URBANIZATION IN EARLY-MODERN SCOTLAND: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

Abstract

Introduction Although a good deal has been written about Scottish burghs, particularly their institutional development, comparatively little attention has been given to Scottish TOWNS in the pre-industrial period. Recently, however, there has been an upsurge of research on the economic and social structure of towns in late-mediaeval and earlymodern Scotland.1 Nevertheless, the focus of this work has been on individual towns rather than the Scottish urban system as a whole.2 Two recent surveys omit any consideration of urbanization at all3 and even Lynch's recent volume on the early-modern Scottish town has little to say about Scottish urban development in its wider perspective.4 The study ofurbanization has been pursued more vigorously by urban historians in otherEuropean countries but so far this theme has received little systematic consideration in a Scottish context. The purpose of this article is to bring into focus this important, yet neglected, topic by attempting a preliminary analysis of the scale and nature of urban development in early-modem Scotland, principally during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to assess some of the implications ofurbanization for Scotland's society and economy.