This was a distinctively Scottish experience and not paralleled in most areas of Western Europe, or even of England, where, in the 1780s and 1790s, prices did outstrip money incomes. Peculiarly Scottish factors help to explain the trend north of the Border. So much of the economic expansion depended on labour-intensive methods that it led to a huge increase in demand for such major groups as handloom weavers and farm servants. At the same time, Scotland contributed disproportionate numbers of soldiers and seamen to the war effort between 1793 and 1815.
