The Industrial Revolution in Scotland

The Scottish economy is an integral part of the British economy. Yet, there is also a sufficient degree of segregation from the rest of the British economy, and a sufficient diversity within Scotland, to allow one to speak of a Scottish economy. The uniqueness of the Scottish economy, characterised by a unit with diversity and an internal momentum in it, had been formed through a long-drawn-out process : the process was sometimes sudden and fast, but on the whole slow and gradual: it was sometimes even and progressive, but more frequently uneven, intermittent and even retrogressive; and it was sometimes planned and directed by governmental intervention, but by and large it was a sequence of trial and error experienced by economic subjects in the milieu of competition. The process of prosperity, lasted for more than four generations between the 1780s and the 1900s, can be roughly divided into three stages: the take-off stage between the 1780s and 1830s; the stage of expansion between the 1830s and 1870s; and the stage of maturity between the 1870s and 1900s. The one-century-long prosperity began to undergo a downward spiral from the early twentieth century.