The roads of Scotland: From statute labour to tolls the first phase, 1700 to 1775

Abstract

Abstract Up to the beginning of the eighteenth century there was little overland movement of people or goods, and it was generally sufficient that the highway should be kept passable for foot traffic and light farm vehicles. The compulsory labour service provided by an Act of 1669 and a small land tax were as much as could be expected from the community. However, increased marketing of agricultural produce and the movement of coal and lime were beginning to subject the unimproved roads to heavy wheeled traffic, for which properly built roads were seen to be necessary. Following the initiative of a few landowners, who used their own estate labour and money, and with the example of the military road‐building programme, certain counties developed a more effective use of their resources by concentrating on key routes and converting labour services to money. These measures were later to prove insufficient to keep pace with the damage done by traffic, especially where it was increasingly being confined between ...