Herring politics: Northern Scotland’s herring fishing industry, 1660-1707

Abstract

This research note explores the interactions between environmental change and cultural response in a case study focused on the diminution of the northern Scottish North Sea herring fishing industry from c. 1660 to 1707 and its role in the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707. Through an interdisciplinary approach utilizing archival sources of fishing data and proxy sources, this study traces these additional causes of the decline in the Scottish herring industry in northern Scotland and argues that the herring decline was also driven by climatic and environmental change. In addition, it explores where the herring went and why, and demonstrates how a decline of the herring industry affected people in fishing communities in northern Scotland and created groups that supported union between Scotland and England.