Agricultural Wage Rates in late Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Bibliographic Data

ID3424320
AuthorsValerie Morgan (0000-0003-1576-6052, University of Ulster, corresponding author)
Year1971
Volume24
Issue2
Pages181
Publication date1971-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2594429
OpenAlexW4234968766
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited2

T HE Old Statistical Account-the 2 I-volume amalgam of over 9oo parish reports sent by Scottish ministers to Sir John Sinclair in response to his list of 1 86 questions on physical, economic, and social conditions in the I 790'sis well known to many people outside the relatively specialized field of eighteenthcentury Scottish economic history. Surprisingly, however, the information in the Account has usually been used in a rather piecemeal way, with frequent quotation of selected comments but little study of the reports as a whole.2 Any attempt to use the data in the Account as a basis for systematic analysis inevitably encounters serious difficulties; these arise from the unavoidable problems of gathering factual information in a still only partially industrialized society, and create serious doubts regarding the reliability and accuracy of the information, the uneven scatter of the data, and, perhaps most problematic of all, the lack of opportunities for cross-checking. These drawbacks cannot, however, obscure the importance of at least attempting to present and study carefully the information which the ministers provide-information which despite its imperfections gives a unique record of a society in the midst of the process of industrialization and agrarian reform

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Archaeology · Demographic economics · Economics · Geography · Labour economics · Wage · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Scottish History and National Identity

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