Carta marina by Olaus Magnus, showing many of Scotland's major trading partners. Scotland is shown bottom left
The information about Scotland's domestic and foreign trade during the Middle Ages is limited. In the early Middle Ages the rise of Christianity meant that wine and precious metals were imported for use in religious rites. Imported goods found in archaeological sites of the period include ceramics and glass, while many sites indicate iron and precious metal working. The slave trade was also important and in the Irish Sea it may have been stimulated by the arrival of the Vikings from the late eighth century.
In the High Middle Ages there was an increasing amount of foreign trade. The increased marine exploitation of the Highlands and Islands may have been as a result of the arrival of Scandinavian settlers in this period. From the reign of David I, there are records of burghs, towns that were granted certain legal privileges from the crown. They were able to impose tolls and fines on traders within a region outside their settlements and their growth was facilitated by trade with the continent. The most important exports were unprocessed raw materials, including wool, hides, salt, fish, animals and coal, while Scotland remained frequently short of wood, iron and, in years of bad harvests, grain. Coins replaced barter goods, with Scottish coins being struck from the reign of David I. Until the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Wars of Independence in the early fourteenth century, most naval trade was probably coastal and most foreign trade was with England, but the disruption of this era encouraged the opening up of new markers on the continent.
The main continental trading partners of Scottish burghs were merchants in Flanders. Before 1321 Scottish merchants had established a staple in Bruges. The staple was moved to Middelburg in Zeeland several times in the fifteenth century. Although Bruges remained the major trading partner, from the 1460s trade also developed with Veere, Bergen op Zoom and Antwerp. Wool and hides were the major exports in the late Middle Ages. The disruption of the Wars of Independence meant that this fell in the period 1341–42 to 1342–43, but trade recovered to reach a peak in the 1370s. The introduction of sheep-scab was a serious blow to the wool trade from the early fifteenth century. Despite a leveling off, there was another drop in exports as the markets collapsed in the early-sixteenth century Low Countries. Unlike in England, this did not prompt the Scots to turn to large scale cloth production and only poor quality rough cloths seem to have been significant. There was an increased demand in Scotland for luxury goods, that largely had to be imported, leading to a chronic shortage of bullion. This, and perennial problems in royal finance, led to several debasements of the coinage. The heavily debased "black money", introduced in 1480, had to be withdrawn two years later and may have helped fuel a financial and political crisis.
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