Scotland : A Wealthy Country. A political-economic pamphlet arguing that Scotland possesses far greater natural wealth than is generally recognised and that it could, in principle, sustain itself as an economically independent nation. By Archie Lamont.
Scotland: Scottish Secretariat, 1945. First Edition. Softcover. Good Condition. Item #520940
Archie Lamont's Scotland: A Wealthy Country belongs to the economically driven phase of Scottish nationalist argumentation that took shape in the 1940s, when post-war reconstruction revived long-standing debates about Scotland’s fiscal position within the Union. A chemist and committed nationalist intellectual, Lamont wrote with statistical assurance, arguing that Scotland’s coal, hydro-electric potential, fisheries, and heavy industry signalled not dependency but latent sovereignty. His pamphlet sits within a wider mid-century effort, centred on figures around the SNP and the Scottish Secretariat, to show that political autonomy rested on practical economic foundations rather than romantic aspiration. Now largely forgotten, the Scottish Secretariat was one of the quiet workhorses of mid-century nationalism: a small, semi-official policy bureau supplying research, editorial discipline, and a steady flow of pamphlets. Working against the backdrop of wartime centralisation and post-war planning, it helped articulate a modern, economically literate case for self-government. Its writers, Lamont among them, sought to replace emotive grievance with data and administrative argument, shaping the intellectual tone of 1940s nationalism and providing the scaffolding for the SNP's later policy culture. Pamphlets issued by the Scottish Secretariat are inherently scarce. The bureau produced short-run political and economic tracts for a limited readership, and wartime paper controls, modest print numbers, and the ephemeral nature of the material mean that only a dozen or so core publications can be readily traced today, most surviving in single copies across institutional and private holdings. Any example is therefore a desirable piece of mid-century Scottish nationalist print culture, representing a movement whose printed output was slight in volume but significant in influence. Original card covers. Stapled as issued. 62 pages. Size: 15 x 22 cms. Category: Booklets & Pamphlets; New Arrivals;.
Keywords: BZDB395 Booklets & Pamphlets; New Arrivals; Unbranded SCOTTISH NATIONALISM Scotland : A Wealthy Country. A political-economic pamphlet arguing that Scotland possesses far greater natural wealth than is generally recognised and that it could, in p
Price: £19.95