The maritime commerce of Scotland. amount of trade between the two countries rarely exceeding in value 150,000l. per annum, the amount of shipping employed in it was consequently altogether insignificant; but the Legislative Union in time gave an immense impulse to the commerce of Scotland, and opened to that country the rich fields of the English colonial possessions as well as her home markets. The merchants of Glasgow and Greenock were the first to reap the advantages of the Union, but their commercial operations were confined in a great measure, throughout the whole of the last century, to the West Indies, and to the plantations of British North America, more especially to Virginia, while the insurrection in favour of the son of James II., known as the "Pretender," very materially retarded the incipient maritime prosperity of that portion of the now thoroughly united kingdom, obliging as it did the English to maintain a considerable fleet cruising off the coasts of Scotland. But when this insurrection was suppressed the trade of Scotland again steadily increased, and may be said to have gone hand-in-hand with England ever since, though interrupted for a time by the more serious rebellion of 1745-6.
Various circumstances tended to strengthen this commercial intercourse, and, not the least among the number, may be mentioned the establishment of the Board of Trade, which, though originally formed under Charles II. in 1668, only became a permanent establishment in 1696, consisting of a royal commission under the style of the "Commissioners for promoting the trade of the Kingdom, and for inspecting and improving the Plantations in America and
