Agricultural Prices in Scotland 1826–1974: County Level Data

This article presents a dataset comprising Scottish agricultural prices for the period 1826–1974. The data are derived from an archived source in which prices set at meetings of courts held across each of Scotland’s 32 historic counties were recorded. The courts, convened by county sheriffs, met once a year to gather evidence relating to county-wide prices for crops grown within each locality. Once set, the prices were used, primarily, to determine the annual stipends of the clergy of the established Church of Scotland. Prices varied according to crop variety and quality, with some counties setting up to three prices in any one year for one type of grain. The most widely grown crop was oatmeal, with wheat, peas and barley also extensively farmed. The system operated without interruption until the abolition of the ‘fiars’ courts in 1974. The dataset opens two key areas of research. First it enables the further development of analyses of the integration and operation of Scottish regional grain markets in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Second it facilitates empirical analyses of the operation of the clerical labour market in Scotland for which long runs of stipend (wage) data collected on a consistent basis are required.


Introduction
The development and integration of markets has long been recognised as an important driver of economic growth in economies undergoing a process of industrialisation (Chilosi et al., 2013;Federico, 2011;Persson & Sharp, 2015).Empirical studies have frequently deployed regional grain price time-series data in analysing, for example, the evolution of national markets (Bateman, 2011;Gras, 1915), patterns of production1 (Olson & Harris, 1959) and the phenomenon of inflation (Blakeway, 2015;Gemmill & Mayhew, 1995).Work to refine and supplement existing datasets continues to extend the terrain over which researchers are able to operate, broadening the set of questions amenable to empirical analysis (Brunt & Cannon, 2013;Solar & Klovland, 2011).
Although few in number, and separated by several decades, a handful of important empirical studies drawing on regional (county level) data to analyse the development and integration of grain markets in Scotland have been published.Early work by Mitchison (1965) used the relative movement of seventeenth and eighteenth century county grain prices to give insight into the development of a unified market in Scotland.Thirty years later the conclusions of this work were revised and the analysis extended, by Gibson andSmout's landmark studies (1995a, 1995b) which drew on extensive archival research to construct long price time-series covering the period 1550 to 1780.Most recently Cassidy and Hanley (2020), building directly on the foundations of Mitchison, Gibson and Smout, advanced the work by deploying the latest quantitative techniques in testing for price convergence and market efficiency using grain prices again from the seventeenth to the end of the long eighteenth century (1815).All these studies used Scottish county fiars price data.
This article, and associated agricultural price dataset, enables the extension of previous analytical work beyond the late eighteenth century, covering a later period  for every county within Scotland.

Problem
The central problem, and key limitation confronting researchers analysing the development and integration of markets, is the availability of long, consistently constructed, time-series.In Scotland the longest, and most geographically comprehensive price datasets deployed for these purposes are those assembled from legal records at county level.
From the mid sixteenth to the late twentieth century Scottish sheriffs convened courts on an annual basis to determine or 'strike' the price of various grains grown within their county.These prices were known as county 'fiars' .The earliest surviving fiars prices date back to 1556, and relate to bear (barley) and oatmeal prices in the county of Fife.
The purpose for which fiars prices were originally used was the calculation of the monetary value of Crown and church rents, duties and clerical stipends which were set in terms of fixed quantities of particular grains.During the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries the practice of sheriffs holding annual fiars court hearings extended across the country.Although procedure in each county court varied, it was commonly the case that a jury was convened to receive evidence on prices realised at a particular time of year.
By the early nineteenth century the primary use of county fiars had become the fixing of church ministers' stipends (Elliot, 1879(Elliot, , 1886(Elliot, , 1890)).Under the Teinds Act 1808 the practice of making stipend payment to ministers in victual (in kind) was abolished in favour of payment in money.This required a price to be struck enabling stipends expressed in quantities of victual to be converted into monetary payments.Ministerial stipends therefore rose and fell with agricultural prices in the county in which they served (Sawkins, 2022).A statutory requirement (Act of Sederunt of 5th July 1809) required an annual return of county fiars prices to be made to the Clerk of Teinds in the Teind2 Office in Edinburgh.This ingathering of information from across the country for the first time revealed the extent of the variation in practice, which Paterson (1852, p. 4) noted to be, "different, inconsistent and contradictory", with the methods of striking fiars themselves, "loose, inefficient and incorrect." The main differences in practice related to weights and measures, timing and valuation practice for varieties of grain.
Prior to the passing of legislation in 1824 (5 Geo iv.Cap 74) promoting the general adoption of the imperial system, counties were at liberty to adopt different standard weights and measures.It was therefore not until another 4 statute was passed (5&6 William iv, c49) that, from the start of 1826, local custom and practice finally gave way to a nationally prescribed approach, a process which took several years to embed.On timing, county sheriffs were at liberty to convene hearings to strike fiars prices in different months of the year.Most took place from early February to the middle of March, however in Orkney and Shetland, for example, fiars were traditionally struck in May.Finally, on valuation, different counties valued different types of grain, with some having one price per type of grain and others having different prices for different qualities of the same grain.
The inconsistency in practice persisted.A 1911 Report of the Committee on Fiars Prices in Scotland noted: Besides the lack of uniformity, the evidence of the agricultural bodies and of the representatives of the ministers shows that there are several points, some of them applicable to only a few counties, others more general, in which the present practice is open to grave objection.Among these are, (1) the composition of the jury, (2) insufficient quantity of evidence, (3) unnecessary burden of attendance on jurors and witnesses, (4) limitation of the evidence to too short a period of the year, (5) acceptance of evidence without a schedule of particulars, (6) want of opportunity to examine the schedules, (7) inaccurate method of calculating the Fiar of meal, (8) calculation of the Fiars by prices alone, instead of by quantities and prices, (9) acceptance of evidence of prices which include cost of carriage, (10) calculation by an artificial standard of weight instead of by the natural weight of the bushel.Under each of these heads there is evidence in one county or another of serious error.committee on fiars prices in scotland, 1911, p. 6 These were a particular source of frustration and concern to those with a vested interest in the system; namely ministers of the established Church of Scotland (Parliamentary Papers, 1834, 1837-38, 1896).Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century they lobbied for reform, however the system remained in place until county fiars courts were finally abolished under Section 28 (1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
Despite these lacunae the fiars price time series are attractive to scholars, having been made accessible to researchers, most notably through the work of Flinn et al. (1977) and Gibson and Smout (1995a), which, taken together, covered the mid sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries.Aware that variations between counties of the way in which the fiars were struck undermined their usefulness as a guide to the actual prices at which grains were traded Gibson and Smout concluded nevertheless that, …there was generally an admirable correlation between the trends or fluctuations shown by the fiars and by known market transactions from manuscript accounts.Clearly the fiars must be used with some caution, but as a general guide to the movement of grain prices in early modern Scotland they are, to use Mitchison's words 'an adequate tool for the historian' and are undoubtedly without parallel with respect to their coverage of the country.gibson & smout, 1995a, p. 77 Extending the available run of fiars data by a century and a half solves the problem of truncated agricultural price time series, thereby enabling analyses of the integration and development of markets to run from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century.Scotland, 1826Scotland, -1974)).
Entries from the original Register, for example the one shown in Figure 1, were transcribed into a series of Excel spreadsheets, independently checked and verified against the original.The dataset is held in the UK Data Service ReShare archive (https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/) under the reference 10.5255/UKDA-SN-855963 (Sawkins & Smith, 2022).
For each historic county of Scotland in which Fiars Courts were held a single Excel workbook records prices as they appear in the manuscript Register.Each county workbook consists of two sheets, named "£sd" and "Decimal".The sheet named "£sd" shows prices as they appear in the manuscript Register, namely in pre-decimal currency of pounds (£), shillings (s) and pence (d) for 1826-1969, and  named "Decimal" shows, instead, decimal equivalents rounded to 4 decimal places.For example £1 7s 3¾d converts to £1.3656.The period covered runs from 1826 to 1974; from the general introduction of imperial weights and measures to the abolition of fiars courts.
Each worksheet shows annual prices by crop (wheat, peas, potatoes etc) for a single county.The only crop recorded as being priced at some point during the period of study in every county was oat meal.In the majority of counties more than one price was recorded for barley, oats and wheat.These prices reflected either different qualities of grain -generally 'first' and 'second' quality, and in the richer farming areas of the south east of Scotland, such as Edinburghshire (Midlothian), Haddingtonshire (East Lothian) and Peeblesshire, 'first' , 'second' and 'third' quality -or different local varieties.Prices for potatoes were struck in just two counties, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire.
The Register generally adopted the imperial system of weights and measures, but different measures were used for different crops and by different counties.The 'imperial quarter' , a unit of dry volume equal to 64 imperial gallons, was deployed extensively.Being a unit of dry volume its weight varied between grains and across years reflecting both grain density and climatic conditions prevailing during a growing season.The 'boll' , or bowl, was also widely used being the primary unit of volume for barley, oats and wheat in some counties, but of weight (140 imperial pounds) for oat meal.More straightforwardly the weights of some grains were expressed in imperial pounds (lb) or hundredweights (cwt), with a hundredweight equivalent to 112 pounds.
Considerable inter-county variation exists in terms of the number of annual observations for different types of grain.The most complete county record is that of Haddingtonshire (East Lothian) with a full run of prices (1826 to 1974) for three qualities each of barley, oats and wheat.In other cases time series are often broken or incomplete.The general pattern is of a gradual reduction in the number of grains for which prices were recorded throughout the period; indicative of agricultural specialisation and the gradual waning of the importance of fiars prices and court processes.Thus in Dumfriesshire ten individual grain prices were struck in 1828, this had reduced to five in 1928, two in 1972 and none thereafter.
Table 1 summarises, by county, the temporal coverage and the agricultural produce valued at some point during these periods.
Table 2 records the price of a boll of oat meal for four counties, chosen as representative of areas in the north, south, east and west of the country.For the north, Orkney / Shetland for 1834-1974; for the south, Peebleshire for 1841-1974; for the east, Aberdeenshire for 1826-1974; and for the west, Ayrshire for 1826-1974.
for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ in this article extend by over a century, the published fiars prices.The Teind Court Register of Fiars' Prices: Scotland, 1826-1974 comprises a transcript of a single manuscript volume, the Teind Court Register of Fiars' Prices, held by the National Records of Scotland (National Records of figure 1 Image of Manuscript Record for the County of Aberdeenshire national records of scotland, edinburgh, te 18/11, p. 2.

table 1
County Summary of temporal coverage and and agricultural produce Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Orkney / Shetland for 1826-33 prices are per Meil of 177 lbs 12 oz Avoirdupois.Peebleshire prices for First Oat Meal.For 1834-1840 prices are per cwt.Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/lowest prices were generally recorded for Orkney and Shetland and highest for Peebleshire.It is straightforward to adjust the price data, recorded in the manuscript in money of the day or nominal terms, for inflation.Using Aberdeenshire county data Table 3 deploys a long term consumer price inflation index published by the Office for National Statistics (2022) to express the time series in both Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Note: Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Downloaded from Brill.com 08/21/2024 07:53:36PM via Open Access.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25 Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 8 (2023) 1-25