ABSTRACT
In 1707 Scotland became united with England, and this was motivated mainly by the idea that the parliamentary Union would promote its economic development (Whatley 1994; Whyte 1995: 296-97; Whyte 1997: 157-59).1 In fact, the Treaty of the Union proves that England made economic and financial concessions to Scotland in exchange for political advantages that such a union would provide (Whatley 2000: 50-51). But after a few decades, it was increasingly clear that the new Union had fallen short of Scottish expectations of being able to develop Scotland’s economy with the assistance of the Union regime. On the contrary, as shown in the Jacobite expedition in 1708, the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715, the Malt Tax Riots in 1725, the Porteous Riots in 1736 and so on, the Union regime can be argued not to have worked particularly well (Devine 1999: 17-24). In reality the economic effects of the Union were hardly able to manifest themselves in the eyes of the Scottish people.
