Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare

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.

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.

bice green: