Famine in Scotland - the 'Ill Years' of the 1690sThis book examines the climatic and economic origins of the last national famine to occur in Scotland, the nature and extent of the crisis which ensued, and what the impact of the famine was upon the population in demographic, economic and social terms. Current published knowledge about the causes, extent, and impact of the famine in Scotland is limited and many conclusions have been speculative in the absence of extensive research. Despite the critical importance of this crisis, one of the four disasters of the 1690s, which are widely acknowledged to have contributed to the economic arguments in favour of the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, the topic has been largely neglected and even underplayed by historians. This is the first full study of the famine, providing a unique scholarly examination of the causes, course, characteristics and consequences of the crisis. A comprehensive study of agricultural, climatic, economic, social and demographic issues, the book seeks to establish answers to the fundamental question concerning the event. How serious was it? Using detailed statistical and qualitative analysis, it discusses the regional factors that defined the famine, the impact on the population, and the interconnected causes of this traumatic event. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 10 | |
The Making of a Famine | 31 |
Chapter Three There Arose a Dearth The Grain Market in Crisis | 54 |
Chapter Four Providing for the Destitute | 93 |
The Demographic Disaster | 123 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aberdeenshire adverse weather agriculture Angus Banffshire Baptisms boll Burgh burial registers Candlemas cent charity child burials church climate Coldingham crises crop year 1698 deaths demographic Despite Dundee early modern East Lothian economic Edinburgh emigration England estates experienced export factors famine crisis Famine in Aberdeenshire famine period Flinn Food and Wages Gibson and Smout grain imports grain prices grain shortage grain supplies Hamilton harvest failure harvest of 1695 heritors Highlands impact increased indicate Inverness-shire Ireland Kilmorack Kincardineshire Kingsbarns kirk session land large numbers late levels Little Ice Age Lowlands marriages Methlick Midlothian migration minister Mitchison mortality movement oatmeal Old Poor Law Orkney parishes PCRA peak Peebles Peeblesshire Perthshire poor relief pre-famine privy council problems proclamation recorded reduced region result scarcity Scotland Scots Scottish Population History seventeenth century SPHRP starvation strangers T. C. Smout Tacksmen tenants Town Council Minutes Ulster weather conditions Whatley Whyte