In Scotland, the Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes and economic expansion between the mid-eighteenth century and the late nineteenth century. By the start of the eighteenth century, a political union between Scotland and England became economically and politically attractive, promising to open up the much larger markets of England, as well as those of the growing British Empire, resulting in the Treaty of Union of 1707. There was a conscious attempt among the gentry and the nobility to improve agriculture in Scotland. New crops were introduced and enclosures began to displace the run rig system and free pasture. The economic benefits of union were very slow to appear, some progress was visible, such as the sales of linen and cattle to England, the cash flows from military service, and the tobacco trade that was dominated by Glasgow after 1740. Merchants who profited from the American trade began investing in leather, textiles, iron, coal, sugar, rope, sailcloth, glass-works, breweries, and soap-works, setting the foundations for the city's emergence as a leading industrial center after 1815.

The linen industry was Scotland's premier industry in the eighteenth century and formed the basis for the later cotton, jute, and woolen industries. Encouraged and subsidized by the Board of Trustees so it could compete with German products, merchant entrepreneurs became dominant in all stages of linen manufacturing and built up the market share of Scottish linens, especially in the American colonial market. Historians often emphasize that the flexibility and dynamism of the Scottish banking system contributed significantly to the rapid development of the economy in the nineteenth century. At first the leading industry, based in the west, was the spinning and weaving of cotton. After the cutting off of supplies of raw cotton from 1861 as a result of the American Civil War Scottish entrepreneurs and engineers, and its large stock of easily mined coal, the country diversified into engineering, shipbuilding, and locomotive construction, with steel replacing iron after 1870. As a result, Scotland became a center for engineering, shipbuilding and the production of locomotives.

In the east of Scotland, particularly in Dundee, mechanised jute manufacture from the 1830s created one of the largest textile concentrations in the world. The city became the principal centre of jute goods production within the British Empire, supported by associated whaling, shipping, and engineering industries, employing tens of thousands of workers and contributing significantly to Scotland’s industrial export economy.C. A. Whatley, The Industrial Revolution in Scotland (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 74–75. Major industrial complexes included Camperdown Works in Lochee, then the world’s largest jute mill, engineered by George Addison Cox and operated by Cox Brothers; its monumental chimney, Cox’s Stack, completed in 1866, remains a Category A listed building and landmark of the city’s jute industry.C. A. Whatley, The Industrial Revolution in Scotland (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 74–75.University of Dundee - Then and now – changing Dundee To commemorate this, there is a small bronze statue of Cox's Stack on a plinth in Dundee High Street that was unveiled by Prince Charles in 1995 (Now King Charles III).Dundee Public Art – 3 small bronze statues of Cox's Stack, Wishart Arch and the Royal Arch on plinths, unveiled by Prince Charles in June 1995 - in High St, Dundee DD1 1SA, UK.

Scotland was already one of the most urbanized societies in Europe by 1800. Glasgow became one of the largest cities in the world, and known as "the Second City of the Empire" after London. Dundee upgraded its harbor and established itself as an industrial and trading center. The industrial developments, while they brought work and wealth, were so rapid that housing, town-planning, and provision for public health did not keep pace with them, and for a time living conditions in some of the towns and cities were notoriously bad, with overcrowding, high infant mortality, and growing rates of tuberculosis. Owners to support government sponsored housing programs as well as self-help projects among the respectable working class. Even with the growth of industry there were insufficient good jobs, as a result, during the period 1841–1931, about two million Scots emigrated to North America and Australia, and another 750,000 Scots relocated to England. By the twenty-first century, there were about as many people who were Scottish Canadians and Scottish Americans as the five million remaining in Scotland.

Background

By the start of the eighteenth century, a political union between Scotland and England became politically and economically attractive, promising to open up the much larger markets of England, as well as those of the growing British Empire. The Scottish parliament voted on 6 January 1707, by 110 to 69 to adopt the Treaty of Union. It was a full economic union. Most of its 25 articles dealt with economic arrangements for the new state known as "Great Britain". It added 45 Scots to the 513 members of the House of Commons of Great Britain and 16 Scots to the 190 members of the House of Lords, and ended the Scottish parliament. It also replaced the Scottish systems of currency, taxation and laws regulating trade with laws made in London. England had about five times the population of Scotland at the time, and about 36 times as much wealth.T. C. Smout, "The Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707. I: The Economic Background", Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 455–67 in JSTOR

Major factors that facilitated industrialisation in Scotland included cheap and abundant labour; natural resources that included coal, blackband ironstone and potential water power; the development of new technologies, among them the steam engine and markets that would buy Scottish products. Other contributing factors included improved transport links that facilitated the movement of goods, an extensive banking system, and the widespread adoption of economic ideas originating in the Scottish Enlightenment.R. Finley, "4. Economy: 1770–1850 age of industrialization", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 198–9.

Enlightenment

In the eighteenth century, the Scottish Enlightenment brought the country to the front of intellectual achievement in Europe.A. Herman, How the Scots Invented the Modern World (London: Crown Publishing Group, 2001), . The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific. Adam Smith developed and published The Wealth of Nations, the first work of modern economics. It had an immediate impact on British economic policy and still frames discussions on globalisation and tariffs.M. Fry, Adam Smith's Legacy: His Place in the Development of Modern Economics (London: Routledge, 1992), . Key scientific work included the discoveries of William Cullen, physician and chemist; James Anderson, an agronomist; Joseph Black, physicist and chemist; and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.J. Repcheck, The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity (Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2003), , pp. 117–43. While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the eighteenth century,. disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another 50 years or more, thanks to such figures as James Hutton, James Watt, William Murdoch, James Clerk Maxwell and Lord Kelvin.E. Wills, Scottish Firsts: a Celebration of Innovation and Achievement (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2002), .

Agricultural revolution

After the union with England in 1707, there was a conscious attempt among the gentry and nobility to improve agriculture in Scotland. The Society of Improvers was founded in 1723, including in its 300 members dukes, earls, lairds and landlords.J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, A History of Scotland (London: Penguin, 1991), , pp. 288–91. In the first half of the century these changes were limited to tenanted farms in East Lothian and the estates of a few enthusiasts, such as John Cockburn and Archibald Grant. Not all were successful, with Cockburn driving himself into bankruptcy, but the ethos of improvement spread among the landed classes.I. D. Whyte, "Economy: primary sector: 1 Agriculture to 1770s", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 206–7. Haymaking was introduced along with the English plough and foreign grasses, the sowing of rye grass and clover. Turnips and cabbages were introduced, lands enclosed and marshes drained, lime was put down, roads built and woods planted. Drilling and sowing and crop rotation were introduced. The introduction of the potato to Scotland in 1739 greatly improved the diet of the peasantry. Enclosures began to displace the runrig system and free pasture. There was increasing specialisation, with the Lothians became a major centre of grain, Ayrshire of cattle breading and the borders of sheep. Although some estate holders improved the quality of life of their displaced workers, the Agricultural Revolution led directly to what is increasingly known as the Lowland Clearances,Robert Allan Houston and Ian D. Whyte, Scottish Society, 1500–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), , pp. 148–151. when hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland were forcibly moved from the farms and small holdings their families had occupied for hundreds of years. Improvement continued in the nineteenth century. Innovations included the first working reaping machine, developed by Patrick Bell in 1828. His rival James Smith turned to improving sub-soil drainage and developed a method of ploughing that could break up the subsoil barrier without disturbing the topsoil. Previously unworkable low-lying carselands could now be brought into arable production and the result was the even Lowland landscape that still predominates.G. Sprot, "Agriculture, 1770s onwards", in M. Lynch, ed., Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), , pp. 321–3. The development of Scottish agriculture meant that Scotland could support its increased population with food and it released labour that would take part in industrial production.

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