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Dawn of a New Economic Order To Sustene the Personis: The Agricultural Revolution places the experiences of an extended family, the McCowans of Cumnock, Ayrshire, within the larger context of local social and economic change. When the Ground Fails: An Economic Watershed, further examines the monumental rural social and economic changes in Lowland Scotland through a focus on the Lesmahagow area of Lanarkshire. On the community level, we also briefly contrasted Lesmahagow with the more agriculturally progressive Parish of Old Cumnock in Ayrshire. We are now somewhat prepared to examine the effects -- negative and positive -- of socio-economic and psychological stresses on families and individuals. Detailed studies of Lanarkshire families through this period are rare. The History of the Family of the Aitons, written in 1830 by the outspoken Tory and agricultural reporter, William Aiton, chronicles the declining prosperity of a family of former bonnet-lairds and tenant farmers. While some in the Aiton family became professionals, many from the last two generations entered the weaving trade. The agricultural and industrial revolutions affected all -- some for the better and many for the worse. For the most part, these late eighteenth / early nineteenth century "socio-economic revolutions" were not driven by some overbearing political manifesto or by some otherwise unqualified force. They were -- very significantly -- driven by individuals. A relentless growth of personal "wants" amongst the upper and middle classes put additional stresses on their neighbours and subordinates. And for the lower classes, the luxuries of yesterday soon became the needs of today. Personalities -- as varied, unpredictable, intractable, and (often) mal-directed then as now -- were the vehicle of conflict. The action / reaction relationships between landlord and tenant, miller and labourer, farmer and miner, native and immigrant, and father and son against a background of technological discovery, population growth and periodic food shortage constituted an uncontrollable whirlwind of change. The courts, the church and the government were -- then as now -- "ages" behind the people in the quest for social equilibrium. The role of the common individual in the turbulent re-ordering of early nineteenth century Scottish society is relatively unknown in comparison with the volumes written about the political and financial heavyweights. The commoner's psyche, his reactions to external influences, his wants and his values were very real and potentially forceful. Unfortunately, they are largely a mystery to us now in this late twentieth century re-run of socio-economic upheaval. Were we to know more about the cause and effect relationships that affected the masses in 1800, we might be better prepared to deal with the chaos that lies ahead.... James McCowan, the coalminer turned Coalmaster, was one of those energetic -- but unrecognized -- Scottish entrepreneurs who ushered in a new economic era. The agriculturally-based subsistence economy that had lasted for well over a thousand years was to be rapidly superseded by a market-driven economy fueled by the great resources, coal and iron -- and ordinary people like James McCowan....
Emigrant Entrepreneurs The national economy was growing. Tenant farmers had their own independent holdings. Colliers were finally emancipated from servility in 1799. British influence was spreading around the world. There was a new spirit of individualism at home and the promise of fortune in the colonies abroad. Scots carried their enterprise around the world and took advantage of every opportunity. Some of the successful emigrant Scots had been bred of the lowest classes in the Scottish countryside -- the master-servant relationship endured by most of them would be a shock to us today. It should not come as a surprise that some of these Scots might not turn out to be the best of masters by today's standards. David McCowan sailed from Port Glasgow for Trinidad on December 6 1800. After working as a mason, he became a very busy importer and was evidently an architect by the time he died. On April 4, 1808, he wrote to his brother, James in Lesmahagow, of the great fire in Port of Spain and his plans to profit from it: From When The Ground Fails: An Economic Watershed
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