The Scots and the Union

Chapter 1 The Issues Facing Scotland in 1707

“…A widespread complaint, even amongst MPs -some of whom were finding it difficult to travel to Edinburgh − was that specie, or coin, was in desperately short supply. 42 This had resulted from money haemorrhaging from Scotland, to pay for grain in the late 1690s, and also for imports of the higher quality manufactured and exotic goods that were sought by more prosperous Scots but which could not be obtained at home. In short, there was a serious and unrelenting balance of payments deficit.…”

John Erskine, 6th and 11th Earl of Mar (1675–1732): Architecture, Landscape and Industry

“…Mar's efforts c.1700 to drain the pits had failed due a lack of adequate powered drainage and the coal trade at Alloa was virtually stagnant. 10 The distinguished hydraulic engineer George Sorocold (1684-1718) had successfully constructed waterworks for Derby (1692), Leeds (1694), Norwich (1698) and Nottingham (1700). In 1700 he went to London where he created the London Bridge Works ( Figure 6).…”

Reformed Religion, Regime Change, Scottish Whigs and the Struggle for the ‘Soul’ of Scotland, c.1688 – c.1788

“…For some -above all Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, commissioner for Haddingtonshire -this was the completion by Presbyterians in parliament of the Revolution project. 124 Often Scotland's Whigs, temporal and spiritual, looked outwards as well as inwards, with a profound sense of anxiety. 125 At the end of the seventeenth century and in the first years of the eighteenth century their concern, alluded to above, was the might and ambitions for universal monarchy of Louis XIV and catholic France.…”