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THERE seems to be no reason to doubt that,
at a time anterior to any existing Scottish legislation, the little
village communities which grew around Royal and Baronial Castles and
Religious Houses, or on sites otherwise suitable, cultivated —with the
sanction and largely for the benefit of their lords— such scanty trade
as was then practicable. But their position was precarious. They were
probably in a position of absolute villenage, and had no rights or
privileges save such as the policy or caprice of their lords allowed.
The protection they enjoyed was also burdened with heavy impositions.
But in process of time the Sovereign and the more powerful nobles came
to recognise it to be their interest to encourage the development of the
little trading communities which had sprung up around them, and this
they did by the concession of privileges in the form largely of
monopolies and exclusive dealing. In the communities thus formed
societies known as hanses or guilds were instituted, and the privileged
members of these communities, in process of time, claimed the right to
administer the affairs of the burgh in which they existed, to the
exclusion of the humbler classes of craftsmen. But before this stage of
development had been reached, it became obvious to the Sovereign and to
the lords, lay and ecclesiastical, that the prosperity of the trading
communities, established on their respective territories, conduced to
their own advantage, and so it became customary for these communities to
obtain farther concessions of privilege. In grants of these the Crown
took the lead. The burghal communities established on the royal domains
were specially privileged, and, in return for the advantages which they
thus secured, the Crown received, in the shape of ferms or rents, tolls
and customs, important financial advantages, and accessions of strength
through the increase of an industrial vassalage. The baronial superiors,
lay and ecclesiastical, of the burghal communities established on their
territory, seem to have followed the royal example, but the burghs of
Regality and Barony which were formed under their authority, were
subordinate, in rank, position, and privilege, to those burghs which
held directly of the Crown.
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