An Open Economy: The Berwick Shipping Trade, 1311–1373

Abstract

The argument of this paper is that studies of an earlier world have something to tell modern political economy about the way economies develop and that, while history must draw on economic insights, economics ought not to be a science without time. The paper generalises from one sphere of trade, known from the Berwick ‘particulars of custom’, to national income, which can be estimated (or guessed at) from ecclesiastical taxations. Where studies of medieval Scotland have taken a distinctly theoretical, legal turn, it may do no harm to discuss the practicalities of concrete economic evidence: cargoes, merchants, ships, sailors and so on. The mechanics of customs administration can also be followed in the particulars. The taxations suggest that the immediate demand-side impacts of the export trade had longer-term supply-side effects, as landlords developed their sheep farming interests. The export trade tied in with foreign taxations, generating funds for transmission overseas. The opening of the economy had the potential for the usual multiplier effects but these were counter-balanced by selfish, and hugely damaging, English interference in Scotland's trade in Europe. Fourteenth-century Scots put up stiff resistance but could not entirely escape the tribulations brought on their heads by English decisions.