Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare

What makes this particular period so interesting is the remarkably volatile nature of the land market in Scotland; an enormous amount of land changed hands, and some minor noble families made quite staggering inroads into the highest levels of landed society.

There may be additional explanations for the acceleration of structural economic change. What counts, however, is the result: Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ – the displacement of old skills, trades and entire industries with their dependent localities, by more efficient new skills, trades and entire industries – is now apt to span years, often very few years, rather than generations.

bice green: