Treasury Control and Public Expenditure in Scotland, 1885-1979

At a time of acute interest in Scottish independence, the book charts the Treasury's response to Scottish claims from the late 19th century until the 1979 referendum. Key issues include Highland depopulation, fisheries, universities, support for farming, new towns, regional policy, North Sea Oil, budgetary responsibility and the Barnett formula.

The book sets out to establish the Treasury view of Scottish claims for public expenditure from the establishment of the Scottish Office in 1885 to the failed referendum on political devolution in 1979. Drawn largely from previously unresearched (and partly uncatalogued) Treasury documents held at The National Archives (UK) it provides a unique appreciation whether its ministers and officials viewed public investment north of the border as economically 'productive', designed to ensure equivalence in public investment between Scotland and England, or otherwise to placate Scottish interests.

The book begins with a selection of documents drawn from the period between 1885 and 1914: a time of limited government, but which saw consistent Scottish claims for additional expenditure to alleviate Highland distress, to support Scottish fisheries, and fund an expansion of its four ancient universities, as well as securing a formula that ensured equivalence in educational expenditure. It then reproduces documents covering the inter-war years when government policy aspired to reconcile demands for collective provision with its belief in a free market. It locates Scottish claims within the Treasury's desire to secure an appropriate balance between English and Scottish public expenditure. Finally, the book draws on documents from 1940 until 1979, when the primary goal of government was to manage collective provision within a mixed economy. In doing so it illustrates Treasury concerns on the directions of the Scottish economy, and on seeking more devolved responsibility for the choices on investment that Scottish ministers sought. Throughout it considers the changes in the Treasury's administrative structure as it impacted on Scottish claims.

Contributor: Ian Levitt (Edited by)

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