. Robertson (ed.) A Union for Empire (Cambridge, 1995).
The political interpretation of the Union is put forcefully in W. Ferguson Scotland’s Relations with England: a Survey to 1707 (Edinburgh, 1977) and
P.W.J. Riley The Union of Scotland and England (Manchester, 1978).
For the economic case see Smout (1963), op. cit., and C.A. Whatley ‘Bought and Sold for English Gold?’ (Edinburgh, 1994).
The burghs’ view of the Union is discussed by T.C. Smout ‘The Burgh of Montrose and the Union of 1707: a Document’, Scottish Historical Review, 66 (1987), 183–4.
For post-Union economic growth see T.M. Devine and G.Jackson (1995), op. cit.;
T.M. Devine ‘The Union of 1707 and Scottish Development’, Scottish Economic and Social History, 5 (1985), 23–40;
C.A. Whatley ‘New Light on Nef s Numbers: Coal Mining and the First Phase of Scottish Industrialisation c1700–1830’, in A.J.G. Cummings and T.M. Devine (eds) Industry, Business and Society in Scotland Since 1700 (Edinburgh, 1994), 2–23;
T.M. Devine The Tobacco Lords (Edinburgh, 1975);
and A.J. Durie The Scottish Linen Industry in the Eighteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1979).
For increases in crop yields see I.D. Whyte ‘Crop Yields on the Mains of Yester. 1698–1753’, Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 22 (1993), 23–30.
On a broader scale see R.H. Campbell Scotland Since 1707: the Rise of an Industrial Society (Edinburgh, 1985) and
T.C. Smout ‘Where had the Scottish Economy got to by the Third Quarter of the Eighteenth century?’, in I. Hont and M. Ignatieff (eds) Wealth and Virtue (Cambridge, 1983), 45–72.
The case study of Sir Archibald Grant is by A.J.G. Cummings ‘The Business Affairs of an Eighteenth Century Lowland Laird: Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk 1696–1778’, in T.M. Devine (ed.) Scottish Elites (Edinburgh, 1994), 43–61.
For the infiltration of Scots into England and the empire see L. Colley Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (London, 1992).
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© 1997 Ian D. Whyte
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Whyte, I.D. (1997). Economic Decline and Growth. In: Scotland’s Society and Economy in Transition, c.1500–c.1760. Social History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25307-4_8
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