Methods in Land-Assessment in Late Medieval Scotland

Abstract

Scottish medieval studies face particular difficulties regarding land-assessment. This is due to the nature of the related sources and the unfounded scepticism towards early-modern sources, which can be used with respect to their prerequisites to substitute the losses of medieval sources. Furthermore, there is a lot of untapped potential regarding already known sources, like the Exchequer Rolls and some types of source-material, like wills and inventories, which could be exploited for economic questions. A combination of the various methods makes it redundant to continuously nurse the pessimism, which is currently dominating Scottish medieval economic studies.