History of Scotland - 18th Century

18th Century

Scotland was a poor rural, agricultural society with a population of 1.3 million in 1755. Its transformation into a rich leader of modern industry came suddenly and unexpectedly in the next 150 years, following its union with Britain in 1707 and its integration with the advanced English and imperial economies. The transformation was led by two cities that grew rapidly after 1770. Glasgow, on the river Clyde, was the base for the tobacco and sugar trade with an emerging textile industry. Edinburgh was the administrative and intellectual centre where the Scottish Enlightenment was chiefly based.