Tracing global spread of Scots

In the fast-growing field of "Celtic diaspora" studies, the Scots lag behind the Irish. Yet, as Otago readers will know, they made a major contribution to the British Empire.

That is why I welcome this wide-ranging survey by one of the doyens of Scottish history, T.M. Devine. It is a scholarly work, but perfectly accessible to the general reader. In it, Devine examines Scotland's contribution to the globe while avoiding the exceptionalism of Arthur Herman's The Scottish Enlightenment (2002) and what he calls "the Burns Supper School of Scottish History".

To do that, he bases his generalisations on "hard, statistical and representative evidence", examining numerical ratios of the Scottish/other UK ethnicities participation in imperial territories, occupations and commerce in addition to scrutinising through thematic chapters, topics such as Scottish involvement in slavery (more substantial than commonly thought) as well as Scottish missionaries, soldiers and sailors and entrepreneurs.

If that sounds heavy going, think again, for it throws up some fairly big questions. Why was Scotland both a land of emigration and immigration, with the Irish flooding into Scotland's cities at the same time as the Scots were emigrating to the United States and underpinning the empire's defence forces and commerce?

And why did Scotland's economy plunge so far late last century?

Statistics show that by 1851 the Scots were extraordinarily mobile within their own country, like the Irish then flooding into the factories of the booming Lowland cities. The Scots had been doing it since the 13th century, settling in pockets throughout medieval Europe.

In early Victorian Scotland, Highland clearances, the potato famine and the need to find outlets for younger sons of big landowners all came together. In a way, emigration could be seen as a natural extension of that process, especially as steamships and railways made travel faster, safer and cheaper.

While there were peaks and troughs, that outflow was remarkably sustained until almost the end of the 20th century. Drawn by opportunity rather than pushed by crisis, the Scots seldom experienced the discrimination inflicted in new lands on other groups such as the Irish or eastern Europeans.

Devine finds that the great Scottish merchants were more likely to spend the wealth they acquired overseas on land rather than directly in industry.

That left them at a disadvantage against the English and when low-wage economies began to undercut Europe's smokestack industries.

  - Gavin McLean is a Wellington historian