medieval-atlas/economic-development/271

Transcription

Scottish trade in the seventeenth century The figures represented on the map show the percentage of imports, as measured by custom duties, shipped from the main foreign ports by Edinburgh's 300-strong merchant elite. These merchants paid £8,593 or 30.5% ofall Leith customs in the period. The ports or areas shown accounted for over 91 % ofcustoms paid on imports. As well as the standard range ofluxury manufactures and raw materials from London, the Netherlands and elsewhere, many of the ships from the Baltic during the harvest failures in Scotland of the mid-1620s carried grain. The figures do not, however, include imports of French wine, chiefly from Bordeaux, the most lucrative source of revenue and customed separately. Levels of customs can also be compared with numbers of ships, as given in the table below. The same ports accounted for91 % of ships entering Leith but there are significant discrepancies between the two sets offigures, caused by the different rates ofduty on various imported commodities: only a modest number of ships, for !!!~~~mmimim29.7% Vlissingen Ireland SPAIN Rouen Newhaven Gothenburg Elsinore Percentage of ships sailing from I::::l foreign ports to Leith 1621 to 1623 mm Percentage of ships sailing to foreign imil ports from Leith 1626 to 1628 example, arrived from London but they accounted for over 20% of all custom paid because most carried high-duty cloth. There are differences, too, in the patterns of ships plying to and from Leith. The twin bar charts are based on the 331 ships which left Leith 1621 to 3 carrying cargoes for this group of merchants and the 118 which arrived 1626 to 8. The staple port of Veere, for example, held a greater share of exports from Leith than of imports s.ent there, Which increasingly came from other Dutch ports. Counting all ships, 107 arrived from Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 1621 to 3 and 109 from Veere. But on ships carrying cargoes for Edinburgh's elite merchants, who had begun to specialize in certain commodities, 65 came from Rotterdam or Amsterdam and 59 from Veere, even if those from the staple port did pay more duty. .K6nigsberg GERMANY Netherlands 31.5% Baltic & NW. Germany 22% England 21.7% France 17.9% Sweden 2.4% Norway 1.3% .:-:.: ::::.:?:?~~.~ ~.\j~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ Denmark 1% ....... Other 1.6% ......... ........... Spain 0.6% Imports into Leith 1621 to 1623 Customs paid on imports (excluding wine) 1621 to 1623 JB 271