ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the expansion of Scottish trade, particularly overseas. It illustrates the sources from which industry was supplied with its raw materials, and the markets in which its products were sold. For the marketing of cotton and other finished goods, and the import of Oriental wares, trade with the East was cultivated. West of Scotland firms were primarily associated with the economic development of the Indian Empire, and of the Orient in general. Commercial dealings with the Baltic were of long standing, and received only a temporary setback from the Crimean War. The cotton industry was for climatic reasons necessarily dependent on imports from the tropics. It consumed in 1846 some 120,000 bales. The suspension of supplies by the Civil War seems to have been a main cause of the decline of the Scottish manufacture. The American market afforded better openings for West Indian produce, while Java canes from their quality and cheapness captured most of the Scottish demand.
