Debt and credit in early modern Scotland: the Grandtully Estates 1650-1765

Abstract

This thesis examines the significance and function of debt and credit in the Scottish economy during the latter half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenthcentury. Part I discusses the nature of debt/credit transactions and relationships and introduces the classification model formulated as the basis for analysis of the data. There follows a consideration of several aspects of the development of credit facilities in the Scottish economy.

This section is intended to provide a backdrop for the detailed local analysis which follows. A broad division of the various components of the subject into procedural and structural elements - Instruments of Exchange and Indebtedness in Society enabled a picture of the Scottish approach to debt to be constructed. The role of credit in the lives of the peasantry and the landowning classes is discussed with emphasis being given to its significance amongst the rural population. Three spheres of exchange are identified, questions are posed and hypotheses formulated: the most fundamental being the proposition that the need for credit was not merely a reflection of liquidity crises, but that Scotland's rural economy had developed an overlay of sophistication which enabled credit facilities to function as a means of increasing capital. Finally, with particular reference to the function of Sanctuary, this section examines the unique approach of the legislature, and people of Scotland, to the whole subject of debt and indebtedness thereby completing an overview of debt in early modern Scotland.

Part II begins with a description of the Grandtully Estates as a source base and outlines their geographical and economic characteristics. This in turn provides a backdrop for the last section of the thesis which is a case-study of the peasant credit market on these estates. There follows an examination of the source material Small Claims Commissary Court Processes, Testamentary material and Estate Records. The function, effects and limitations of the various legal institutions, particularly the Dunkeld Commissary Court, in which the data were recorded are considered. Then the data themselves are analysed using the classification model and by dividing them on the basis of their social and geographical structures. Various hypotheses which were set out in the foregoing sections are tested and the function, necessity and ubiquity of small debts in that society are described and, at least in part, explained.