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- Title
Railways and the Transformation of the Scottish Economy.
- Authors
Vamplew, Wray
- Abstract
This article examines the roles played by indigenous railways in the rise of the Scottish heavy industries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Scottish economy was dominated by agriculture and textile production. By the end of the century these were still important, but heavy industry, in the shape of coal mining, iron and steel production, engineering, and shipbuilding, had come to the fore. Concurrent with this transformation was the construction of some 3,500 miles of railways. That these railways consumed and carried many of the products of heavy industry might imply that Scotland was no exception to scholar W.W. Rostow's generalization--the development of railways has led on to the development of modern coal, iron and engineering industries. The work of scholar R.W. Fogel has, however, demonstrated the naïvety of accepting such statements without subjecting them to statistical verification. Unfortunately, quantification is not always possible and any arguments based solely on non-numerical evidence must be treated with caution.
- Subjects
SCOTLAND; RAILROADS; SCOTTISH economy; BUSINESS enterprises; TRANSPORTATION; INDUSTRIAL laws &; legislation; COAL mining; INDUSTRIAL engineering; TWENTIETH century
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1971, Vol 24, Issue 1, p37
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2593639