Agricultural History Review, Volume 62 Part 2 (2014), p. 367

This important volume is a valuable addition to the growing, but still small, field of detailed empirical historical research into estate management in Scotland. As such, it should attract a wide audience, not least because it combines a detailed study of one of Scotland’s great estates with a fascinating analysis of how the management and policy of that estate was influenced by the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment, centred in nearby Edinburgh. This book is built upon a wide range of sources, but central to the study are the Buccleuch papers, one of the premier archival collections for landed estates history in Britain. This collection has been neglected by historians in the past, heightening interest in this volume, which is in addition handsomely supported by maps and images.

The Buccleuch estates remain the largest private landed estates in Scotland, and this book traces their eighteenth-century history; a formative period where they underwent significant change under the rubric of Improvement, led by key personalities of the day, as well as unknown, but wildly influential estate managers. The central figure under consideration is the third duke of Buccleuch, who oversaw his vast patrimony through a period of revolutionary change. He was guided through this by his tutor, Adam Smith, the great political economist, and one of the joys of this volume is the way in which it exposes the intellectual networks that made later eighteenth-century Scotland such an exciting and challenging place to be. Although much has been written on the intellectual history of the period, this book is the first attempt to examine the process by which the insights of contemporary political economy were applied to the management and improvement of a landed estate. As such, it will be of great interest to readers concerned with agricultural and improvement history, landed elites and estate management, and Enlightenment thought and its application.

The book is divided into six substantial chapters, which although broadly thematic, also slot roughly into the overall chronological span of 1746–1812. They cover roughly five decades of upheaval and reform in the management and personnel of the estate, the purpose and design of its leases, the nature of agriculture and other economic activities such as forestry and fishing and the management of the family’s ‘interest’, social and political. As well as this, the reader will be rewarded with a detailed insight into the education and training of a young nobleman in the mid-eighteenth century. For the third duke of Buccleuch, this meant having Adam Smith as a personal tutor and being accompanied by him on a Grand Tour of Europe. It was a long-standing and rewarding friendship, and although Smith took on no official role on the estates, his influence on the duke’s thinking is beautifully teased out here.

At the core of this book lies the tension between personality and land, the opportunities and restrictions of Improvement, and the limits of idealism. The author embeds these tensions in a series of discussions; on the theory and practice of Improvement and how it was instituted and by whom; the 1707 Union project and its perceived benefits, as defined by the landed classes; debt, consumption and estate finances; and the political and governing power of families such as the Buccleuchs, their close family connection, the Argylls, and friends and colleagues, such as Dundas. Crucially, this picture of power and influence in nuanced with a study of the patterns of resistance to Buccleuch power, especially to the programme of Improvement being rolled out across the lowland and upland estates, within and without the estate management.

One of the heroes of the book is William Keir, one of the Buccleuch estate managers and a man who was fundamental to the design and execution of Improvement on the estates. He faced opposition from his senior colleagues in the management, and from the populace affected by his lease re-structuring plans. Tenants formed ‘combinations’, there was fence breaking and rioting on the estates and as a consequence a tightening up of the policing of behaviour. This is not a story of a smooth transition to modernity, but one of tension, conflict and deep social and economic complexities. The third duke was a man dedicated to his role as a ‘public-spirited patriot’; he supported thinkers and inventors and he believed his improvements would benefit the national economy. This volume paints a complex picture with an admirably light touch; it deserves its place in a prestigious publishing series and makes a key addition to a wide range of historical and intellectual fields.