A. D. 1357. S59 



The reprefentatlves, of whom Edinburgh, Perth, and Aberdeen, fent 

 three each, and the other towns two each, are all called aldermen, 

 merchants, and burgeffes, of the towns reprefented by them : and it is 

 worthy of obfervation, that of the feventeen towns, four were in the 

 maritime, and apparently commercial, fhire of Fife, and eight more 

 upon the eaft coaft. The bufinefs of the meeting was to agree to, and 

 provide for, the ranfom of their king, then a prifoner in England, which 

 was fixed at the prodigious fum of one hundred thoujand marks Jlerling, to 

 be paid by inftallments within ten years. For the payment of tliat fum 

 the bifliops of Scotland bound all the goods, moveable and immoveable, 

 then belonging, or to belong in time coming, to all the clergy of Scot- 

 land ; the nobles bound themfelves and all the barons (or freeholders) 

 of Scotland, and their heirs ; and the reprefentatives of the towns bound 

 themfelves and the other communities of burgeffes and merchants 

 throughout the whole kingdom, and all their property, for the full pay- 

 ment of the ranfom, with damages, expenfes, and interefl; *. On ac- 

 count of fome delays in the payment, the ranfom was afterwards raifed 

 to one hundred thoujand pounds Jlerling, a fum equal in efficacy (the only 

 true ftandard of the value of money) to at leall two millions in the pre- 

 fent day. We know what a lamentable pidture the writers of England 

 have drawn of the miferies brought upon that kingdom by the ranfom 

 of King Richard. What then muft have been the diflrefs of Scotland, 

 a country inferior in extent, and ftill more in population and fertility, 

 to England, already drained and exhaufted by wars, of which fcarcely 

 any man then living was old enough to remember the beginning, to 

 raife a fum nearly half as much more as that paid for the ranfom of 

 Richard ? We might be well warranted to queftion the poflibility of 

 raifing it, if there were not extant the moll undeniable proofs that the 

 whole of that enormous fum was adually paid in hard gold and filver f. 

 {Fadera, V. vi, pp. 41-65 ; and V. vii,/. 417 for the la/l difcharge.] 

 • The payment of fo great a fum may be admitted, in the want of 

 other evidence, as an unqueftionable proof that the commerce of Scot- 

 land revived immediately upon the celllition of hoftilities, and brought 

 in a confiderable balance in money from foreign countries, which ap- 

 parently proceeded chiefly from wool, fifh, hides, cattle, and probably 

 alfo fome iron and lead ij:, 



* As no rate of interefl is mentioned, it is pre- the king himfelf, and alfo three of tlie principal 



fumed, that there was a known rate, fo well efta- noblemen, put into his hands as hoftages ; and the 



blilhed by cuftom, or the laws of both kingdoms, money remitted for their fupport was of ilfelf fuf- 



that it was thought unnecefiary to fpecify it. ficient to diftrefs a country circumllanced as Scot- 



•(• There was a great deal more money drawn land then was. 

 from Scotland to England : for King Edward, not J ' Ferrifodinis et plumbicidiis, cujufjibet etiam 



fatisfied with the obligations of all the people of ' pene metalli, fatis habilis,' fays Fotdun [Z,. ii, 



(Scotland, had, as a further fecurity, twenty youths, c. 8] in defcribing the productions of Scotland. — 



tlie heirs of the fu-ft men of the kingd9m, and of As I. have already mentioned exportations of doge 



from. . 



