ABSTRACT
Coal and iron were the sinews of Scotland’s economic revolution in the nineteenth century, but before that time they grew haltingly and were not greatly dependent on each other. Technical problems limited the expansion of both industries. It was coalmining which made the greater progress in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Scotland had a long history in the working of coal; small pits were common throughout the Central Lowlands by 1750. The industry was dominated by the collieries along the Firth of Forth since landowners there enjoyed easy access to coal seams, reliable communications by road and coaster, and well-established contacts with markets on the Continent. The mines in the West of Scotland were too isolated to share in this traditional trade and remained largely undeveloped till the local market began to expand in the eighteenth century. As we have seen, the political and economic union of 1707 diminished the importance of the European orientation and carried the west of Scotland out of its rural remoteness. Overseas trading was pushed dramatically westward, and successful manipulation of the new opportunities resulted in unprecedented commercial expansion. A rapidly-growing population and the development of small industries supplying the colonial trade stimulated domestic and industrial demand for coal. This placed the capacity of the scattered diggings under great strain.
