Chapter 14 - Scotland at the End of the 18th Century - G.M. Trevelyan

 

G.M Trevelyan - SHE - Chapter XIV

[alert-success] SCOTLAND AT THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY

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[alert-primary] THE GOLDEN ERA OF SCOTLAND [/alert-primary]

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         The progress of Scotland in the second half of the Eighteenth Century was not rapid but very much in the right direction. The lifting of the pressure from poverty, from bulk population, have set the Scottish spirit free for its greatest achievements. Even though Scotland lost its right to govern by itself, the union between Scotland and England freed it and made way for the Scottish Enlightenment. This had increased the trade, opportunities, and wealth. 

Agricultural Reform: 

            The movement away from the conditions of misery came mainly through a revolution in agricultural methods. Improvement began when some Scottish landlords introduced England’s ploughmen and framers to Scotland. Their success set an example which was followed by the general public. These Improvements in farming took place in a short time between 1760 and 1850. 

    They broke up from the “run-rig” tillage system that they followed. This has given them freedom to explore the new methods of agriculture. The old and the new lands were now enclosed with stone walls and hedges. Potatoes were grown in the fields and vegetables in the garden. After the Turnpike Act of 1751, the roads were improved which increased marketing opportunities of farmers and industrialists. Banks helped the lords and the farmers to finance the changes. 

Feudalism and Tribalism End: 

            The Scots at the end of the Eighteenth Century were free men. Feudalism ended in 1748 by an Act which abolished the “heritable jurisdictions”. In the lowlands and the Highlands, the barons had their own private courts to imprison the people they wish, which was abolished in 1745. These acts have greatly freed the land of Scotland. 

Highland Emigration: 

            In the highland, much change came after the “heritable jurisdictions”. For the first time in Scotland’s history, the Highlands became one with the rest of Scotland in terms of law, land ownership, education, and religion. Thousands of Scots, mostly from the Lowlands, rose to positions of power in government, the army and navy, business, and trade. 

        General Wade built the first roads through the Highlands about a hundred years before 1745. These roads brought Lowland culture into the hills and set the stage for the big change. People started living in crofting communities. Justice and government were no longer personal or tribal, but royal and national. 

Scotland’s Golden Age: 

        By the year1800, great changes had taken place in Scotland. Glascow had 80,000 inhabitants. The land around them was filled with both wealthy suburbs and new slum tenements. American and West Indian trade, mostly in tobacco and raw cotton, had turned Glasgow and all of Clyde side into a commercial and industrial district as modern as any in England by 1800. Cotton Millas were rising in villages of Lanark, Renfrew and Ayr. The opening of Scottish and American trade by the Union had established commerce routes which increased the trade. These social changes brought the Golden Age of Scotland. 

The impact of Religion 

        At the beginning of the 1800s, the Evangelical revival, which was led by people like Dr. Chalmers, gave Scottish religion new life. But Chalmers' religion was no longer a narrow one that hurt people. The "Moderates" had done the necessary changes. The fortunes and attitudes of the Episcopalian minority changed a lot in the 18th century. During the Evangelical Revival in the late 1800s, the Churches grew stronger. One important result was that the moderate part of the Presbyterian Church took control of the main church. This gave the Enlightenment in the cities a lot of support. 

        Patronage was the main reason why Presbyterian groups left the Established Church, which was bound by this law made by the government. The rise of the moderate party in the Church was helped by the Restoration of patronage. 

Conclusion 

        During the 1800s, the number of people living in Scotland went from about a million to 1,652,000. The rise in population, which had never happened before in any century of Scottish history, was caused by a rapid drop in the death rate, just like the rise in the number of English people at the same time. It was the result of better living conditions and better medicine, which the Scots were already able to teach the English about during the reign of George III.

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