Scottish Trade Research Articles

THE SCOTS IN THE RUTHENIAN VOIVODESHIP: AN ANALYSIS OF BRITISH HISTORIOGRAPHY

This article analyzes British historiography concerned with the emigration of the Scots into the Ruthenian Voivodeship territory during the 14–17th centuries as one of the paths of their migration into the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. British and Polish researchers are the most thorough in investigating these processes. However, it would be fitting to examine them separately, as, for a long time, the research in both countries was conducted mostly independently. It has been determined that several stages in the development of British historiography can be outlined. Historians in the United Kingdom first turned their attention to the massive nature of Scottish emigration as early as the late 19th century. Thus, the first stage is confined to 1889–1939 (from the publication year of the first scientific paper on the given subject, and until the beginning of World War II). Work conducted during this period mainly focused on the description of the Scottish and Polish sources. The second stage begins after the end of World War II – when part of the Polish scholars emigrated to the United Kingdom and continued their research there — and ends in the late 1990s. This period is characterized by the publication of monographs dedicated to Scottish trade and emigration. It has been established that the lands of the Ruthenian Voivodeship did not constitute a separate subject for research among British scholars until the 21st century. Therefore, a third stage is singled out from the beginning of the 2000s to the present time. During this period, papers begin to point to the lack of scientific works dedicated to the Scottish migration into the Ruthenian Voivodeship among both British and Polish researchers. It is summarized that British historiography is quite fragmentary when it comes to Scots migration into the Ruthenian Voivodeship and that this subject is dealt with only within the context of the greater emigration into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The amount of writings on this subject has grown over the last two decades. Nevertheless, it still requires further research.

TRADE-OFFS: UNDERSTANDING FUTURE TRADE OPTIONS FOR SCOTLAND

AbstractTrade issues lie at the heart of the two biggest constitutional challenges the UK has faced in decades: Brexit and Scottish independence. Brexit has demonstrated the economic importance of borders and led to renewed calls for Scottish independence. While there are a range of possible trading arrangements an independent Scotland could pursue, all of them involve economically significant change. In this paper, we describe Scottish trade patterns and review the range of options that a newly independent Scotland might have for its trading arrangements. We then model the relative economic importance of these different potential trading arrangements.

Convoy of Scottish Trade by the English Royal Navy on the Eve of the Union of 1707

AbstractThe English Royal Navy's relationship with Scotland during the years preceding the Union of 1707 is usually cast as problematic in scholarly discussion, with the navy viewed as the enforcer of an embargo on Scottish trade with France. This study examines the Scottish use of Royal Naval convoy in the first years of the War of Spanish Succession through to 1707, focusing on the North Sea region. It adds nuance to security issues surrounding the parliamentary union by arguing that convoys to Scotland were more frequent than generally acknowledged, an improvement on the situation in the 1690s, and that when combined with the small Scottish navy, provided coverage that largely met Scottish needs. As a result, in a period of otherwise fierce debate, naval protection for Scotland was relatively uncontroversial. Convoy was therefore an unusual, if belated, success for regal union, and that success meant that Scots were more deeply enmeshed in the English system of maritime security than has been often been credited.

Covid-19 - Call Centre Workers and Health-Safety, Union Challenges and Organisation

Covid-19 - Call Centre Workers and Health-Safety, Union Challenges and Organisation

‘Scottish Exceptionalism?’ Trade Unions and the Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1976–1994

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, historians have begun to explore the role played by the various Anti-Apartheid Movements (AAM) that developed globally in the latter half of the 20th century, although much more work remains to be done. While scholars have begun to explore the history of anti-apartheid opposition in Britain, there has not yet been any systematic study of this within a Scottish context. Such an omission overlooks the fact that activists in Scotland took the decision in 1976 to form the Scottish Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (SAAM), thereby charting their own path within the global struggle to end apartheid. In addressing the question of ‘Scottish exceptionalism’, this article argues for the development of a distinctly Scottish scholarship pertaining to the history of anti-apartheid activism in Britain. It adopts a case-study approach, examining trade union involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle and asking whether this was uniform across Britain. Through a comparative analysis of the responses of both the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), it is argued that, in terms of its support for the liberation movements within South Africa and the AAM in Britain and Scotland, the STUC was, for much of the second half of the 20th century, significantly more forthcoming than its southern counterpart in the cause of anti-apartheid.

The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, II: Enlightenment and Expansion, 1707-1800. Ed. by STEPHEN W. BROWN and WARREN MCDOUGALL

The multipart archipelagic histories of the book that are now advancing steadily towards completion, for the Irish book, for the book in Scotland, and for the book in Britain, accompanied by the Welsh volume A Nation and its Books (1998), have both gained and lost by a certain independence of vision, compilation, and publication. It was never going to be possible to encompass the whole within Britain, quite apart from the political realities of different periods, and for this reason this was designed so as to be allusive where necessary, offering a kind of balance but eventually relying on the more regionally focused series. This was a point made explicitly in some of the Britain volumes. In Volume v (1695–1830), the equivalent for Scotland Volume ii, the editors made space for fifteen or so pages on the Scottish trade, by Iain Bevan and Warren McDougall — the latter one of the editors of the volume under review — and ‘Scotland’ takes up well over a column in the index. But this was necessarily brief, in earnest of what was to come. Now the Scottish Enlightenment, the years leading up to it, and the years that followed, have at last received proper treatment. It has been worth the wait.

Scottish Trade with German Ports, 1700–1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level. By Philipp Robinson Rössner. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008. Pp. 236, €43.00.

Scottish Trade with German Ports, 1700–1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level. By Philipp Robinson Rössner. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008. Pp. 236, €43.00.

Scottish Trade with German Ports 1700-1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level

Scottish Trade with German Ports 1700-1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level

Scottish Labour, Race, and Southern African Empire c.1880–1922: A Reply to Kenefick

SummaryIn his article in the current edition of International Review of Social History, the Scottish historian, Billy Kenefick, argues against my thesis that the labour force of the United Kingdom and the settler colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be understood as having constituted a linked “imperial working class” in which an ideology of racialized white labour protectionism predominated. Kenefick believes that in South Africa British socialists challenged white labourism, and that Scottish immigrants played a very prominent role in this anti-racist project. My reply traces the relationship between Scottish national identity, imperialism, and the labour movement. It then examines the evidence on the racial politics of Scottish trade unionists in South Africa and argues that, with a very few individual exceptions, they did buy into the ideas of white labourism. Finally, the article considers Scottish labour attitudes to race in the home country, and demonstrates that there was strong sympathy for the racial labour politics of the settler colonies.

The Union of 1707: New Dimensions

This book, a supplement to volume lxxxvii of the Scottish Historical Review, consists of seven papers presented at a conference held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh in May 2007. It contributes to a crowded field, which experienced what the editors describe as a ‘bumper period’ (p. v) around the tercentenary of the Anglo-Scottish union. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the title is misleading. Indeed, the only particularly ‘new’ dimension here is Andrew Mackillop's account of the consequences of the union for Scottish trade with Asia, which itself builds upon arguments Mackillop has published elsewhere (‘Accessing empire: Scotland, Europe, Britain, and the Asia trade, 1695–c.1750’, Itinerario, 29:3 [2005], 7–30). Nevertheless, he and the other contributors offer valuable insights into the causes and immediate results of the union, assessing the significance of economic arguments, religious and geopolitical concerns, parliamentary management and political thought. Christopher Whatley's introductory essay is a useful survey of the ‘issues facing Scotland in 1707’. As in his monograph, The Scots and the Union (2006; rev. ante, cxxiv [2009], 431–4), Whatley stresses the severity of Scotland's economic difficulties in the early eighteenth century, following the famine of the late 1690s and the failure of the Scottish colony at Darien. These economic realities encouraged Scots to support parliamentary union with England, but a similarly important consideration for many was the need to prevent a Jacobite restoration and the renewal of the religious and political conflicts experienced during the reigns of Charles II and James VII. Derek Patrick's chapter concurs in emphasising this aspect of presbyterian ‘memory’. Contrasting their views with those of nationalist and Namierite historians, Whatley and Patrick argue that the supporters of union were more often principled and pragmatic than mercenary and venal.

Book Review: Scottish Trade with German Ports 1700–1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level

Book Review: Scottish Trade with German Ports 1700–1770: A Sketch of the North Sea Trades and the Atlantic Economy on Ground Level

Scottish trade in the wake of the Union, 1700-1760: the rise of a warehouse economy - By Philipp Robinson Rössner

Scottish trade in the wake of the Union, 1700-1760: the rise of a warehouse economy - By Philipp Robinson Rössner

Book Review: Scottish Trade in the Wake of Union (1700–1760): The Rise of a Warehouse Economy

Book Review: Scottish Trade in the Wake of Union (1700–1760): The Rise of a Warehouse Economy

'No Safe or Reliable Substitute': The Hostility of British Unions to State Regulation of Wages, 1920–1935

In contrast to the UK, Australia is a country with an almost untroubled acceptance by working people of the state's intervention into wage fixation and dispute settlement. This is clearly not so in the UK, where there has been frequent pronouncement of the independence and prerogative of trade unions in collective bargaining on behalf of their members. The title of this article and, one might argue, the catch-cry of trade unionism in the UK for most of the twentieth century, was articulated by the Scottish Trades Union Congress, in 1930, which said: 'when it is a matter of safeguarding the economic or social standards of the workers, the state is no safe or suitable substitute for the trade unions.' In light of this vehemence, some consideration must be made of the economic conditions which prompted the TUC's survey in the following year, as a means of developing a legislative programme of state fixation of wages in the UK.

Making equalities work? Scottish trade unions’ approaches to equal opportunities

PurposeThis paper seeks to analyse trade unions’ approaches to equal opportunities in Scotland, focusing on issues of: recruitment of membership from different groups; promoting diversity in post‐holding; and the role of “key equalities issues” in collective bargaining.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on in‐depth interviews with equalities officers of 26 unions in Scotland. The analysis takes as its starting point the three models of equality policies identified by Rees: the “sameness”, “difference” and “transformation” models.FindingsThe paper argues that, although some equalities officers demonstrated a thorough understanding of the issues, union approaches to equalities in practice reflect the “sameness”, and to some extent “difference”, models: attacking direct discrimination and insisting that members should be treated the same, establishing some limited mechanisms to reflect on the different needs of groups, but being less able to tackle the underlying structural causes of inequality. It is suggested that unions need to develop a more sophisticated analysis of equal opportunities which fully reflects the differences between the experiences of groups of workers and which challenges the fundamental, structural inequalities within (and therefore seeks to transform) organisations and labour markets. A key element of this agenda must be the mainstreaming of equal opportunities within collective bargaining.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is required on how unions are beginning to deal with the issues raised in the paper. The paper is also limited to the views of individual equalities officers – further research on local practice is required.Practical implicationsThe findings will be of interest to organisations engaged in equalities work and unions seeking to develop policy and practice in this area.Originality/valueThe paper will add to the literature on unions’ approaches to equalities. It applies the Rees model to extensive new data, and is the first major piece of research to address these issues within the Scottish policy context.

The Publishing of John Tillotson's Collected Works, 1695–1757

Abstract This article investigates the publishing history of John Tillotson’s collected sermons in the early and mid-eighteenth century. Evidence from imprints and other printed and manuscript sources is used to establish how much the Tillotson copyright was worth, who owned it, and what kinds of editions of the sermons were produced. Publishing Tillotson’s works was a significant and profitable part of the business of many leading London booksellers. The publishing history of the sermons thus sheds light on important features of the trade in this period, such as the activities of wholesaling and copyright-owning congers, the booksellers’ sales of copyright, and the relationship between the London and Scottish trades. Detailed consideration of the editions produced by Brabazon Aylmer and Richard Chiswell also reveals the impact individual booksellers could have on the books they published.

Greens of Glasgow: ‘We Want “U” In’

This short essay draws on research undertaken by the curator of the Scottish Screen Archive on the few surviving films credited to Greens Film Service of Glasgow in the teens and twenties. The research revealed a dynamic family business, born out of the travelling cinematograph shows of the late nineteenth century, growing to assume a dominant role in the Scottish cinema trade in the silent era, across exhibition, distribution and production. One small part of a lost film history waiting for rediscovery – early cinema in Scotland.

English and Scottish overseas trade, 1300–16001

This article compares English and Scottish exports, from 1300–1600, using existing statistical data from England and a new data set of Scottish exports. It shows that the significant English and Scottish wool trades collapsed at almost identical rates. However, while England shifted towards exporting woollen cloth, a similar move in Scotland was weak—because of the poor quality of cloth and the urban form of the industry. In the second half of the sixteenth century, as English exports stagnated, Scottish trade began to grow, especially new and less‐established commodities. This ‘recovery’ was based on the heavy depreciation of the Scottish currency.

Fighting for Survival: The 1980s Campaign to Save Ravenscraig Steelworks

The story of the former Ravenscraig steelworks in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, interweaves economics, politics, trade unionism and, above all, the life of a community. From its inception in the 1950s, Ravenscraig took on symbolic status in Scotland, encapsulating hopes for industrial renewal, whilst demonstrating the British state’s commitment to depressed regions. During the economic restructuring and dislocation of the Thatcher years between 1979 and 1990,Ravenscraig’s rundown characterised the Conservatives’ abandonment of this strategy. The plant’s eventual closure in 1992 signalled the death of Scottish heavy industry, sparking widespread anger and bitterness, and touching a raw nerve that still precludes academic analysis of this traumatic period. Of historians who have considered the subject, Peter Payne has tended to focus on the industrial history of Scottish steel-making, whilst Robert Duncan has charted the steel industry’s impact on Motherwell. Keith Aitken’s history of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) contains the only detailed coverage of Ravenscraig’s fortunes during Thatcher’s premiership. 2 This paper aims to redress the balance by charting the 1980s campaign to save Ravenscraig, placing it within the context of steel nationalisation, the ‘post-war consensus’ in British politics and the privatisation programme. It disentangles the mythology surrounding Ravenscraig by highlighting the role played by the Conservatives in bringing the strip mill to Motherwell, and pointing to Scottish Conservative collusion in prolonging the steelworks’ existence throughout the 1980s.The paper also outlines the changing nature of Conservatism between the 1950s and 1980s, and the impact of this on attitudes to regional development. Finally, consideration is given to the role played by the European Economic Community in the rundown of the Scottish steel industry, a little known aspect of the Ravenscraig story.

Mutual Intelligibility of Timber Trade Terminology in the North Sea Countries during the Time of the ‘Scottish Trade’<sup>1</sup>

Mutual Intelligibility of Timber Trade Terminology in the North Sea Countries during the Time of the ‘Scottish Trade’<sup>1</sup>