The Industrial Revolution in Scotland

11/20/2007 by ScottishKyle

The Industrial Revolution was a period of great changes during the late 18th century and 19th century that started in Great Britain. This revolution produced major changes in social structures, economies, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and, most of all, technology. This industrialization quickly spread throughout Europe and eventually reached North America. During this period, not only did Britain start the revolution but it also led the revolution, with its vast deposits of coal and iron ore. The country of Scotland, in particular, played a key role in the Industrial Revolution because of its many innovative contributions.

Before the Industrial Revolution in Scotland, the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century laid the foundation for the rapid changes and inventions that sparked the Industrial Revolution. It was a time of major advances in the areas of philosophy, economics, engineering, architecture, literature, medicine, geology, law, agriculture, and chemistry. The Scottish Enlightenment produced many famous Scottish figures such as the political economist Adam Smith who wrote and published his masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations (1776), and philosopher David Hume, the architect Robert Adam, the physician and chemist William Cullen, writer Sir Walter Scott, and poet Robert Burns. Famous Scots during this era also included the physicist and chemist Joseph Black (a mentor to James Watt) who discovered latent heat, specific heat and carbon dioxide. Interestingly enough, Joseph Black loaned a sum of £1,000 to James Watt to make his improvements on the steam engine which would power the industrial revolution. Joseph Black taught at the University of Glasgow. These figures of modern thought helped influence and educate the next generation of Scots who led the Industrial Revolution.

During the first hundred years of the Industrial Revolution, from 1750 to 1850, there were many changes underway in Scotland. The Lowlands of Scotland, in contrast to the Highlands, were primarily affected. The economy in Scotland during the middle of the eighteenth century was on the rise, with numerous products being imported from the British colonies to Scotland, in particular to the city of Glasgow. Glasgow was the "engine of Scottish industrialization" (Devine 59). Glasgow's main industries were ship building, textiles, engineering, tobacco and iron works. Tobacco was a major import, and in 1771, 47 million pounds of American tobacco were imported to Glaswegian merchants who sold it on the wide European market, exporting it to German, French, and Dutch markets. Glasgow had become the most prominent city in western Europe for tobacco. Overall, the Scottish import market grew from 10 percent of the total British importations in 1738 to 40 percent in 1765, and the British importations had themselves grown during the same period. (Devine 105) The growth of the import and export markets proved extremely profitable for the Scottish economy. Another major contributor to economic growth was Scotland's most important industry, linen manufacturing. Linen manufacturing increased production dramatically in the mid to late 1700's, with exports to the American and Caribbean colonies (Devine 58). Both the linen manufacturing and the import and export markets led the economic expansion with increased employment levels, business investments, and the growth of the banking industry.

Technological change was key to the Industrial Revolution and occurred in different forms, including transportation and manufacturing. Many people view the father of the Industrial Revolution as James Watt (1736-1819), a Scottish engineer and inventor who was born in Greenock, Scotland. James Watt received little education although Scotland had made one of the first laws making education of children a requirement in 1696. While working as an instrument maker for the University of Glasgow, James Watt improved the steam engine enough so that it was practical for use in 1776. (Outman 181) The improved steam engine used only one-fourth as much coal to achieve the same power as Thomas Newcomen's original steam engine and made the manufacturing plants, including textile mills, significantly more productive. This innovation of the steam engine made it possible to place a mill inland rather then next to water, which was traditionally used to power the mills. Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution and revolutionized manufacturing and transportation.

Efficient transportation was critical for the movement of goods and raw materials during this age. A new form of water transportation, the steamboat, was invented by the Scottish engineer, William Symington (1764-1831). In 1788, Symington along with his friend, Patrick Millar, successfully operated a boat with a steam engine on the Dalswinton Loch in Scotland. Robert Burns is said to have been a witness to this event on the Loch. In 1802, Symington navigated his boat, Charlotte Dundas, on the Forth and Clyde Canal while pushing two barges in front of the boat 19 ½ miles in six hours against a strong headwind. Despite the success of Symington's steamboat, most people were perfectly fine with using their old sailboat and his steamboat never sold. In 1807, the Scottish-American Robert Fulton (1765-1815) made the first commercially successful steamboat business based in New York. In Europe, a Scottish engineer named Henry Bell (1767-1830) is credited with creating one of the first successful passenger steamboat services on the River Clyde in Scotland.

In 1765, iron rails were introduced in England by Richard Reynolds. At this time carts loaded with goods were being hauled by horses. In 1801, experiments with steam engine driven locomotives were started. In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway introduced a locomotive to haul coal for 20 miles. It was the first time a steam locomotive had hauled cars on a public railway anywhere in the world. (Outman 55)
From then on trains moved raw supplies and passengers throughout Great Britain. In 1831, the Glasgow to Garnkirk railway was opened in Scotland. Around the middle of the eighteenth century it took twelve days to reach London from Glasgow by horse, a century later it, a passenger riding on the railroad powered by the steam engine could make the trip in twelve hours. (Outman 51) In addition to rail innovations, important advances in road construction were made by the Scottish engineer, John MacAdam (1756-1836) in the early 1800's, who created the macadam type of road surface. This road surface was created by crushed rock packed into thin layers. This new method of road building created a smoother and faster way for goods and people to travel. Goods could now be sold on a broader scale and were able to reach places more quickly. Later the Scot, Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1813-1878), would invent the bicycle.

During this period in Scotland, populations in towns and cities in Lowland Scotland were increasing considerably because of the employment opportunities. In contrast, the Highlands were losing their people to emigration due to the infamous Highland Clearances and numerous famines. By the time of the American Revolution, over 15,000 Highland Scots had already emigrated to Georgia and the Carolinas. At the same time, over 60,000 Lowland Scots had settled in Virginia, the Carolinas, and New England. Later, during the early to mid nineteenth century, thousands of Highland Scots would emigrate to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and other parts of Canada. Some Scots settled in Scottish communities in other parts of the world like Nova Scotia and continued to speak and sing in fluent Gaelic. Traditional social structures which had been familiar for centuries were changing rapidly and progressive economic and social change were transforming Scotland at an astonishing rate compared to other European countries. In 1750, one Scot in eight lived in a town of 4,000 people or more, but by the 1820s, more than half of the Scottish population lived in the bustling Lowlands.

In conclusion, Scottish inventors and innovators played a key role in the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain during its first phase. Scotland went from a simple rural economy to a complex industrial economy within a hundred years time. Although only a few of some of the most notable Scottish inventors were mentioned above, there were many more who contributed to the success of the Industrial Revolution, including James Beaumont Neilson, Robert Napier, Andrew Carnegie and others. The Industrial Revolution continued to spread worldwide and the Scots who had emigrated to other countries continued to make major contributions to society.




WORKS CITED


Bruce, Duncan A. The Scottish 100: Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000.

Devine, T.M. The Scottish Nation. New York: Viking Penguin, 1999.

Outman, James L. and Outman, Elisabeth M. Industrial Revolution Almanac. Ed. Mathew May. Farmington, Michigan: The Gale Group, 2003.

Outman, James L. and Outman, Elisabeth M. Industrial Revolution Biographies. Ed. Mathew May. Farmington, Michigan: The Gale Group, 2003

Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.