[Gazetteer of Scotland Contents]
Scotland’s exports consist principally of the produce of her cotton and linen manufactures; and her imports, of the raw materials for her cotton and linen fabrics, and of articles of colonial and foreign produce, which are demanded by the growing taste and luxuriousness of her population. To enumerate subordinate articles, or those included in this general classification, would be to write a list of goods as long, tasteless, and tiresome, as that of a vender of all wares. Till about the year 1755, when the exports amounted in value to £535,576, and the imports to £465,411, Scotland’s commerce was almost as unknowing of foreign lands as her own hardy mountaineers, and as cold and cheerless as their climate and their dress. But from that period, and especially from a decade before the close of last century, it has progressively, though not uniformly, moved on to importance. The following is an account of the official and declared value of the imports into and the exports from the different Scottish ports, from 1824 to the latest period at which the accounts are made up:-
| Years. | Imports into Scotland. | British and Irish Produce and Manufactures. | Foreign and Colonial Merchandise. | Total. | Declared Value of Exports. |
| 1824 | £3,145,958 | £5,009,324 | £159,896 | £5,169,220 | £2,670,134 |
| 1825 | 3,719,366 | 4,937,746 | 109,811 | 5,047,557 | 2,721,186 |
| 1826 | 3,086,679 | 4,283,074 | 147,270 | 4,430,344 | 2,167,459 |
| 1827 | 3,948,205 | 5,932,850 | 126,745 | 6,059,595 | 2,745,965 |
| 1828 | 4,023,642 | 6,148,444 | 185,138 | 6,233,632 | 2,897,625 |
| 1829 | 3,888,294 | 6,528,587 | 127,530 | 6,656,117 | 2,787,935 |
| 1830 | 3,908,714 | 6,984,392 | 125,941 | 7,110,333 | 2,843,143 |
| 1831 | 4,187,087 | 7,943,612 | 111,086 | 8,054,698 | 3,189,318 |
| 1832 | 4,451,351 | 7,120,595 | 155,615 | 7,276,210 | 2,640,751 |
| 1833 | 4,638,652 | 6,820,381 | 130,721 | 7,051,102 | 2,636,840 |
| 1834 | 4,683,985 | 7,159,105 | 117,564 | 7,276,666 | 2,647,212 |
| 1835 | 4,659,151 | 8,372,598 | 156,735 | 8,529,333 | 3,272,250 |
| 1836 | 6,053,611 | 8,258,673 | 131,572 | 8,390,245 | 3,265,995 |
| 1837 | 5,130,371 | 7,250,554 | 134,332 | 7,384,886 | 2,724,476 |
| 1838 | 5,878,612 | 10,012,599 | 134,790 | 10,147,389 | 3,469,051 |
| 1839 | 4,933,611 | 11,216,504 | 105,376 | 11,321,800 | 3,961,692 |
| 1840 | 6,614,446 | 12,956,241 | 127,440 | 13,083,684 | 4,394,374 |
| 1841 | 6,476,670 | 12,240,523 | 132,451 | 12,372,974 | 4,124,957 |
The distribution of the commerce, if simply remembrance be had that Greenock and Port-Glasgow are dependent on Glasgow, and Leith dependent on Edinburgh, will be understood from a tabular view of the gross customs, paid during the years 1835, 1840, and 1841, at each of the Scottish ports:-
| Ports. | Customs, 1835. | Customs, 1840. | Customs, 1841. |
| Aberdeen, | £53,835 | £80,018 | £78,126 |
| Ayr, | 1,183 | 1,827 | 1,463 |
| Alloa, (from 5th January, 1841), | . . . | . . . | 2,235 |
| Banff, | 1,112 | 1,357 | 1,698 |
| Borrowstonness, | 3,789 | 4,870 | 4,073 |
| Campeltown, | 381 | 483 | 934 |
| Dumfries, | 4,261 | 9,107 | 8,766 |
| Dundee, | 45,609 | 63,346 | 48,138 |
| Glasgow, | 314,701 | 472,563 | 526,100 |
| Grangemouth, | 21,325 | 31,216 | 20,692 |
| Greenock, | 448,661 | 341,647 | 423,535 |
| Inverness, | 576 | 6,171 | 4,186 |
| Irvine, | 2,441 | 3,692 | 3,711 |
| Kirkcaldy, | 5,924 | 4,207 | 4,247 |
| Kirkwall, | 369 | 671 | 771 |
| Leith, | 489,581 | 602,999 | 604,098 |
| Lerwick, | 1,272 | 707 | 153 |
| Montrose, | 6,827 | 33,483 | 31,713 |
| Perth (from 5th July, 1840), | . . . | 10,766 | 12,381 |
| Port-Glasgow, | 125,162 | 84,369 | 100,278 |
| Stornoway, | 555 | 646 | 349 |
| Stranraer, | 292 | 587 | 653 |
| Wick, | 1,676 | 1,140 | 1,232 |