Mechanisms of foreign trade: re-evaluating the power of the Scottish mercantile elite in the late middle ages

Abstract

This thesis presents a re-evaluation of the traditional narrative of power in late medieval Scotland, focusing on the power and influence wielded by the Scottish mercantile community from 1320 to 1513. The fluidity of this professionally-defined community is considered, as is its importance in the mechanisms of Scotland’s profitable wool trade with Flanders. It is argued that the merchant community of late medieval Scotland, and the informal trade networks formed within it, provided commercial and financial protections for the transportation of goods abroad, which were not extended by the guilds merchant of Scotland. The influence of Scotland’s mercantile community over the implementation of pro-mercantile legislation at a national and local level is, then, considered. The introduction of the failed thirteenth-century royal marriage of Alexander, prince of Scotland, and Margaret of Flanders and the resulting economic protectionist legislation is argued to have been the first introduction of such parliamentary acts in the Scotto-Flemish trade relationship. The examples of the expulsion of Flemings from Scotland in 1347 and the threatened forfeiture of merchants in 1425 are analysed as examples of the Scottish crown’s use of pro-mercantile legislation to garner the support of their mercantile elite. It is then argued that the implementation of pro-mercantile legislation was also driven by Scottish merchants and the pursuit of their commercial interests, analysing legislation which encouraged communal freighting and restricted the personnel of overseas trade. The expression of the power and influence of Scotland’s mercantile elite was not limited to national and local politics. It could be seen through their appointment as ambassadors in commercial negotiations between Scotland and Flanders and their pursuit of improved mercantile protections and renewed trade. The concept of a specialist ambassador is presented and it is argued that they were utilised in Scotto-Flemish negotiations because of their personal or familial practical knowledge of overseas trade, their social and political status, and their ability to faithfully represent the Scottish crown. The case study of the Lauder family, prominent merchant burgesses originally from Lothian, and their network is used to argue that specialist ambassadors were drawn from a small, self-perpetuating pool of qualified Scottish merchants, who formed bonds, through marriage, and relationships, through geographic proximity and shared occupations, with other prominent overseas merchants. The interconnected nature of the Lauder network stands as an example of the ways in which late medieval Scottish merchants sought to retain control of the mechanisms of local governance and overseas trade.