SCOTLAND OVER 300 YEARS
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| Author | S. B. Saul1 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1965.tb00690.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
SCOTLAND
OVER
300
YEARS
S.
B.
SAUL
IT
is
an
alarming experience for someone recently arrived from south
of the border to take upon himself the task
of
reviewing two books on
Scottish economic history by the leading members of the younger
generation of economic historians of the country.' Ignorance of
Scottish economic history as much as of Scotland itself is
a
well-
known disease of the English. This can be attributed to
a
mixture of
idleness and arrogance, but
all
the same this ignorance is not altogether
our fault. Scottish economic history got a roaring start with Hamilton's
Industrial Revolution in Scotland,
published in 1932, but then it came
to
a
standstill. Hamilton subsequently made few advances in either
knowledge or technique, and a second major advance in modem
Scottish economic history had to wait until Malcolm Gray's
Highland
Economy
of 1957, and was followed soon after by Professor Lythe's
admirable study of the economy between
1550
and
1625.
Nor is it only
the academics who are to blame. The industrial and commercial com-
munity have served their country ill in this respect too. With the
exception of Campbell's
Carron Company,
not
a
single company
history of any real academic worth has been published.
Of course, a great deal more has been done through articles and
by other means, but one is hard pressed to think of many that have
caught the imagination or made bold generalised approaches. Pro-
fessor Campbell's textbook, therefore, brought him face to face with
an unusually complicated set of problems. It is inevitably more difficult
to write
a
general survey than
a
specialised monograph.
On
the one
hand the writer must lay the foundations of knowledge through
a
judicious blend
of
fact and analysis in detail; on the other hand he has
to arouse interest, to take the broad sweep, to pose the vital questions
still to be answered. The information readily available to Campbell on
Scotland since
1707
is
so
meagre-the potential, of course, is huge-
that collection and presentation was a major task. But in addition to
this he had to try to pull Scottish economic history out of the doldrums
to which most of us. not immediately bound
up
with it. had consigned
it. He had to bring it alive, to stimulate interest. to make people eager
to know more. Formidable tasks indeed, and if he has succeeded far
more with the first than with the second, that alone is a considerable
achievement.
'T.
C.
Smout,
Scotfish
Trade
on
the
Eve
of
Union
1660-1707,
Oliver
&
Boyd,
1963,
SOs.,
and
R.
H.
Campbell,
Scotland
since
1707,
Basil Blackwell.
1965,
35s.
210
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