In the 1680s, for instance, herds of 1,000 head of cattle making their way south were not an unusual sight. Indeed, clan society provided an effective business structure for the droving trade. The contract covering the whole of the land settled by a clan and its satellites was negotiated by leading families with drovers from the Lowlands. Gathering in of stock would then be organized from individual townships by the clan gentry, and the market value of the tenants’ cattle was settled and recorded as payments against their book rentals.
