I guess it depends what you mean by the Clearances. It's true that in the 1740's, some clan chiefs (notably the Campbells) had started giving leases to the highest bidder, instead of to the families who were the traditional tenants. Sometimes these kinds of evictions were also driven not by economic reasons but by clan rivalries or politics, such as when Colin Roy Campbell as factor evicted Stewarts from Appin in favor of Campbells.
But from what I've read, the main driver behind the Clearances came when the elite could make more money by having less people on their land, than by having it be well populated. Which was not yet true in the mid-18th century, as I understand it.
ETA: But sure, I could have expressed myself more carefully! "The point at which the Clearances were affecting all the clans at a large scale was not until several decades later."
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Re: Luz tries to read a historical romance
Date: 2023-06-06 02:09 pm (UTC)I guess it depends what you mean by the Clearances. It's true that in the 1740's, some clan chiefs (notably the Campbells) had started giving leases to the highest bidder, instead of to the families who were the traditional tenants. Sometimes these kinds of evictions were also driven not by economic reasons but by clan rivalries or politics, such as when Colin Roy Campbell as factor evicted Stewarts from Appin in favor of Campbells.
But from what I've read, the main driver behind the Clearances came when the elite could make more money by having less people on their land, than by having it be well populated. Which was not yet true in the mid-18th century, as I understand it.
ETA: But sure, I could have expressed myself more carefully! "The point at which the Clearances were affecting all the clans at a large scale was not until several decades later."