Scotland
in Europe (II)
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The Rise
of Edinburgh & Leith
 The
benefits of Scotland’s European lifeline were felt mainly along
the East Coast of the country. 600 years ago, Leith (Edinburgh’s
port on the Firth of Forth) was Europe’s gateway to Scotland.
Edinburgh had become Scotland’s Renaissance capital on the
back of European trade across the North Sea in the 15th century.
As trade expanded, so did Edinburgh. By the mid-16th century it
was a busy town composed of two-storey houses in the lee of its
formidable castle. By the mid-17th century, it had expanded into
a bustling city (the second largest in Britain), crammed with lawyers,
merchants and goldsmiths, as well as all the problems that are attendant
with urban life.
Edinburgh dominated
Scots European trade, but the smaller East Coast burghs were the
primary centres for the export of raw materials: Crail, Dunbar and
Anstruther for fish; Prestonpans, Dysart, Culross and Kirkcaldy
for salt; Montrose for grain, while Bo’ness on the River Forth
was Glasgow’s gateway to the North Sea for the export of hides
from across the West of Scotland.
In return the
Scots imported necessities, like timber from Norway, iron from Sweden
and oranges from Spain. But they also imported luxury goods like
wine, brandy and books from France; beaver hats from Normandy; and,
especially from the Low Countries, pottery, jewels, tombstones,
silk, carpets, glass, tapestries, works of art and apothecary's
drugs.
 For
many East Coast Scottish towns, being part of Europe was an everyday
reality - a fact given architectural form in the Dutch-influenced
designs of the tolbooths of Crail, Culross and Dunbar, the Kirk
tower of Anstruther Wester, or the wealthy merchants' houses of
George Bruce at Culross or James Dick at Prestonfield in Edinburgh.
There are signs of the great wealth accumulated at this time all
over Scotland’s East Coast.
The trade in
goods complemented the trade in ideas encouraged during the Renaissance
period, and ensured that Scotland kept abreast of the latest developments
in a rapidly evolving and increasingly cosmopolitan Europe.
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