This thesis is concerned with the Scottish landowners' influence on the development of commercial agriculture. It examines the transformation of a traditional and essentially feudal agricultural society to one in which commercial agricultural interests dominate. The thesis focuses on the county of Forfarshire (now Angus) in Scotland, between the years 1750 - 1815. The author challenges the orthodoxy of a landlord-led revolution in agricultural improvement by establishing the vital role of the tenant farmer. The societal changes associated with the eighteenth-century agricultural revolution, it is argued, were derived as much from tenants responding to new agricultural markets as from the consequences of estate planning dictated by their landlords. The work draws heavily on analysis of evidence from the Forfarshire Sheriff Court records and Court of Session papers in a deliberate departure from traditional historiography derived predominantly from the study of landlord and estate papers. The thesis examines the changes in rural society through the conflicts that resulted from the evolution of the feudal, community based farmtoun of traditional agriculture to the commercially based, single-tenanted agriculture of the 'improved' farm. The way in which landowners exercised power through the agricultural tack is examined through the changing relationship between landlord and tenant that was expressed (or implied) in the conditions imposed by farm tacks. The evolution of the fee contract in response to pressures arising from commercial agriculture will be discussed. Finally, the thesis explores the influence of emerging agricultural markets on the way in which tenants exploited the resources of their farms.

The relationship between Highland chiefs and the Edinburgh legal profession had its origin in the period following the establishment of the College of Justice in 1532. Relations existed between Edinburgh lawyers and many chiefs in the later 16<SUP>th</SUP> century but the relationship became closer in the early 17<SUP>th</SUP> century and a group of lawyers emerged who specialised in Highland clients. A significant change took place in the later 17<SUP>th</SUP> century as a large number of Highlanders became lawyers in Edinburgh themselves. The rise of these "clan lawyers" meant that the client-lawyer relationship was more likely to be governed by kinship in the later 17<SUP>th</SUP> century than it had been in the 16<SUP>th</SUP> century. Around 1550 a significant change took place in the nature of the lawyers that chiefs employed in the locality. Incoming Scots speaking lawyers from outside the kindred took over the top positions as notaries public and legal servitors. By the later 17<SUP>th</SUP> century members of Highland kindreds became lawyers in the burghs bordering the Highlands. Another group of lawyers operated within the Highlands, outwith the households of the chiefs, in the later 17<SUP>th</SUP> century. Legal costs were an increasing financial burden on the chiefs as legal fees escalated in the early 17<SUP>th</SUP> century. The chiefs borrowed extensive sums of money from the legal profession and the management of debt became a central part of the legal work carried out for the chiefs. By the later 17<SUP>th</SUP> century chronic indebtedness was a major cause of social change in the Highlands.

This thesis examines certain aspects of social organisation within farming communities in Perthshire during the 'post-improvement' period - the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through a process of historical ethnography involving consultation of both documentary and oral source material, an attempt is made to identify and evaluate the cultural markers of the farming life mode as expressed through the collected written and spoken witness narratives. The topographical variety to be found within the Perthshire landscape has encouraged the development of a wide range of agricultural production forms within the county. Following an analysis of the specific manifestations of the agricultural improvement process within the Perthshire context, a number of themes relating to household organisation and community cooperation are examined. Divisions of labour based on both age and gender are addressed in relation to the organisation of family farming, with specific emphasis upon the roles of children - a greatly neglected theme within Scottish agricultural historiography. The investigation then widens out to include the 'temporary family' of the farm bothy, a mode of accommodation which consistently appears as a central theme in the life story narratives of male farm servants consulted during this investigation. The concept of neighbourhood is analysed through the two modes of communal labour arrangement commonly found with Perthshire - exchange labour and charity labour. It is argued that these formed central links in the local informal economy, and that they were essential to the maintenance of social cohesion and the construction of community identity. The Perthshire evidence is outlined and analysed and then discussed within the context of recent and current thought relating to theories of reciprocity and cooperation.

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The Edinburgh locksmith craft was a branch of a hierarchical incorporation of metal workers known as the Incorporation of Hammermen. This thesis aims to gain a better understanding of the organisation, influence and practicalities of a specific occupation found in most urban areas of early modern Europe. The thesis looks at three broad areas, set out in six chapters relating to the locksmith craft. The first area is the structure, government, and influence of the locksmiths in the social hierarchy in which the craft existed. How influential were the locksmiths? How wealthy were they? What patterns of growth and decline are visible in the surviving records for the hammermen? What does this tell us about Edinburgh’s early modern metalwares market? The second area deals with the relation of the locksmiths to society. The locksmiths had unofficial associates with other craftsmen both within their own incorporation and outside it, who worked with similar materials or techniques. The role of the craft in providing security is also scrutinized, both in general burgess duties, and the locksmith’s unique contribution in providing security technology. The third area deals with the practical side of their trade. Their workplace, products and services are looked at in order to understand just what they contributed to early modern society, and how they applied their skills. This thesis is multi-disciplinary, in that it relies heavily on both historical documents, such as the Incorporation of Hammermen’s minute books and burgh records, and also on surviving material culture, through the extensive collection of locks and keys housed in the National Museums of Scotland. Thy physical objects used by a society are as important a record as the written documents. By studying the surviving artefacts, some interesting hypotheses can be drawn on the role of the locksmith in early modern urban society, as well as giving a better understanding of the skill levels required to work in the particular craft. The period covered is from 1483, when the metalworkers were first given permission to incorporate into an organized craft guild, to 1750, which is an arbitrarily chosen point, before which Edinburgh was an increasingly demanding consumer society, but which predates the new technology prompted by the Industrial Revolution. The technology and social structure of the locksmiths did not change drastically over this period, though both were remarkably different from the medieval or modern periods. It was a time when guild influence was still strong, and technology was relatively weak. This study represents a single craft in a unique time period.

This Thesis addresses the Scottish Enlightenment’s reconfiguration of citizenship in a commercial age. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a time of enormous challenge for Scotland, moving from a martial past to a commercial present. As the nature of society changed, so did the nature of citizenship and the Scottish Enlightenment sought to provide answers to the questions of what kind of citizen you should be and could be in this new age. I will argue these questions were central to the work of key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment and that we can most usefully understand their contributions to the debate by focussing on the concept of political responsibility, a concept I will develop and utilise to examine and assess changing notions of citizenship and appropriate social and political behaviour. Scottish Enlightenment thinkers were concerned with issues central to civic humanism, such as luxury, corruption and their impact on participation in political life. However, they were not limited by civic humanism and sought to understand and rethink these issues in the context of a commercialising society where citizenship could no longer be largely based on martial activity. They were realistic and recognised the necessity for change, that in commercial society a new kind of citizenship was required. This Thesis is concerned with the boundaries of citizenship in this new age: who was judged to be qualified to be a citizen and why; who was disqualified and why. Thus, a central focus will be on issues of inclusion and exclusion. While this Thesis is primarily an interpretive work, implicit throughout is the question of how successful these thinkers’ attempts to reconfigure citizenship for a commercial age were and whether it was possible to reconfigure civic humanism for this new age. Along with the work of those universally recognised as key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, such as Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith, I will consider not only predecessors, such as Gershom Carmichael and Francis Hutcheson, but also those whose works are literary rather than philosophical, such as James Macpherson, Henry Mackenzie and Walter Scott. I will argue that the Scottish Enlightenment has to be considered in a broader way than it often is, in terms of both time and material. In terms of time, the Scottish Enlightenment is a process not an event and needs to be understood in the context of a continuing Scottish debate on citizenship and political responsibility. In terms of material, the philosophers’ concerns were shared by journalists and novelists and their contribution is too little considered.

In essence, the main concern of this study is to explain the process which led to the creation of the modern Scottish National Party. It starts with the circumstances which forced those interested in obtaining Scottish self-government to look for an alternative means to attaining their goal; namely setting up their own political party. The predecessors of the SNP are examined, as is the evolution of nationalist political strategy and identity. The main thread of the story follows those who argued that the SNP could only achieve its goal by contesting elections and advocating distinct ecnomic and social policies. Both of these issues, which by no means commanded universal support, were of crucial importance in establishing a unique nationalist political ethos which has lasted up until today. Much of the thesis is devoted to reviewing the internal disputes over strategy and policy that were fought in order to create a nationalist orthodoxy.