Scottish Independence - Treaty of Union in 1707

[Scotnat]

'By the early eighteenth century, Scotland was a kingdom in crisis. Her economy had been severely weakened by a series of major harvest failures beginning in 1695. The 'Lean Years' of the 1690s were compounded by the catastrophic failure of the Darien Scheme and the attempt to establish a Scottish imperial outlet, the colony of Caledonia, on the Isthmus of Darien. Deliberately sabotaged by the combined efforts of the English East India Company, the international financial markets at Amsterdam and King William, it is estimated that almost 25% of Scotland's total liquid capital was lost in the Darien venture.'

SOURCE: 'The Last Scottish Parliament', BBC, paragraph 1.

'...England retaliated in 1705 with the Alien Act, which declared that, until Scotland accepted the Hanoverian succession, all Scots would be treated as aliens in England and the import of cattle, sheep, coal and linen from Scotland into England would not be allowed; this measure stimulated the Scots into appointing commissioners to treat for union.'

SOURCE: 'Scottish Historical Documents' by Professor Gordon Donaldson, p. 266, ISBN 1-897784-41-4.

[Scotnat]

'Time and events have largely erased the context of the original deal.'

Not only 'time and events' but perhaps a deliberate policy of suppressing anything which contradicted the view that the British establishment wished to present. I believe that it is quite possible that such a policy was also applied to certain parts of English history.

'I presume that the people of Scotland are looking mostly towards the future prospects, rather than the events of the past, when they decide if the Union is to continue.'

There is a saying that goes something like this -

"Unless we can learn from the mistakes of the past we are destined to repeat them in the future."