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Preface
The manuscript
Compt Bulk of David Wedderburne belonged to the late Mr. A. C. Lamb,
Dundee, and a few of the historical entries were used in Mr. Lamb's
volume, entitled Dundee: its Quaint and Historic Buildings. The editor
assisted Mr. Lamb in the preparation of the literary portion of that
volume, and it occurred to him that the Compt Buike would afford precisely
the kind of material suitable for a volume such as the Scottish History
Society would publish. On making the suggestion to Mr. Lamb, he at once
adopted it, and placed the manuscript at the disposal of the Society. He
gave free access to his extensive collection of documents relating to the
history of Dundee, and rendered valuable assistance in other ways. As the
Editor had made voluminous notes in the charter room of Dundee when
engaged upon his Roll of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee, 1513-1887, he was
able to utilise these in identifying many of the persons mentioned in the
Compt Buike. He has specially to acknowledge the courtesy of Alexander
Wedderbum, Esq., Q.C., London, who kindly provided the material for the
account of the Wedderburn Family, which forms a separate portion of the
Introduction. Mr. Wedderburn, who has long been engaged on a volume of
family history, entitled The Wedderburn Book', frankly offered to the
Compt Buik this contribution, which embodies the result of elaborate
researches in private repositories of the Wedderburns to which he had
access. With Mr. Lamb's consent the manuscript had been transcribed by the
Rev. Walter Macleod for Mr. Wedderburn's use in his volume; and the
proof-sheets of the text have been compared by Mr. Wedderburn with this
transcript, besides being carefully collated with the original by the
Editor. The text may therefore be accepted as doubly revised.
The Scottish
History Society is indebted to the late Lord Provost of Dundee, Sir James
Low, and to the present Lord Provost, Henry M*Grady, for permission to
transcribe the Shipping Lists of Dundee; and also to Sir Thomas Thornton,
Town-Clerk of Dundee, who is official custodian of these documents, and
who placed them in the hands of the Editor for transcription. The Editor
has further to express his obligations to Mr. T. G. Law for many useful
suggestions; to Mr. Mill of the Signet Library, for compiling the Index;
and to Mr. Alexander Balharrie, Montrose, for assistance in preparing the
work for the press.
Introduction
The materials
for writing a history of Scottish commerce in the reign of James VI.,
before and after the Union of the Crowns, have hitherto been very scanty.
Some idea of the trade of Scotland with other countries in the fifteenth
century may be obtained from a study of The Ledger of Andrew Halyburton
1492-1503, edited by Professor Cosmo Innes, and published in 1867. That
volume also contains the ' Table of Customs and Valuation of Merchandises,
1612,' which indirectly shows the goods imported from which rates were
levied, though it affords no clue as to the quantity of goods brought into
Scotland, nor does it indicate the places whence these were brought.
Professor Innes was thoroughly aware of this defect, for in his Preface he
thus alludes to the tariff of 1612 :—
'It is certainly
very carefully formed, although we may regret that it appears intended to
contain and exhaust all articles of possible commerce. It would have
suited our purpose, the purpose of the historian, better, if it had
indicated the commodities which were habitually, or even occasionally,
shipped and landed, bought, sold, bartered in Scotland, just nine years
after King James had gone to fill the long-expected seat of Queen
Elizabeth, and thought that he had ended the national feud which had so
long interrupted the commerce of his two kingdoms."
The present
volume more than fills the space in the annals of Scottish commerce which
was vacant when Professor Innes wrote his Preface, and it is the first
book issued which contains authentic details of the imports, exports, and
home trade at a busy Scottish seaport during the eventful period between
1587 and 1630. It thus covers sixteen years before the Union of the
Crowns, and twenty-seven years after that event, in all, forty-three years
of Scottish mercantile life, in a time of political and national
transition. The last entry in Andrew Halyburton's Ledger is dated July,
1503. The earliest commercial entry in David Wedderburne's Compt Bulk was
made on 15th March 1587. The intervening period is a total blank, so far
as documentary evidence of Scottish commerce is concerned, save for stray
references in the Acts of Parliament, and the Records of the Convention of
Burghs. The last entries in Wedderburne'^s book were made on 12th
December, 1630 (pp. 76, 77), two years before his death. This parchment
bound volume, with its quaint flap, partly frayed by constant use, had
been his continual companion for forty-three years, and to its pages he
had committed the records of his commercial transactions, the register of
his family, the lists of deeds relating to his properties, the books he
most highly prized, the furniture and warlike graith which were most
valuable to him, the portentous local and national events that seemed most
worthy of notice, everything, in short, which made up the life of a
thriving merchant three centuries ago. In this respect the Wedderburne
volume is much more instructive than The Ledger of Andrew Halyhurton's for
while the latter book contains the business transactions of a fifteenth
century Scottish merchant, formally arranged for commercial purposes only,
the present volume gives a vivid picture, drawn unconsciously, of the
domestic life of a burgess in the latter half of the succeeding century.
It is the familiar note-book of an educated merchant, the representative
of a notable family, moving in the best local society of the time, with a
large business connection in Norway, the Low Countries, France, and Spain;
and it shows what he exported and imported, how he managed his foreign
traffic, the method whereby he conducted his ordinary sales in the burgh,
the weights and measures of the period, the forms of charter-party in use
for shipments sent abroad, the currency of the time, and many other
details which throw a flood of light upon the commerce of his day, and
afford information upon a subject that has hitherto been wrapt in shade.
Previous to the issue of this volume, there was no authentic publication
upon the subject between Halyburton's date (1503), and the Report, by
Thomas Tucker, upon the harbours of Scotland, written in 1656 for the
information of Cromwell, and published by the Bannatyne Club. It will thus
be seen that the Wedderburne book fills a wide gap in the commercial
history of Scotland, and covers a period of great interest. Indirectly,
also, it shows the progress of the secularisation of ecclesiastical
property. Wedderburne was factor for the Scrymgeoures of Dudhope, so far
as some of the chaplainries were concerned, which had fallen into their
hands; and the accounts he rendered, and his lists of documents connected
with these properties, are full of instruction upon an obscure subject.
While the editor
was engaged upon the Wedderburne manuscript, it occurred to him that the
book gave only one side of the trade of that time. The exports sent to
foreign lands are detailed with considerable fulness, and the imports are
shown by numerous entries. But to understand fully the import trade at a
leading seaport of the period, it was necessary to have more than the
record of one merchant's transactions. Researches made by the editor in
the charter-room of Dundee, for another purpose, had enabled him to
discover volumes which gave the Shipping Lists from 1580 till 1700, and he
thought that the printing of a selection from these Lists, in which the
contents of each cargo are detailed, would show, upon indisputable
evidence, what were the imports to Dundee; in fact, would supply exactly
the information which Professor Cosmo Innes had desiderated. With the
sanction of the Council of the Scottish History Society, application was
made to Sir Thomas Thornton, Town Clerk of Dundee, and with his courteous
consent the editor transcribed the Shipping Lists, beginning with 1580,
the date of the earliest volume extant, and continuing chronologically
till 1618. It was not deemed necessary to carry the transcription further
than the latter date, as the thirty-eight years included give a fair idea
of the imports. Taking the two portions of this volume together, it is
possible to have an adequate notion of the imports, exports, and home
trade in a thriving Scottish burgh before and after the Union of the
Crowns.
The Wedderburne
manuscript contains 102 leaves, measuring 7½ inches by 5½ inches. The
paper is made up in nine bundles of five double-leaves, stitched with
twine, and fixed within a parchment cover (not lined), having a flap which
covers the front edge of the book and extends about half-way over the
back-cover; that is to say, the parchment is one piece of skin measuring
17 inches by 7½ inches. The paper is uniform in quality, having a rough
surface, and some of the sheets bear a flagon water-mark such as was
common on Dutch paper of the period. The insides of the cover have been
written upon, and thus the book contains 104 folios, as shown in the
marginal pagination given in the text. That pagination, it must be
understood, does not exist in the original, and has only been adopted by
the editor for ease in reference. The book has not been used
chronologically, but has been written from both ends, and entries have
been interpolated at various times where a blank space could be found for
a jotting or memorandum. Hence it might seem at first difficult to decide
which is the beginning and which the end of the book.
The Compt Buik of David
Wedderburne (pdf)
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