Chris Watling

Has any country ever turned its back on its finest achievements more than Scotland? Birthplace of David Hume and Adam Smith, and home of a famously successful free banking experiment, it is now a high tax, big government backwater dependent on handouts from Westminster. Scotland has an elite international legacy in free-market philosophy. The Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century fundamentally shaped global classical liberalism. Adam Smith revolutionized human thought with The Wealth of Nations, introducing the "invisible hand" concept to explain how self-interested individuals generate widespread public wealth through free trade. David Hume pioneered crucial defenses of private property and free commerce. This powerful intellectual tradition directly laid the bedrock for modern capitalism, championing individual liberty, minimal state intervention, and market competition centuries before they became global economic standards. During the free banking era (1716–1845), Scotland operated a highly successful, completely unregulated banking system without a central bank. Competing private banks issued their own banknotes, strictly disciplined by a market-driven clearinghouse. This system delivered remarkable financial stability, economic growth, and near-zero inflation for over a century. Despite this proud legacy, Scotland’s electorate now lean firmly left. At the 2021 parliamentary election, the leftwing Scottish national party took almost half the seats, with fellow left-of-center Labour and Greens adding another third. And the results are clear. While the UK suffers under one of the most progressive tax systems in the OECD, Scotland has exacerbated that model, cutting taxes for low incomes and raising them further in higher brackets. Total government spending amounts to 53% of GDP, resulting in a 10% deficit plugged by Westminster. Total public sector spending sits at £22,281 per person, 14% above the UK average. The economy suffers from a high inactivity rate, heavily driven by people on long-term sickness and disability benefits. Scotland’s shift towards collectivism can be traced to the mid 20th century, attributable to industrial decline and a political reaction against Margaret Thatcher. As late as in 1955, the Scottish Unionist Party won an outright majority on an individualistic Liberal message. Those days are now long gone. Today, Scotland is firmly in the grip of leftwing politics. The light of classic liberalism no longer shines over the Highlands. Hume and Smith must be turning in their graves.