medieval-atlas/economic-development/266

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Scottish trade in the seventeenth century By the 1590s; the components making up the Scottish export trade were little different from a century earlier but their relative importance had altered markedly, as the statistics for customs receipts for 1595-9 clearly show. Wool, once the mainstay and most lucrative part of the trade, had shrunk to less than 16 per cent of customs revenue, whereas cloth, a modest component in the 1460s and even in the 1530s, now accounted for a third and the duty on it was sharply increased in the revision ofcustoms dues made in 1597. The recovery of the fisheries, which had begun in the 1470s, continued until the 1650s or 1660s with duty on salmon, the most lucrative sector, also increased in 1597. The export of hides, skins and wool fells to their traditional markets in the Baltic and Netherlands, continued at healthy levels, at least until the 1640s. Salt and coal, although they had still a relatively low duty, begi n to figure prominently in the returns, but would by the 1620s reach far greater heights. The regular Exchequer Rolls series, which permits a systematic analysis of Scotland's exports from the 1370s, ends in 1599. There are only a few port books or local shipping lists for the early seventeenth century, and a Report drawn up by the Cromwellian administration in 1656 until more systematic evidence for both exports and imports becomes available in the 1680s. There is, however, a remarkable survey drawn up in 1614, which largely confirms the patterns of the customs receipts of the I 590s. Entitled 'The wirris and commodities that are shipped and transported further of this kingdom yearly by sea', it estimated the total annual value of all goods shipped out ofScotland between 1611 and 1614 as £736,986 Scots. By 1700, hides and skins which accounted for a quarter of the 1590s customs revenue and a third of the 1614 survey, would have Customs receipts 1595 to 1599 Wool 15.9% Fells 18.1% Cloth 33.7% Salt2.2% Herring 5.6% Cod 0.9% Salmon 11.2% Coal 5.2% Skins 2.5% Hides 4.7% The survey of 1611-14 is useful in gi ving, for the first time, the real values ofexports as distinct from customs revenue in which certain commodities which attracted a high duty (such as wool and salmon) are given greater weighting than those with low duty (such a as coal, salt and hides). It fell into four parts: most valuable were the commodities that yield yearly, ranging from wheat, barley and malt to wool, hides, skins and coal. Next most valuable were manufactures, and the discrepancy between their value given here shrunk drastically; fish, especially herring, worth a fifth of visible exports in 1614, would expand until the 1680s but then contract sharply. Exports ofcoal, worth 3% by the reckoning of 1614, when about 16,000 tons were produced a year, doubled by the 1680s but then fell away; the fall of the overseas markets for salt, worth appreciably more than coal in 1614, was earlier, in the 1650s and 1660s, and more spectacular. Grain, brought by sea from the north and north-east to the Forth in increasing quantities, began to be exported from 1610 onwards but its overseas markets began to dry up from the 1690s. The two major growth sectors ofthe export trade in the seventeenth century were in linen and cattle, but both, unlike traditional Scottish exports, were focused on a si~gle market -in England, and much linen followed cattle overland on the drove roads rather than by sea. Along with the shift in the balance of commodities exported went a drastic change in the directions taken by foreign trade. The 1620s and 1630s saw record levels of traditional exports like hides and skins, mostly still sent ·to traditional markets such as the Netherlands and the Baltic. But already trade was spreading outwards, from the Dutch staple port of Veere: grain and coal were largely sent to Rotterdam and the widening range of imports came from a series of Dutch ports, including Amsterdam. Increasing numbers ofships came laden with timber and iron, from Norway and Sweden. The beginnings of a new trade with Spain and America, mostly out of west-coast ports, can be seen after 1660. The means of tracing these changes are diverse and a single indicator -whether numbers ofships or custom paid on commodities -may be misleading if used in isolation; the size of ships varied greatly, as did the amount of duty levied on different commodities. Contemporary survey of exports 1611 to 1614 (Total value £736,986) :;:.:;: Produce of the land 50.9% (£375,085) :::: Manufactures 23.0% (£169,097) Fish 20.8% (£153,354) Re-exports 5.3% (£39,047) and in the customs returns of the 1590s is that, as the 1614 survey noted, much linen cloth and yam was 'daily' carried overland into England. Although duty on salmon had been sharply increased in 1597, exports of herring brought in twice as much; but sales of deep sea fish were insignificant. Re-exports were as yet largely made up of wax from the Baltic and some timber from Norway; dealing in English cloth and wool, which would figure controversially in Anglo-Scots relations by 1700, was still modest. 266

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