Documentary, cartographic and archaeological sources suggest that agrarian practice in the north east of Scotland from the late sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries was more diverse, dynamic and targeted than often supposed. The evidence suggests that Strathbogie saw extensive agricultural expansion throughout the entire period, especially in areas demonstrating earlier underutilisation. Real improvement and expansion occurred as a result of developing existing traditional systems of agriculture, which was socially at odds with the later and much vaunted 'Improvements'. These practices maximised productivity by targeting the production of a range of commodities at their most appropriate ecological zones within the overall landscape of the estate, the Lordship of Huntly. Such a model for production appears to have influenced the settlement strategy within those individual ecological zones. However, an over-emphasis upon grain production may, ultimately, have resulted in unsustainable practices, contrasting with earlier more ecologically-targeted ones.
It can be argued, based upon a limited range of surviving evidence, that the land-locked centre of Buchan formed a distinctive upland zone functioning alongside and interwoven with the surrounding lower lands during the thirteenth century. The area can be characterised as less densely settled and engaged in extensive pastoral farming regimes that contrasted with contemporary arable farming of a more intensive nature on the lower-lying lands. Subsequent demographic and agricultural changes have rendered that former environment invisible and the limited documentary sources of the thirteenth century have compounded its mystery. Although a relatively remote upland area, its economy was at least as successful per capita than the rich grain lands surrounding it. Rather than representing a place of secondary importance, it may well have been instrumental in fuelling Aberdeen’s rich thirteenth-century export trade of sheep products to the Low Countries and, perhaps, shared a symbiotic relationship with the lower, arable lands.
Abstract:Documentary evidence relating to tenurial agreements and service obligations survive for a number of estates in north-east Scotland, spanning the fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries. Close inspection demonstrates the development of terminological usage as semantics alter with reference to changing socioeconomic mechanisms underpinning the structure of society. This article also explores the possibility that these changes may be linked to a developing philosophical view within which the growth of capitalism was rationalised.
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