History lesson

Andrew Gray’s misrepresentation of Scotland’ s history (Letters, 5 June) should not go unchallenged as the Union has benefited England much more than Scotland. Scotland did benefit from the British Empire but these days are long gone despite what hardcore Brexit supporters think.

Scotland was not an ignorant backward country in 1707 as we had four universities compared to only two in England and the Scottish Treasury had

no debt, as it was individual investors who lost 20 per cent of Scotland’s national wealth through the Darien Scheme.

In an era of economic rivalry in Europe, Scotland was incapable of protecting itself from the effects of English competition and Westminster legislation such as the Navigation Acts which sabotaged

Scotland’ s once thriving shipping and trade with northern Europe. The Alien Act of 1705 proposed an embargo on major Scottish products being imported into England and threatened that all Scottish Estates held in England by non-residents were to be considered as alien property in law unless the Scottish Par

liament had entered into treaty negotiations by Christmas Day 1705.

At the time of the Union Scotland’s population was one million compared to England’s five million which has grown tenfold but Scotland has had only half that rate of growth due to the economic priorities of Westminster.

Norway was one of the poorest countries in Europe when it became independent in 1905 but is now one of the richest in the world in marked contrast with Scotland which has extracted similar amounts of oil and gas.

FRASER GRANT Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh