Undergraduate Course: Death and Taxes: Finance and Politics in Early Modern Scotland (SCHI10072)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course is about the fiscal history of early modern Scotland, from about 1500 to 1707. During this period, Scotland underwent a transition from a ¿domain state¿, with state revenues drawn mainly from the crown¿s land rents and feudal dues, to a ¿tax state¿, with state revenues drawn mainly from taxes. The course analyses this transition with attention to the various political interest groups involved. |
| Course description |
This course is about the fiscal history of early modern Scotland, from about 1500 to 1707. During this period, Scotland underwent a transition from a ¿domain state¿, with state revenues drawn mainly from the crown¿s land rents and feudal dues, to a ¿tax state¿, with state revenues drawn mainly from taxes. It also survived various periods of dramatic bankruptcy and crisis. The course introduces students to theoretical models of fiscal transition, and to economic analysis of different types of taxation. There is also a political dimension, since fiscal policy was shaped by various interest groups (nobility, church, merchants, artisans), and sometimes driven by the imperatives of warfare. This was a period of state formation, and the course examines this with particular attention to the relative contribution of two periods: the personal reign of James VI (1585-1625) and the Scottish Revolution (1638-1651). The first part of the course deals with structural issues concerning different types of taxation: how could a pre-modern state extract resources from powerful elites? The second part surveys the period chronologically, looking at fiscal policy-making from the Reformation to the Union of Crowns, through to the Scottish Revolution and finally the Union of Parliaments in 1707
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780)
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting Students should usually have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
Richard Bonney (ed.), Economic Systems and State Finance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
Richard Bonney and W. M. Ormrod, ¿Introduction: crises, revolutions and self-sustained growth: towards a conceptual model of change in fiscal history¿, in W. M. Ormrod, Margaret Bonney and Richard Bonney (eds.), Crises, Revolutions and Self-Sustained Growth: Essays in European Fiscal History, 1130-1830 (Stamford: Watkins, 1999), pp. 1-21
Julian Goodare, ¿Parliamentary taxation in Scotland, 1560-1603¿, Scottish Historical Review, 68 (1989), pp. 23-52
Julian Goodare, State and Society in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Julian Goodare, ¿James VI¿s English subsidy¿, in Julian Goodare and Michael Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), pp. 110-25
Julian Goodare, ¿A balance sheet for James VI of Scotland¿, Journal of European Economic History, 38 (2009), pp. 49-91
Julian Goodare, ¿The debts of James VI of Scotland¿, Economic History Review, 62 (2009), pp. 926-52
Athol L. Murray, ¿The procedure of the Scottish exchequer in the early sixteenth century¿, Scottish Historical Review, 40 (1961), pp. 89-117
Scottish Record Office, Guide to the National Archives of Scotland (Edinburgh: HMSO and Stair Society, 1996), section on ¿The Pre-Union Exchequer¿, pp. 27-81
Laura A. M. Stewart, ¿English funding of the Scottish armies in England and Ireland, 1640-48¿, Historical Journal, 52 (2009), pp. 573-93
Laura A. M. Stewart, ¿Fiscal revolution and state formation in mid seventeenth-century Scotland¿, Historical Research, 84 (2011), pp. 443-69
Laura A. M. Stewart, ¿The ¿rise¿ of the state?¿ in T. M. Devine and Jenny Wormald (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 220-35
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Death |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Julian Goodare
Tel: (0131 6)50 4021
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Clare Guymer
Tel: (0131 6)50 4030
Email: |
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