Scottish Staple
The Scottish Staple was a medieval and early modern trading system that required Scottish merchants to conduct foreign trade, particularly in goods like wool and hides, through designated staple ports—most notably in the Low Countries—to regulate commerce and secure royal revenues. It was a close equivalent to The Staple that ran in England.
History
In the 15th century, Bruges was the Scottish staple port. The arrangement was made following the marriage of Wolfert VI of Borselen and Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan in 1444.[1]
As the harbour at Bruges silted up, the focus of Scots trade moved north to the Dutch ports of Middelburg and Veere, with Veere gaining staple status in 1541,[2] when the merchant Andrew Mowbray (III) travelled to Middelburg as commissioner for the city of Edinburgh to negotiate a trade agreement with Maximilian II of Burgundy.[3]
There is some evidence of Dordrecht being used in 1670.[4]
Conservator of Privileges
At the Staple towns, Scottish interests were served by an officer called the Conservator of Privileges, or Conservator of the Scottish Staple. The Conservator held a judicial court reckoned as an inferior jurisdiction under the authority of the Parliament of Scotland. A Conservator of Privileges was established at Bruges on 12 September 1408 by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland.[5]
The Conservators include Stevin Anguys and Anselm Adornes (died 1483) in Bruges,[6] Andrew Halyburton (died 1507),[7] George Gordon, George Hacket, Robert Dennistoun (appointed 1587), Thomas Cunningham senior, Deputy-Conservator (died 1623), Patrick Drummond, Thomas Cunningham, Johannes Klencke, William Davidson of Curriehill, James Kennedy, Andrew Kennedy of Closeburn, who worked at Rotterdam, and John Hume.[8][9]
References
- ^ Morris, David B. (1919). The Stirling merchant gild and life of John Cowane. Stirling: Morris, David B. pp. 195–210. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
- ^ "Scotland in Europe". BBC History. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
- ^ Denys Hay, Letters of James V (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1954), p. 423: James Yair, Account of Scottish Trade in the Netherlands (London, 1776), pp. 107, 110.
- ^ Cook, W. R.; Morris, David R, eds. (1916). The Stirling guildry book. Extracts from the records of the merchant guild of Stirling ... 1592-1846. Stirling: Glasgow, Stirlingshire and Sons of the Rock Society. p. 75. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^ "Scottish Trade with Flanders", The Scottish Antiquary, 2 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 35: James Yair, Account of Scottish Trade in the Netherlands (London, 1776), p. 39.
- ^ Niels Fieremans, Law, Leverage, and Litigation in Late Medieval Bruges: Foreign Merchants in a City of Justice (Edinburgh, 2025), pp. 87–89.
- ^ Alexander Fleming and Roger Mason, Scotland and the Flemish People (Birlinn, 2019), p. 62.
- ^ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Early Records Relating to Mining in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1878), pp. 50–51.
- ^ Victor Enthoven, "Thomas Cunningham", Irish and Scottish Mercantile Networks in Europe and Overseas in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Gent: Academia Press, 2007), p. 45.