Social and economic structure of Edinburgh in the late seventeenth century
Date
1989Author
Dingwall, Helen M.
Metadata
Abstract
Urban studies relating to the period before 1750 have, only
recently come to the fore in Scottish history, partly as a
result of the relative lack of appropriate source
materials such as comprehensive household and tax lists.
However, in recent years, a start has been made on
assessing the social and economic structures of Scottish
early-modern towns, but no comprehensive assessment of
Edinburgh has yet been attempted. The fortuitous survival
of the 1694 Poll Tax records for the whole of greater
Edinburgh has enabled such an examination to be
undertaken. The Poll Tax is the central source for the
work, although many other records, such as Hearth Tax and
local tax lists, testaments, Merchant company,, craft and
council records and private papers, have been used to
complement and reinforce the analysis of this unique town
at a, point in its development at the end of a fascinating
and turbulent century, prior to the many changes which
were to take place during the Enlightenment period.
Although there are almost certainly omissions and
inaccuracies in most of the lists, provided these
deficiencies are explained, and appropriate allowances
made, a realistic assessment is possible. In most of the
sources used, complete groups rather than samples have
been used.
Using these sources, a study of the social and economic
structure of Edinburgh has been carried out using a
thematic approach. Assessments have been made of (1)
household and family structure, with particular reference
to household size and composition; (2) the distribution of
wealth and its functions, by means of an examination of
the various investment and other activities enabled by the
possession of wealth, as well as the distribution of tax
payments; (3) occupational structure, using a
classification system devised to allow the inclusion of
all of Edinburgh's great variety of occupations, and
including a comparative survey of occupations in mid- and
late-seventeenth century; (4) a study of the economic
activities of several groups within the population -
merchants, burgesses and apprentices, women, shopkeepers,
the middling sort, and the large and flourishing group of
professionals. Some of these groups have been rather
neglected in previous analyses which dealt mainly with the
activities of merchants and craftsmen in isolation. (5) An
attempt has also been made to examine the various methods
by which the poor were provided for. They appear only
rarely in most taxation or other occupational and
household lists, and it is virtually impossible to
confidently estimate their numbers, but a useful study of
their effect on the community which had to sustain them is
possible. A major shortcoming of most available sources
for Scottish urban history is that they do not include the
poor, who were a sizeable group, although perhaps not the
30-40% estimated for some English towns in this period.
In each area of assessment, comparisons have been made
among the various Edinburgh parishes, to determine whether
significant differences are evident in relation to
'parameters of urbanness', which include, on a parish
basis (1) high proportion of large households; (2) high
number of maximum tax level householders; (3) high
proportion of householders participating in investment
activities; (4) a strong professional presence,
particularly relating to legal and medical services; (5)
evidence of an established middling sort. These factors
have been assessed for all parishes, and a final ranking
made acccording to these parameters of urbanness, showing
inter-parish variations, even within the small geographic
area of late seventeenth-century Edinburgh.