The Scots in England

This chapter is unashamedly pro Scots. It illustrates that the economic development of England was in part a Scottish phenomenon. Much has been written about the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Today it frequently is viewed as an English phenomenon; indeed, most writers limit their discussion to England. Even general works with ‘British’ in their title contain few references to Scotland. The Scots contribution to English social and economic history began long before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Even before the Union of Parliaments in 1707, London had a sizeable Scottish community of merchants, bankers, bakers, doctors, and writers. The Scots have always been wanderlusts, migrating to all parts of the world. Hence it is not surprising to learn that large numbers of them migrated south to England. Migration patterns were firmly established by the middle of the eighteenth century.