Discovering the Scottish Revolution 16921746

Neil Davidson

Description

*Winner of the the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2003*



This book is a reassessment of Scottish politics and society in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Neil Davidson argues that Scotland experienced a revolution during this period that has rarely been recognised in the existing historiography.



Davidson explores the political and economic changes of these years, revealing how social and economic power was transferred from one class to another. He describes how Scotland was transformed from a backward and feudal economy to a new centre of emergent capitalism.



He traces the economic and social crisis that led to Scotland's incorporation into the Union in 1707, but argues that the Union did not lead to the transformation of Scottish society. The decisive period was instead the aftermath of the last Jacobite revolt in 1746, whose failure was integral to the survival and consolidation of British, and ultimately global capitalism.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Scotland After 1688

2. Three Dimensions of Socio-Economic Crisis: the 1690s

3. From Hanoverian Succession to Incorporating Union, 1700-1707

4. Scotland and the British State: From Crisis to Consolidation, 1708-1716

5. Agricultural Improvement and Social Transformation, 1716-1744

6. The End of the British Revolution, 1745-1746

Conclusion

Appendix: Marx and Engels on Scotland

Bibliographical Essay

Notes and References

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Escocia
• General officer
• International relations
• History of Europe
• Great Britain
• General
• Scotland
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783715718
• Langue: English

Extrait

Discovering the Scottish Revolution
Also available by Neil Davidson: The Origins of Scottish Nationhood
‘Neil Davidson’s book on The Origins of Scottish Nationhood is extremely timely. … Shock, horror! (Or Jings! Crivvens!) This man says we owe our “nationhood” to our fusion in one state with the Auld Enemy!! Yet once one has dispensed with the ludicrous notion that Scotland was “colonised” by England…Davidson’s case seems unassailably strong. … Neil Davidson’s account of the role of Scots in the conquest and exploitation of the British Empire…is as good a summary as I’ve seen of the suture which fixed Scottish “nationhood” proudly together with “Britishness”.’
Angus Calder
‘Because [Davidson] writes as a Marxist, our nationalists may manage to disregard his argument for the late, post-Union emergence of Scottish nationhood. They will find it harder to ignore the evidence he offers for the way in which the idea of Britain and the sense of Britishness evolved from the interaction of Scots and English, an argument which renders untenable the proposition that Scotland was in any sense an oppressed or colonised nation. … The great merit of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood is that it encourages clear thinking about the national condition. …clear thinking has been in short supply in Scotland, driven out by “correct thinking”. A book which demonstrates that much of this “correct thinking” is baloney is therefore to be welcomed.’
Alan Massie , Times Literary Supplement
‘This is not a book for the faint-hearted. …an important book because it raises pertinent questions about about attitudes and beliefs in Scotland today. …controversial and provocative.’
Bill Howatson , Aberdeen Press and Journal
‘The development of capital and class are central to the Scottish historical experience and Davidson is absolutely right to place them centre stage. His bold endeavour to offer a conceptual framework is something that Scottish historians should engage with and not ignore, although Scottish history is a subject which is not exactly renowned for its love of theoretically informed discussion. …Davidson is to be congratulated for taking to task a number of historians who have been too cavalier in their assertions concerning Scottish national identity. As a taskmaster demanding the most rigorous intellectual standards, Davidson is one of the best critics the Scottish historical profession has.’
Richard Finlay , Scottish Affairs
‘Davidson’s important study provides a very different account of Scots history…[his] demolition of nationalist myths is very convincing. … Davidson is very informative on Scots economic and political participation in the British Empire.’
John Sullivan , Revolutionary History
‘ The Origins of Scottish Nationhood is a remarkable piece of work that dares to seriously challenge the basis for the nationalist myths accepted by many historians and a number of socialists. It does so in a fraternal, sophisticated and rigorous way…’
Angela McCormick , Socialist Review
‘Davidson’s book…is in many respects more penetrating and convincing than several recent attempts by established scholars to explain the phenomenon of Scottish nationhood.’
Colin Kidd , English Historical Review
‘Davidson has written a well-argued and stimulating book. The Origins of Scottish Nationhood follows in the footsteps of the ground-breaking work of the Communist Party’s historians group… Davidson’s book provides both a theory and abundant historical evidence…’
Jack Conrad , Weekly Worker
Neil Davidson
Discovering the Scottish Revolution 1692–1746
First published 2003 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
Copyright © Neil Davidson 2003
The right of Neil Davidson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2054 6 hbk ISBN 0 7453 2053 8 pbk ISBN 978 1 7837 1571 8 ePub ISBN 978 1 7837 1572 5 Mobi
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester, England Printed in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
To Robyn
Contents
A Note on the Cover Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface

Contrasts and Comparisons

Structure, Narrative and Critique

Sources and Conventions

Marxist Theory and Scottish History
Introduction

Three Interpretations of the Anglo-Scottish Union

Contextualising the Treaty of Union

Marxism and the Scottish Revolution

Patterns of Bourgeois Revolution

The Bourgeois Revolution in Scottish History
1 .
Scotland in the Late Seventeenth Century

Lords, Peasants and Industrial Serfs

Burgesses and Indwellers

Officers, Lawyers and Ministers

Highland and Lowland

The Balance of Social Forces
2 .
Three Dimensions of Socio-economic Crisis (the 1690s)

Trade Wars and Shooting Wars

‘Death in the Face of the Poor’

The Debacle of Scottish Colonialism

The Balance Sheet of the 1690s
3 .
From Hanoverian Succession to Incorporating Union (1700–1707)

Class and Party in the Last Scottish Parliament

A Class Divided

A Union is Announced

The Struggle Over Ratification

Explaining the Union
4 .
Scotland and the British State: From Crisis to Consolidation (1708–1716)

Three Perspectives on Jacobitism

The British State versus Scottish Society?

1715: Dress Rehearsals for the End
5 .
Social Transformation and Agricultural Improvement (1717–1744)

The Consequences of Combined and Uneven Development

The Pivotal Role of Agriculture

The Lowlands

The Highlands
6 .
The End of the British Revolution (1745–1746)

Two Sources of the ’45

Victims of a Dying Feudalism

In the Hour of Civil War

Endgame

‘Barbarians and Enemies of All Civil Society’

The End of Feudalism in Scotland
Epilogue: The Scottish Path to Capitalist Development (1747–1815)

Theoreticians and Practitioners of Passive Revolution

The Revolution After the Revolution

‘A Different Class of Beings’
Conclusion

A Revolutionary Alternative from Below?

Culloden, the Highland Clearances and Capitalist Development

Documents of Civilisation and Barbarism
Appendix: Marx and Engels on Scotland

British Capitalism

Political Economy and the Scottish Enlightenment

The Scottish Reformation

The Constitutional Form of the British State
Bibliographical Essay
Notes and References
Index
A Note on the Cover Illustrations
The cover illustrations for the paperback edition feature representations of real and symbolic participants in the Scottish Revolution taken from the work of the English artist, William Hogarth (1697–1764). Hogarth directly dealt with the climax of the Revolution, the suppression of the ’45, in two works. One was his portrait of Simon, Lord Lovat , awaiting trial for treason (1746). The other, The March To Finchley (1749), depicts soldiers preparing to march up Tottenham Court Road to Finchley Common to defend London from the advancing Jacobite army. 1 The two images reproduced here, however, relate more obliquely to the outcome.
The front cover reproduces The Mackinen Children (1745). The children represented, Elizabeth and William Mackinen, were the grandchildren of Daniel Mackinnon of Skye (1658–1720), one of the Scottish ‘new merchants’ who built their fortunes through the sugar trade with the West Indies, where he was a landowner and member of the legislative council of Antigua (see Chapter 1 below). His son William (1697–1767), the children’s father and 32 nd chief of Clan Mackinnon, changed the conventional spelling of his family name to what he took to be the Anglicised version. The sunflower which stands between Elizabeth and William, dominating the painting, is a symbol of the House of Hanover, the dynasty whose succession was secured by the final defeat of the House of Stuart in 1746. 2 The Mackinen family are among the victors.
The back cover reproduces a detail from the bottom right-hand corner of The Gate of Calais (1749). The anonymous figure represented here is a defeated Jacobite. His tartan trousers and jacket indicate that he has served as a junior officer in a clan regiment during the ’45. He is now an exile in the territory of the main foreign state to have backed the rising: Catholic, absolutist France. The price of his opposition to the new order in Britain is signalled by his hunger. The implication is that, had he been loyal to the Hanoverian state, he would not now be sitting in the gutter with an apple – sharing the pitiable condition of the French – but at home enjoying fare similar to the sirloin of English beef at the centre of the painting. 3 He is among the vanquished.
Acknowledgements
Early in 1993 I submitted a handwritten publication proposal for a 40,000 word book on the Anglo-Scottish Union to the now defunct Northern Marxist Historians Group. It was intended as a contribution to a series entitled A Socialist History of Britain , to be published by Pluto Press. That proposal underwent considerable development over the subsequent decade, not least in terms of length, until it became the present work. The themes discussed in Discovering the Scottish Revolution were presented in embryonic form at a number of forums: the Association of Scottish Historical Studies annual conference, Scotland and War , in March 1995; the History Workshop Journal/Ruskin College conference, Scottish Dimensions , in March 1995; the Socialist Workers Party events, Marxism ’96 , in July 1996 and Socialism in Scotland , in November 1998; the Northern Ma