Examine How The Old Statistical Account Of Scotland (1791 And 1792) (Research Paper Sample)

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Institution
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Introduction
The Scotland statistical accounts provide a critical reference point for Scotland’s geography, society, values, and ideals. It explores and describes topics such as antiquities, population morals and ethics, natural history, agriculture and industrial production. The statistical account of Scotland referred as old or first was published from 1791-1792 by Sir John Sinclair. It reflects the accounts in a historical context. Sinclair describes it as the first effective Scotland geographical survey attempt (Sinclair, 1977).
The old Statistical accounts of Scotland contained one hundred and sixty questions categorized in four sections. The each section dealt with a different issue like Geography and topography, industrial production and agriculture, population and lastly the miscellaneous questions. The survey was done by other nine hundred parish ministers and aimed as having improvement in the lives of the local people (Sinclair, 1971).
Sir John Sinclair was a member of parliament for Caithess and a lay member in Church of Scotland general assembly. He had a crime of passion and interest in estate improvements and this lead to him nicknamed the Agricultural Sir John. He made proposals to conduct a survey on parish to parish in May 1790 in Scotland. His main aim in the publication was to elucidate the political state and the Natural history of Scotland (Edina, 2001). It was statistical determined and focused on information and knowledge linking the state as the only political unit. Additionally, the state was as looked onto as the influence of human and natural history.
The statistical account of Scotland’s evidently reflects the values and ideals of the Scotland enlightenment that began in the year 1638 during tree planting time that began in Lebanon. The cedar tree of Lebanon city was first planted in Britain in 1638 and marked the enlightenment period that went on until 1834.The period though covered by political and historical activities, dates and facts also matter in marking the Scottish enlightenment values and ideals (Sinclair, 1977).
The values and ideals reflected from the accounts are fundamental to the current Scottish enlightenment. The accounts period was mainly involved in idea generation that is the backbone of all philosophers. The reflections from the statistical accounts of Scotland can be tracked to the start of the Scottish enlightenment by the philosophers. Focusing on the values reflected from the old or first accounts of Scotland, it is important to recognize the involvement of painters, poets, economists, explorers, and historians. They were actively involved in generating ideas from the observation made from human and natural history as accounted in the first statistical account publishing (Sinclair, 1977).
The current Scottish enlightenment influenced by science, arts, technology and education. These things were available in the past, but the old or first statistical accounts of Scottish began to shed light to enable people understand them. The current Scotland is well known on it religious basis. The bases can be traced back to the statistical accounts of the Scotland. It is also thought as the most challenging idea among the Scottish enlightenment ideas (Sinclair, 1971).
Initially, people believed in supernatural things in Scotland. The philosophers assisted in creating the age of enlightenment which originated from the statistical accounts of Scotland. Early on in the seventeenth century, men such as Baruch Spinoza and Rene Descartes believed that all things should be interpreted using natural forces (Edina, 2001). Though, they believed and trusted in God, they never though God would at any one-time lead to individual events. Additional they never thought that the bible was the ultimate source of knowledge. They remained believing that every event would be explained without relying on bible knowledge or God as the cause. There believe now the current basis and influential of modern science. The natural forces and human history accounted for in the old statistical accounts is reflected in the scientific methods developed during the Scottish enlightenment. The reflection influences the idea that all things can be explained by conducting a proper investigation (Sinclair, 1977).
In his publication, Sir John planned to involve all parish ministers to work on pre-planned question. According to him, the superiority achieved by the modern philosophers would only be traced back to the statistical accounts gained by his survey facts. All the values attributed in the Scottish enlightenment are pulled from the facts and ideas gained from the parish to parish a survey. The results are not only based from the actual observation but in-depth experiment and investigation during the surveys. Initially, the degree of pre-eminence and certainty was seen as incapable in the Scotland but followed the accounts the degrees are raised (Sinclair, 1971).
The Scotland enlightenment has a well-known knowledge on the both external and internal societal structure. The structures mainly look into the culture, the moral, religious and values attributed by each and every community. The survey conducted played a major role in sampling and studying the political disquisitions. This was achieved by analyzing and examining mankind real state. To achieve true and accurate facts on the real state of mankind, the ministers analyzed every event with anatomical minuteness and accuracy. This was done to enable understanding the facts and ideas behind the science of government.
The statistical accounts are seen as scientific intent work that works as an eye for political anatomy and national social accountancy. It reflects the rational interests of the philosophers. Additionally, it has a remarkable manifestation and influence on Scottish enlightenment idealism at the workplace. Another important development seen in the Scotland enlightenment is the changes in the social structures. The ideas to change and make conducive and easy to follow society values were adopted from the facts and ideas gained from the statistical accounts. The accounts had studied the whole social aspect of the human kind and change would be an easy thing to implement as all the facts were known to the philosophers (Sinclair, 1977).
The statistical accounts indicated that the social structure was mainly influenced by the community believes and behaviors. Initially, people practiced barter trade where they would exchange goods for goods. But as the enlightenment pulled in, money was introduced, and it dominated all the society lives. The introduction of money in the modern Scotland is traced from the earlier encounters of the exchange trade documented in the statistical accounts.
Trade defined given community behavior and morals. Community value was also and attribute reflected from the initial statistical accounts of Scotland. For instance, during barter trade, most of the population was living in woods. Introduction of trade using money lead to growth of bigger cities such as Glasgow. This made Scotland be recognized as a global importance from birth of industries and world-class cities such as Glasgow (Edina, 2001). People began having values and interest in trees, began living in country estates. Without the trade adopted from the statistical accounts Scottish enlightenment in terms of development would not have been possible. Trade led to emerging of new technologies in the already established estates (Sinclair, 1977).
The agricultural skills and ideas adopted from Sir John promoted massive development in science and technology as agricultural production was concerned. The advancement in technology influenced growth of developmental industries in the agricultural sector. One thing to another by utilizing the actual knowledge adopted from the statistical accounts by Sir John, steam powered engines and locomotives enabled large production in the industries. People changed the livelihood that eventually influenced their behavior and morals due to the high rate of industrialization and increase of population in the urban centers (Sinclair, 1977).
The statistical accounts also promoted the growth on nations such as Canada and the United Nations. Barter trade in the initial stages has enabled growth of monetary markets, production increased, and growth of new marketplaces to their products was a need. For instance, the Caribbean offered cheap source of raw materials to the already established industries. Value for humanity lowered and the slave trade emerged, almost all landowners in Scotland made development from the trade of slaves who would offer cheap or unpaid labor in the industries.
Knowledge and ideas gained from the statistical accounts was used by traders to break through their old-fashioned life. They applied the ideas and wealth gained from trade in creating a countryside that had its values and rules to follow. The countryside indicated the actual sophistication and money owned by the people. The super-rich lived in these country estates that reflected the enlightenment of Scotland. Though all the credit is given to the ideas generated and adopted from the old statistical ideas and facts by sir John accounts in 1792.
Trade introduced money, on the other hand, money influenced how the society thinks, behaves and acts. The society changed to fit in the current economies that were determined by goods and labor markets. The ideas and facts by Sir John are recognized in Scotland as the main influential factors for the development. On the other, Scotland was desperately in need of food in the early 1700.Agriculture was primitive and reliant on manual work. They had no knowledge nor resources to boost crop production or introduction of new crops. Many people suffered starvation during drought; landowners used the money they had in other nonpro...