Quote:
Originally Posted by Catfish
Scotland, your bloody foreign neighbours on the continent have never understood it. From England's subduction of scottish 'tribes' (not that England was so much more advanced at that time, or the countries of Europe for that matter), to England actually destroying any effort of Scotland to improve as a nation, the deforestation for building the english fleets, letting hords of sheep grazing the now empty landscape keeping any effort to reforest down, the disappropriation of scottish land owners, the displacement of people from their ancestral ground and heritage by destroying their economical base.. "all in the best interest" of course.
A lot of Scots had to move to England, became traders e.g. with tea or such (certainly depending on the english market now, and supporting it), while the people who stayed tried to make a living in a kept-down economy, some by smuggling, constantly under pressure by english customs and military. True until 1900 anyway.
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Something of a simplification, Catfish.
The core is quite true, but what many seem either to ignore or simply don't know is that Scotland's
own social elite has to bear a great deal, if not most, of the blame. The majority of the rapaciousness inflicted on Scotland's population was for the most part carried out by
that part of society. When you look back, it's pretty obvious that the wealthy did
very well out of the Union and the Empire. The poor, who made up the majority of the Scottish population at that time (the Upper and Middle classes were
tiny in comparison with England) rather less so.
To give an example, Scottish engineering firms, particularly those engaged in building railway equipment,
always submitted lower bids for contracts than their English competitors. They could do this as they simply didn't pay their "company servants" (to use the terminology of the time) as much as the firms in England did for the same work. Hence you had so much economic migration from Scotland to England.
If the English ruling elites can be blamed for anything, it's simply not paying closer attention to the ticking time bomb that their Scottish allies were inadvertantly priming.
Mike.