In The Year 1544, Scotland Must Have Had No Inconsiderable Foreign Trade, As In The War Which Took Place At

This time between that country and England, twenty-eight of the principal ships of Scotland, laden with all kinds of

Rich merchandize, were captured by the English, on their voyage from France, Flanders, Denmark, &c.; and in the same year, when the English took Leith, they found more riches in it than they had reason to expect. While Scotland and England were at peace, however, the former was principally supplied through the latter with the commodities which Antwerp, during the sixteenth century, dispersed over all Europe. The exports of Scotland to Antwerp, &c. were indeed direct, and consisted principally, as we have already remarked from Guicciardini, of peltry, leather, wool, indifferent cloth, and pearls.

The earliest account which occurs of the Scotch carrying on commerce to any port out of Europe, is in the year 1589, when three or four Scotch ships were found at the Azores by the earl of Cumberland. In the year 1598, it appears, from a letter of king James to Queen Elizabeth, that some Scotch merchants traded to the Canaries. There is evidence that the Scotch had some commerce in the Mediterranean in the beginning of the seventeenth century; for in the "Cabala," under the year 1624, the confiscation of three Scotch ships at Malaga is noticed, for importing Dutch commodities. The principal articles of export from Scotland to foreign countries consisted of coarse woollen stuffs and stockings, linen goods, peltry, leather, wool, pearls, &c. The principal imports were wine and fruits from France, wine from Spain and Portugal, the finer woollen goods from England, timber, iron, &c. from the Baltic, and sugars, spices, silks, &c. from Antwerp, Portugal, &c.

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