ABSTRACT
Advanced industrial societies are set apart from their more numerous neighbours by having passed through a series of changes loosely referred to as an ‘industrial revolution’. The process of change is long and complex and it is rarely possible to identify the origins. But the rise of the west of Scotland in the eighteenth century was so dramatic that it is possible to isolate the leading sector. Foreign trade fostered a commercial revolution and set the region on the path of rapid economic growth. This is not to say that foreign trade was the only generator of the region’s industrial revolution, but it was the hinge on which the west of Scotland began to swing away from an impoverished pre-industrial condition towards its modern form. It is not surprising that the momentum for change should first have become evident in the trading sphere. Scotsmen had long appreciated the benefits which flowed from active trading links. They knew that foreign trade broadened the potential market for domestic goods and could introduce a wider choice of articles to the local economy, and that the business of exchange encouraged the development of a merchant community and its specialised services, as well as directly influencing the general level of economic activity.
