| ||||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Edinburgh | |||||||
| Other Cities | Glasgow | |||||||
| Language Official |
English | |||||||
| Others | Scottish Gaelic and Scots | |||||||
| Religion Main |
Church of Scotland | |||||||
| Others | Other Protestants and Roman Catholic | |||||||
| Ethnic Group | European | |||||||
| Demonym | Scottish or Scots | |||||||
| Government | Home country in union with the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland | |||||||
| Lord Protector | Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend | |||||||
| Lord President | TBD | |||||||
| Area | 78,772 km² | |||||||
| Established | Kingdom of Scotland 9th century–1651, part of the Commonwealth 1651-1657, Act of Union 1657 to date | |||||||
| Currency | Pound Scots (until 1701) → Pound sterling ( £ Scottish Gaelic: Punnd Sasannach, Scots: Poond sterlin) | |||||||
Though tyrants threat, though Lyons rage and rore
Defy them all, and feare not to win out
Elizabeth Melville (Ane Godlie Dreame, Edinburgh 1603)
Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba) is a country that is part of the Commonwealth and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
History
Seven ill years (1695, 1696 and 1698–99) of famine in Scotland in the 1690s. It resulted from an economic slump created by French protectionism and changes in the Scottish cattle trade, followed by four years of failed harvests.
Government
The Council of State for Scotland with nine members (starting 1655), named by the Council of State and at least half of its members must be scotsmen. The Lord President chairs the Council. The seat of Council and main government offices are at Palace of Holyroodhouse (Edinburgh, Scotland). In addition to ensuring the continuance of the Union and the establishment of good government, the Council were directed to encourage the preaching of the Gospel; encourage the growth of Universities and schools; purge the burghs of disaffected magistrates; administer justice; to approximate the judicial system to that of England; encourage trade and foster the revenue. Important measures of the Council are the ones that allowed The burghs to elect their own magistrates and Justice of the Peace courts were set up in all of Scotland.
Lord Presidents of the Council
- Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (Sept 1655- Aug 1656)
- ...
- George Monck (Oct 1659-...)
- ...
- James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1683-1686)
- ...
Administrative organization
Scotland is divided in shires (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachdan), burghs and parishes.
Shires of Scotland
The shires, numbered on the map, are the following:
- Caithness
- Sutherland
- Ross
- 3Cromarty
- Inverness
- Nairn
- Elgin
- Banff
- Aberdeen
- Kincardine
- Forfar
- Perth
- Argyll
- Bute
- Ayr
- Renfrew
- Dumbarton
- Stirling
- Clackmannan
- Kinross
- Fife
- Linlithgow
- Edinburgh
- Haddington
- Berwick
- Roxburgh
- Dumfries
- Kirkcudbright
- Wigtown
- Lanark
- Selkirk
- Peebles
Not shown:
- Zetland (Shetland) - Shetland Islands
- Orkney - Orkney Islands
A burgh is an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland, usually a town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the Commonwealth.
Religion
The Church of Scotland (Scots: The Scots Kirk, Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais na h-Alba), known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is the Protestant and Presbyterian established church of Scotland. It is legally the national church. The Church of Scotland traces its roots back to the beginnings of Christianity in Scotland, but its identity is principally shaped by the Reformation of 1560.
The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in polity and Reformed in theology. As a Presbyterian church, the Kirk has no bishops, but is rather governed by elders and ministers (collectively called presbyters) sitting in a series of courts. Each congregation is led by a Kirk Session. The Kirk Sessions in turn are answerable to regional presbyteries. The supreme body is the annual General Assembly, which meets in Edinburgh. A Church of Scotland congregation is led by its minister and elders. Each of courts has a moderator and a clerk.
Education
The Kirk as a major role in education. Statutes passed in 1616 (School Establishment Act), 1633 (Education Act 1633), and 1646 (Education Act 1646) established a parish school system, paid for by local heritors and administered by ministers and local presbyteries. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.
The Scottish universities recovered from the disruption of the civil war years with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high-quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry. The model of organization in Scotland is a centralized university, unlike the rest of the Commonwealth that have a collegiate universities.
There are four universities in Scotland:
- University of St Andrews, founded in 1410, Royal Charter 1413.
- University of Glasgow founded in 1451
- University of Edinburgh founded in 1583
- University of Aberdeen 1654. Created by the complete unification of University and King's College of Aberdeen (1495) and Marischal College and University of Aberdeen (1593). Previously they were nominally merged in the King Charles University of Aberdeen by royal decree of 1641, but the independent administration of the two institutions was keep.
Economy
Until 1670s, the country was relatively highly taxed, but gained access to English markets. In 1656 the civil list alone cost £25,000. The sum of £10,000 a month from the county assessment (called asses in Scotland) was demanded by the Cromwellian regime, which Scotland failed to fully supply and it was reduced to 6,000 a year in 1657. The total was never less than £90,000 a year. In addition the country contributed about £35,000 in excise a year. Despite this, there was an annual deficit of £130,000, which was covered by English revenues.
Scotland had suffered considerable economic disruption during the period of the civil wars, caused by loss of manpower to a dozen armies, free quarter (the billeting of troops on civilians without payment), plunder and heavy taxation. A number of merchants, particularly moneylenders, were ruined by the wars. The east-coast towns had probably lost about one fifth of their population from the outbreak of bubonic plague that occurred in 1645. This was slow to recover and in 1651 rents in Edinburgh had to be reduced by a third.
The free trade that was the major economic incentive of the union was not all beneficial, as Scotland now has to compete with the more highly developed English merchant fleet. The economy began to revive after 1650, but the prosperity was not spread evenly across the country. While Glasgow and Aberdeen prospered, Dundee and the Fife ports continued to decline. The financing of military building and the spending of wages by so many soldiers did benefit some. New industries included glass production at Leith and Cromwell's troops are traditionally credited with bringing north both the knitting of socks and the planting of kale. The good order imposed by the armed presence encouraged trade and manufacture.
Along overdue demand of local commercial interests of Scotland come to being in 1695 with the establishment of The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland (Bank of Scotland) as government lender and commercial bank (deposit-taker and credit institution) to assists and promote Scottish business and lend to the government, subject to parliamentary approval.
The Coinage Union (1701) of England, Scotland and Wales made the pound sterling (Scottish Gaelic: Punnd Sasannach, Scots: Poond sterlin) the sole currency replacing the previous home country currency (Pound Scots).
Parliamentary representation
The parliamentary representation of Scotland is the following:
| House of Commons | Boro' const. |
County const. |
Univ. const. |
Total const. |
Boro' MPs |
County MPs |
Univ. MPs |
Total MPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House of Commons (1654-...) | 9 | 20 | — | 29 | 10 | 20 | — | 30 |
| House of Commons (after Universities Constituencies Act) | 9 | 20 | 4 | 33 | 10 | 20 | 4 | 34 |
| Senate | Total Senators | |||||||
| Senate (1663-...) | / | / | / | / | 18 | |||
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